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Contractors Office - Protecting Your Data

Summary

All but the most archaic construction companies now use computers to run their businesses and manage the huge quantities of construction and other information that they must deal with. In bigger companies, the task of ensuring that this information is kept safe is carried-out by professional computer technicians. But in smaller companies this task often falls on a non-computer professional within the organization such as a secretary or a manager. This article is aimed at those people and sets out some of the pit falls as well as the good practice that should be taken into account to ensure that the data loss catastrophe is avoided.

Potential Problems

Your company is completely dependent on all its data. Even if much of your information is paper based, loosing it would be disastrous. Digital information is just as important. The good news is that it is easier to protect digital data than the paper based information. However there are also some problems:

Digital medial can breakdown or become corrupted. For instance hard disks can and often do fail.
Fire or flooding can destroy hard disks and other digital media
Computers and equipment can be stolen
Data can be accidentally deleted

Even with a backup system in place things can still go wrong:

Backup system is not run
Backup system seems to run but records nothing
Backup medium is also stolen or destroyed

A Backup Strategy

However simple your computing systems are you must have a backup strategy. It may be that yours needs are minimal and copying a few key files to CD may be sufficient. Or, more likely you already amass large amounts of digital data which is critical to your business. In either case you should consider the following:

1. Which Data must I backup?

2. Which hardware/software will I use?

3. How will I rotate the media and do off-site backups?

4. How can I be sure that my backups are working?

Table 1 below shows a summary of the most common backup strategies.

Strategy	Advantage	Disadvantage
Ad-hoc	Bare minimum is be better than nothing	Very risky, high likelihood of data loss at some stage
DVD/Tape Manual	Simple, no special setup or software required	Possibility of omission Time consuming
DVD/Tape Auto	Saves time Consistent	Requires setup and backup software Still need to change medium (disc or tape)
Online (3^rd party)	No hassle Easy to setup Data available outside of the office	Cost

Which Information Must I Backup?

A construction company typically has the same type of documents and files as other businesses. Often they also have drawing and therefore some potentially large files. Large files may need to be backed-up separately to avoid running out of space on the backup medium. In any case only data that is generated needs to be saved. Other data for example program files can be reloaded from installation CDs.

There is also some information which is not a simple to backup as straight forward data files like Word documents and drawings. For example is you run an email server like MS Exchange Server, there are special consideration to be taken into account because the data is not stored in an obvious way. Look out for the following:

· Email Servers

· Database Servers

· Setting and preferences like bookmarks in browsers

· Programs that never close sometimes be problematic

Another issue is where data is kept. Contracts usually have their own set of data and files which are separate from other contracts. Often a project manager will keep information relating to his/her projects on their own machine. This can lead to data being dispersed across the network making backups unreliable and difficult to manage. For this reason it is important to centralize data wherever possible. Setup a central shared ‘Contracts’ folder with a subfolder for each project. You may need to train you colleagues to use the server to store and access files instead of ‘My Documents’ on their own PC.

Which hardware/software should I use?

Long gone are the days that people used to make backups on floppy disks. The amount of data that a contracting office deals with and the IT budget now determines the backup hardware that should be used.

Hardware

Many options exist. The choice depends mainly on cost and capacity.

Hardware	Capacity	Advantage	Disadvantage
CD	700MB	You probably already have a CD writer installed Maybe sufficient for some small companies	If you need to backup more than this then you will need to change disks during the backup operation
DVD	6GB	DVD writers are now relatively cheap making them a good option for smaller companies	Less capacity then a tape of USB Hard disk
Tape - DAT	4 – 40 GB	Standard Tapes are relatively cheap to buy Plenty of room for expansion	Drive more expensive
USB Hard Drives	40 – 300GB	Fast Simple to install Plenty of room for expansion	Cost as several needed for reliable media rotation
Other/Proprietary	All capacities	More suited to individual needs	Cost

Software

There is a lot of backup software available on the market. Some better than others but all with varying degrees of sophistication. And this is the key to choosing the right package. It’s no use buying the most sophisticated package if you are not going to use 80% of the features. To complicated could lead to also lead to mistakes. If you buy a tape drive there will most likely be some backup software bundled with it.

Microsoft also bundles backup software with its Server products i.e. NT4.0 Server, Windows2000 Server and Windows2003 Server. If you are using one of these then you may want to take look at the backup utility to see if it suites your needs.

Media Rotation and Off-Site Backups

Making a backup of you data is the only the first part of the backup strategy. You must also think about rotating your backup medium (changing the discs or tapes) and keeping some copies off-site or rather away from the office.

There are lots of ways of rotating your media and the one you choose should match your data backup requirements. The most common method is the 20 media unit cycle. A well documented example can be found here:

http://www.pcsupporttips.com/data-protection-tips/data-backup-options-79.html

Once you have you backup it is important to store them somewhere away from the office in case of fire or theft etc. This could be as simple as someone taking yesterdays tape home with them. Do be wary of security however as a backup tape contains (or should) all your companies important information.

Test your Backups

Regularly test you backups. Imagine that the backups have been failing in the same way each day for the passed 3 months! Don’t wait until you need them to find out that they are no good.

Conclusions

No company however small should be without a backup strategy. The strategy you employ will depend on how much critical data you have and generate. To implement a strategy you must first consider the data you need to backup and the tools you will use. Next you must implement a media rotation and off-site storage of media units.

Links & Resources

http://www.pcsupporttips.com/ has a free and detailed guide to backing up that also includes comprehensive backup checklists.

http://www.backupdirect.net is a good example of online backup solution.