 incl. Acronis Advantage PremierAcronis Advantage PremierAnnual subscription support and maintenance program. Offers access to 24 x 7 support services available via chat, email and phone.
Acronis Advantage Premier customers receive priority support: in the event of a business-critical system error, customers will receive the initial response within one hour. The first year of support service is included with the purchase of any Acronis corporate product. Storage Pipeline June, 2004 by Frank J. Ohlhorst
Score Big With Backups
The importance of properly backing up data can't be understated, especially since today's digital homes rely on PC-based technology to preserve precious memories stored as digital video and photographs. Those files are at risk of being permanently lost in the event of a hard-drive failure. But backing up data is a thankless task that not many people like to do. What's more, in a home environment, the typical novice technology user isn't computer-savvy enough to tackle the job. The good news is that opportunities abound for home integrators. Integrators can increase profits by making sure home- and SOHO-based backup systems are automated and idiot-proof. Integrators also can create recurring revenue streams by making sure backups are installed properly and run correctly. A backup solution involves three main IT elements: services, hardware and software. With a little knowledge about each, home integrators can craft a foolproof solution that protects data while generating ongoing revenue. Several factors will determine the type of backup used. First, integrators should consider where data is stored — is it spread out across multiple systems or located on a central PC? Second, what type of data needs to be backed up? Integrators should also take into account the frequency of backups and consider whether data needs to be stored off-site or made portable. The answers to these questions will influence all three factors involved in creating a backup solution. Here, Digital Connect Lab engineers will walk through an example situation and go through the process of building a successful solution. The subject environment will consist of the products found in a digital home: a media center PC, a gaming PC, a notebook computer, Wi-Fi connectivity and equipment that's found in most typical homes. We'll assume our user owns a digital camera and a camcorder, and has also captured television broadcasts. The first element integrators need to consider is the total amount of data to be protected. Digital media takes up enormous amounts of space, which translates to a large number of Gigabytes of data to be protected. Business-class backup and storage devices are out of the question since they are too pricey, but integrators can turn to removable hard-drive solutions or disk-to-disk backup solutions. D2D solutions don't have the resiliency of tape, but they do offer infinite capacity and low overhead cost. For our example, we will blur the lines between D2D and tape-based backup and go with an external, removable cartridge-based hard-drive subsystem, the Iomega Rev series of drives. The Rev drive currently uses USB 2.0 technology for plug-and-play simplicity while offering much higher backup speeds than tape. The unit offers 35 Gb of uncompressed storage and 70 Gb using 2:1 data compression techniques. While 35 Gb may seem small, Iomega plans to offer larger-capacity cartridges in the future, allowing the unit to scale for larger backups. The Rev drive is backward-compatible with older media. It brings speed, expandability, portability and low cost to the home backup market. The next element is backup software, and integrators have dozens of choices. Software solutions range from traditional file-by-file backup to file synchronization to drive imaging solutions. Since the home and SOHO markets require a solution that's easy to use, imaging software is the way to go. Imaging software takes a snapshot of an entire hard drive and stores it as a file on another storage device — in our case, on the Rev drive. What's more, imaging software recognizes any Windows-compatible storage device as a likely place to back up data. This allows integrators to back up a system over a network to a network-shared folder. Imaging offers several other benefits including speed, open file handling and automation. For our example, we selected Acronis True Image 8.0, a software imaging product that offers full backup capabilities and is compatible with a wide spectrum of hardware. Integrators should install Acronis True Image on every system in the home or office, and then set up the product. The software should be scheduled to automatically back up the complete hard drive to a remote or local share. Each system could have its own attached Rev drive, or one Rev drive could be set up as a sharable resource on the primary system. In our case, we set up the Rev drive on the primary media center PC, and defined a shared directory on the cartridge. After these steps are completed, backup becomes a simple matter of scheduling Acronis True Image to save a complete image of the local hard drive to the remote Rev drive at set intervals. This is accomplished using the included Acronis True Image scheduler and some simple networking skills. Both of these tasks add up to more billable hours for digital integrators. With the basics out of the way, integrators should focus on the service aspects of backup and consider setting up a backup validation schedule. The service can be scheduled once a week, and integrators can remotely inspect a customer's network. Monthly site visits should also be scheduled to test the customer's backup infrastructure. These tests should include equipment cleaning, installing updates and validating restore capabilities. These services can be part of a service contract to promote recurring revenue and ensure the protection of client data. A backup solution such as the one we put together provides ample opportunity for add-ons and upsells. To simplify backups, digital integrators can offer centralized storage solutions such as NAS or home servers. To further protect data, off-site data storage can be added to protect against fire or theft-related losses. Other add-ons such as antivirus and security solutions can also benefit customers and integrators. Integrators would be remiss if they did not offer some form of backup to their customers. Backup and recovery solutions are the crux of a successful digital integration and can save customers time, money and aggravation. By following some simple advice and adhering to best practices, integrators can build a successful backup solution that thoroughly protects a customer's irreplaceable data — giving them the opportunity to look like a hero, especially if the backup solution is needed to recover those wedding photos.
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