Backup strategies: rethinking how you save vital information. (Office Technology).

The events of September, 2001 are horrible enough to consider. The economic effect of those events is still being felt a year later, and will continue to be felt for many years to come. Not only did thousands of people die as a result of that act of terror, but the collapse of the Twin Towers and the damage done to the surrounding area also resulted in losses to businesses housed in the World Trade Center and surrounding area totaling in the billions of dollars.

Some businesses will never recover, and have permanently closed. Others are still in the process, more than a year later, of trying to recover records. It seems appropriate now that some time has passed since this terrible event to spend some time discussing strategies for protecting one of the most important assets of your organization, its data and files.

Most offices have a backup protocol in place. In some offices, it's pretty much ignored, and in others, the plans have been in place for years, and have not been changed to reflect new technologies. Most organizations have implemented a backup policy without ever performing a threat analysis.

The term "threat analysis" probably brings up visions of the White House Situation Room, with generals and admirals huddled around maps filled with arcane symbols. That's a valid image when it comes to national security but not when it comes to the security of your organization's information.

Know your enemy

Before you can formulate a lucid backup plan, you really have to give some thought to what you are backing up against. If all you need is to as sure that you can get going again if your computer's hard disk drive bites the dust, backing up is simple. You just need an appropriate backup application (you can use the one that comes as part of Windows if you want), and a backup device that has enough capacity to hold the folders containing important data files.

Unless the applications that you are running have been customized in some way, it's really not necessary to backup the applications themselves. You can simply reinstall them from the original CD, or if necessary, purchase another copy.

When you start to consider other types of threats, however, things become a bit more complex. If a fire burns your office, or a hurricane blows through, how will your data be preserved?

Some organizations rely on fire and waterproof safes. The problem with this approach is that a safe can be buried in a fire or building collapse, or even swept away in a flood. For intermediate backup, such as between more proactive backups, a safe will be an acceptable approach. Make sure it is appropriately rated and that your office staff actually uses it.

Away from home

Your backup plan should definitely include some provision for off-site backup. That was a lesson learned the hard way from the events of last year. Those with backups stored far from the carnage were the first to get back to business.

Offsite data backup can be accomplished in a number of ways. If your organization has multiple offices connected by high-speed telephone and/or data lines, you can consider implementing a rotating backup with other offices. In this approach, you store backups of your office's data at another office, and they store their data on one of your computers.

Another approach to offsite backup, especially if you have a broadband high-speed Internet connection is to find an online storage facility. There are a number of these, and a good place to find a reputable one is to look on the Web sites of accounting software providers such as Intuit and Peachtree. Both of these vendors have teamed up with off-site backup companies to provide a place for their users to store vital accounting records.

If you can't upload your records and files, you'll have to load them onto an appropriate media and carry them off-site. Before you decide on any particular approach, take a minute to figure out just how large your backup will be. Unless you have a really high-speed CD-RW drive, you may not want to back up gigabytes of files on CD-Rs. The newest 48x CD-R burners can write an entire disc in under four minutes. Disc capacities, however, are still less than 700MB per platter.

An increasingly popular backup media are DVD writeable discs. There are several formats, including both write-once and re-writeable. Both of these formats store 4.7GB per disc, though the write-once discs are less expensive to purchase than the rewriteable discs.

For many offices, a portable hard disk drive will be the best approach. You can purchase these for just a few hundred dollars, depending on capacity. Drives are available with capacities starting at 10GB and going as high as you want. You can even get just the case, and put your own hard disk drive in it.

When backing up large amounts of data, the type of interface that you choose for a portable drive is important. The original USB 1.1 interface is fairly slow, moving data at 12Mbps (megabits per second.) The new USB 2.0 interface jumps the data transfer rate to 480Mbps, but you'll probably have to install a special card in each PC to get USB 2.0 ports. Firewire, formerly called IEEE 1394, is another high-speed interface, pushing data at 400Mbps. A future column will take a look at portable hard drives used for data backup.

With any media or device that will be used off-site, it's important that you schedule regular and complete backups on a frequent basis, using less complete on-site backups to supplement these. Also pay attention to how you transport and store backup media and devices. You don't ever want to go through the trouble of making proper backups to just find out they aren't useable when you need them because your toddler wrote on the DVD with a crayon, or the portable hard disk was accidentally knocked off the kitchen table where you placed it when you got home.

What's really important

This column has focused on strategies and techniques for protecting the information that's necessary to assure the ongoing continuation of your nonprofit. While it's a bit outside the usual scope of this column, while you are analyzing your current backup plan, take a look at those plans for protecting the most important asset of your organization, its people.

There should be a formal plan in effect to deal with any potentially life-threatening problem, man-made or natural. As horrible as the events of last September were, more people have perished in fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. These happen all the time, and everywhere.

Make certain that your organization has well thought-out plans to deal with these events. How do you evacuate your offices, and what do you do when pre-planned escape routes are blocked? Who will be in charge of assuring that everyone gets out in an orderly manner, and that no one is inadvertently left behind?

Make sure that you take into account any potential threat that's likely to take place in your area. Getting people out of your building during a hurricane or flood is only part of the task if they will be exposed to danger in the street or parking lot.

It's human nature that we shy away from thinking about things that make us uncomfortable. Events in recent times have demonstrated that we no longer have the luxury of denial. Schedule a review of your policies and plans soon. The lives of your staff and of your organization may someday depend on what decisions you make now.

Ted Needleman is the former associate publisher and editor-in-chief of Accounting Technology magazine. He is now a technology consultant and writer based in Stony Point, NY His email address is [e-mail]