Quite Possibly The Perfect SOHO Backup Solution

“I like the peace of mind that comes from knowing that should the worst happen and we have a ‘data disaster’ that all of our data is backed up securely and available to us from any Internet connected device”

What a great message to hear from your customers when they have realised just how important their data is to them and have done something about it. I think every business, no matter the size, should enjoy that same peace of mind by having a robust, reliable, automatic backup/recovery solution that encrypts and replicates their key data to the cloud (the Internet).

Isn’t that kind of technology really expensive for small businesses?

No, it really isn’t!

Take a look at these questions.

• Do you have 10 or less Windows or Mac machines you want to protect daily and automatically?
• Do you need a way to share files, folders and printers across your network?
• Do you need remote access to those shared files and folders from anywhere that has an internet connection?
• Do you want to protect your key business data should your premises fall foul of a fire, flood or other disaster?

If the answer to the above questions is “Yes” then I would like to draw your attention to Windows Home Server 2011, since it can fulfil all of those requirements.

I wouldn’t normally consider home based solutions for small offices but in this case don’t be fooled by the name. Windows Home Server 2011 (WHS 2011) is essentially a cut down version of Windows 2008 R2 under the hood and offers the same security and robustness of its big brother. Add to that the fact that Microsoft themselves have been touting the product for the SOHO market too and it becomes worthy of some attention! So what are the restrictions?

• WHS is limited to 8GB RAM and 1 physical CPU (multicore is supported though)
• WHS is limited to volume sizes of 2TB, although multiple volumes can be created.
• Installation of 3rd party products that are not official Home Server “Add-ins” is not supported.
• The installation of Hyper-V as a virtualisation solutions running on WHS 2011 is not supported.

However it offers some functionality out of the box that Windows 2008 R2 does not and this is what makes the product so good for the SOHO. WHS 2011 offers complete automated image based backup of up to 10 PC’s on your network, and a web based remote access solution so that you are never far away from your key files.  Cloud based disaster recovery isn’t in the product as standard but you can install one of many automatic cloud based backup software packages to complete the solution.

WHS 2011 does not support 3rd party software unless it comes in the form of an official Home Server “Add-in”. It is aimed to be managed by standard office staff not IT administrators and as such WHS 2011 provides a great user friendly dashboard which is accessible from client PC”s. You can log into a server console and see a Windows 2008R2 type desktop if you wish but again managing the server this way is not officially recommended or supported.

And there’s more….

If you are a little more technically proficient you might be interested to learn that WHS 2011 is happy to run as a virtualised system under vSphere Hypervisor (free edition). This means that the server hardware you put it on can be used for other purposes as well as WHS 2011 at the same time. Perfect if you want a test environment, or if you want spare capacity or the flexibility to facilitate the growth of your business IT.

Summary

We want businesses of all sizes to be sure that their data is secure, accessible and in the event of data corruption or disaster, easily recoverable. Forza IT can specify backup/restore and disaster recovery solutions for businesses of any size but recognise that many small businesses in particular have simply not considered an automated data protection solution. Forza IT can offer complete SOHO solutions to backup up to 10 machines including server hardware, software, and deployment services from approximately £1000 inclusive of VAT.

Contact us for more information