#62 Backing Up? Can You Restore Easily?

Backing Up? Can You Restore Easily?

As we have said many times, backups are extremely important whether you’re using the Computer-Based or Web-Based version of Advisors Assistant. Having a backup plan is definitely important, but you also need to make sure the plan in place is working and your backup is ready to restore if needed.

There are lots of reasons for having to resort to a backup of your data. Among the most popular are:

• Drive Failure and Data Corruption
• Virus Infestation
• Inadvertent File Deletion

Our Hosted users have their database backed up automatically every evening at Rackspace, and we maintain 14 days of those backups. We restore backups often for a variety of reasons so if your Advisors Assistant Database is web-based, you can rest assured we have a current backup of your data. We also offer a weekly backup service for a small fee if you would like to download a copy of your backup to your local computer. For additional information about this service, call our sales team at (800) 799-4267 Option 1. Or, you can click on the link http://cloud.climarkftp.com/v8helptopic/index.html?hosted_database_backups.htm to read about the service in our help.

If your Advisors Assistant database is on your own network or computer, you need to know that many back up programs designed to back up servers and computers do NOT back up your SQL Server Advisors Assistant Database. This includes the standard Carbonite backup.

Unfortunately, multiple times a year, we hear “I thought I was backed up.” This is why we developed a relationship with Gillware Backup, an internet backup service that is reliable, affordable and secure. Gillware does backup the SQL database and makes it very easy to restore that backup if necessary. You can read more about Gillware at http://cloud.climarkftp.com/v8helptopic/index.html?internet_backups.htm in our Help.

Gillware is extremely pro-active with providing information about the backup. Gillware’s management tools include a variety of ways for you to ensure your essential data is being backed up properly. Their system will send you an email with a backup report showing you if any files marked for backup have not been backed up. Plus, you can call support and talk to a well-trained expert who will answer questions and help you set up your backup.

Having a backup strategy is important, but making sure that strategy will succeed in time of disaster is critical. There is no point in doing a backup if you cannot restore that data.

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to evaluate the security and safety of your client’s data. There is no such thing as being too careful about database backups!