The importance of backing up…
Backups are a vital part of any IT system, be that a home computer to a huge corporate network. A backup of your data could the difference between a mild hiccup and a significant and costly problem.
What backup software does Zen use?
Apple Time Machine
Nowadays, there are more options available than ever to backup your data. Macs have a built in software called Time Machine. We’ve found this to be a fantastic solution for Macs. Time Machine can even be used to migrate your older Mac to a newer one even if the older mac isn’t booting up properly in some cases. Zen Computer Shop uses Time Machine for our internal Macs, it comes very highly recommended by us.
Carbon Copy Cloner
Another Mac backup software we use is Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s not a free product but well worth the money. We tend to use CCC for straight bit for bit copies of macOS.
Cloud Based Solutions
For our Windows computers, we keep our data on secure and encrypted servers and these are backed up to offsite storage in a secure site. We also use OneDrive and Google Drive for business. Whilst not unusual for businesses this is arguably overkill for home users.
What software can I use at home?
Duplicati
One software we tested recently that would be suitable for home users is called Duplicati.
This is a formidable and capable Open-Source solution that is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. Duplicati has a lot of powerful features and can connect to an array of different backup targets. Targets are devices or locations where data is sent from the source machine that is being backed up.
Duplicati is operated via a web interface, so any web browser such as Chrome or Firefox will be needed to open the Duplicati app on your computer. There is also a command line interface for more advanced users.
Backups can be sent straight to another disk like a USB disk attached to your computer or to a cloud storage service such as Amazon Web Services S3.
Whilst relatively easy to set up a basic and simple recurring backup using Duplicati, there are some very advanced features should you wish to use them.
It’s also completely free of charge!
Here is a link to the Duplicati Website should you wish to give it a try:
Duplicati
If you’d like advice on your backup solution, please do get in touch. We’d be happy to help.
