If your small business is running Windows SBS 2003 or earlier, your server already has a tape backup built-in. This backup solution used to make sense in the dark ages of computers, way back when floppy drives had enough space to hold your programs. But the dark ages of backup have passed. If you’re using a tape backup for your small business, it’s time to enter the age of backup enlightenment.

What’s wrong with tape backup?

There are several reasons why this old industry standard needs to be buried:

• Buying and maintaining a tape backup requires a significant investment, especially if your business grows.
• A lot of administrative work is required, and that time could be better spent on core business functions.
• Every time you run backup, your computers have to go down. This downtime makes backup inconvenient.
• Tape backup limits your recovery point objective (RPO). For example, if disaster strikes in the afternoon, you lose the entire day’s work.

Even after all this investment and effort, your company data remains vulnerable to disaster. A SearchSecurity survey of 500 IT departments reported that up to 20% of all nightly backups fail to capture all data. Another survey found nearly 40% of IT managers were unable to recover data from a tape when they needed it. One incident alone can cost your company thousands of dollars in downtime and lost data.

Ok, so maybe tape backup isn’t the best solution. Then what is? Well, I’ll leave that for another post…