Options for Data Security for Small Business

[RuamRudy]

We have a small office with 4 people working from it (but hope to expand to around 6 next year). Most of us use laptops with the admin lady using a desktop, and we all use the secure office wifi.

We share a Google Drive account but it is mostly neglected, possibly because we have not yet set up an effective shared work space. Generally, we all work from our own hard drives and share files etc by email mostly. My concern is that if a hard drive crashes, we will lose a lot of work.

Is instilling a bit of discipline and getting everyone to work off GDrive the best option for ensuring security of our data, or is there a more local option we could try, such as a local storage device? Something that works without the need for the user to instigate a back-up would be great - and if it could automatically back up to GDrive, would be even better... Thanks for any insight.

[SoloFlyer]

Dropbox - Will solve all your problems.

Everyone will have copies and all synced together.

Edited November 4, 2014 by SoloFlyer

[RuamRudy]

Dropbox - Will solve all your problems.

Everyone will have copies and all synced together.

I think I understand your idea - we would work from the same cloud and save to the same location, but this requires discipline to the file structure, and to avoid the temptation of working offline.

I did a bit more digging and there seem to be a few companies offering relatively low cost solutions where they simply back up your files in the background, all to the one server location. Crashplan seems to be the most popular - I still need to see why it is different from your proposal; maybe it is the convenience that you pay for...

[SoloFlyer]

It'll auto sync when your back online.

You can allocate read-write options to different users. And there is a back-up option - ie restore from backup versions if some wayward staff member makes a boo boo.

And there are services to link one service with another eg IFTTT.

I looked at crashplan years ago for personal back-up, but upload speeds here too slow.

[IMHO]

There are several options...

If you wanted to go higher-end, you'd have a server on site that implements Active Directory/Open Directory for centralized user accounts/permissions. You'd setup roaming profiles for your staff so that all their documents/files were stored on the server, and you'd also probably implement a VPN so those notebooks could securely access the office server while outside of the office. Then you'd have a NAS with RAID10 providing some fault tolerance for your data, and you'd sync the data up to some cold storage like Amazon Glacier.

If you trust your users with admin rights to their workstations, and not to mess/break backup settings, you might just implement a basic server with NAS and a backup solution like CrashPlan Pro (self/locally hosted), which them in turns syncs up to Glacier. If you're using Mac's All you'd need is a NAS with Time Machine support in this scenario - and some NAS's also include backup client software for an all-in-one solution too.

Both of these would also provide you the ability to setup local network shares so all users can access common files. The latter would not make the network shares available while the notebooks are offsite though (the would require a VPN).

In either of these scenarios, If you wanted your data to survive the apocalypse, you might also sync your NAS data up to other cloud storage like S3, Azure, CloudFiles, Softlayer, Google etc.

If you just want data protection on the cheap, the two options I'd recommend would be Cloudberry with Glacier, or Crashplan's hosted options, with each workstation just backing up itself.

Edited November 4, 2014 by IMHO

[innerspace]

Google drive would work if you are already part committed.

Dropbox is similar but lacks document editing so no advantage over gdrive.

I tried crashplan and decided to commit to it until they decided on some crazy sales policy and outsourced sales to a company that werent prepared to sell us the package we had trialled. Not looked back so dont know if they have improved.

As just mentioned a NAS with raid would survive a single disk failure, plus often have integrated backup solutions to amazon glacier etc for more safety.

Your hardest job will be stopping people keeping local copies on their desktop, for that google drive is effective since multiple people can edit a single file at the same time.

Uninstall office and they learn quickly!

[phazey]

There are some Zyxel NAS's that have a dropbox sync option. Maybe other makes, i don't know.

[ETatBKK]

I am looking into a similar scenario too.

tentatively, I checked the Western Digital's MyCloud EX2 ( or EX4 if you need more storage 4TBx4 and better RAID ). it is a local NAS with all the features like Active Directly, sync to cloud storage, etc . . . well, it is a very basic form of server functions + NAS.

working data will be in local harddisks, then sync to MyCloud, then sync to cloud storage. then you have 3 instances of data, on mobile, on site and off site. while off-site, you could access either the cloud storage, or the MyCloud remotely.

since I don't need concurrent activity, this setup does the basic job already. well, there will be a short moment of sync gap, but it is alright in my workflow.

[RuamRudy]

I am looking into a similar scenario too.

tentatively, I checked the Western Digital's MyCloud EX2 ( or EX4 if you need more storage 4TBx4 and better RAID ). it is a local NAS with all the features like Active Directly, sync to cloud storage, etc . . . well, it is a very basic form of server functions + NAS.

working data will be in local harddisks, then sync to MyCloud, then sync to cloud storage. then you have 3 instances of data, on mobile, on site and off site. while off-site, you could access either the cloud storage, or the MyCloud remotely.

since I don't need concurrent activity, this setup does the basic job already. well, there will be a short moment of sync gap, but it is alright in my workflow.

This looks like a good option for us, I think. How easy is it for a relative layman to set up? Does it need specific experience or is it relatively intuitive? Thanks!

[ETatBKK]

it seems to be an easy one. you can check out Lon Seidman's comprehensive video on these products :

WD My Cloud Mirror In-Depth Review

WD My Cloud EX4 In Depth Review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnBbyAcrAZ8

I found the My Could Mirror in InvadeIT website, is more expensive ( than Amazon ), yet still affordable.

there are many lower price alternatives from other brands, just the software utility is not as capable.

cheers

I am looking into a similar scenario too.

tentatively, I checked the Western Digital's MyCloud EX2 ( or EX4 if you need more storage 4TBx4 and better RAID ). it is a local NAS with all the features like Active Directly, sync to cloud storage, etc . . . well, it is a very basic form of server functions + NAS.

working data will be in local harddisks, then sync to MyCloud, then sync to cloud storage. then you have 3 instances of data, on mobile, on site and off site. while off-site, you could access either the cloud storage, or the MyCloud remotely.

since I don't need concurrent activity, this setup does the basic job already. well, there will be a short moment of sync gap, but it is alright in my workflow.

This looks like a good option for us, I think. How easy is it for a relative layman to set up? Does it need specific experience or is it relatively intuitive? Thanks!