Let’s face it. We all have good intentions when it comes to backing up our computers. Whether it’s your home computers or work computers we all know the importance of regular backups. I’m sure everyone knows people who have lost their pictures and other files from their home computers. It’s certainly upsetting. What about losing files from your business computer system? That’s even more upsetting. Losing access to business data for even an hour can cost a business sales and customers.

 

When you start a business or get a new computer system it’s easy to be faithful with your backups in the beginning. However, as time passes it’s easy to not take the time to do backups because there are so many other things on your daily list of tasks and responsibilities. 

 

 

I use to be faithful about backing up my business computers. Then, I started slacking. Luckily the person I hired to help with IT (Information Technology) work about 8 years ago told me about Carbonite. It is a system that is completely automated and runs in the background backing up your files. It stores them offsite in what is often referred to as “the cloud.” All you have to do is install Carbonite on the computers you want to be backed up and it takes care of the rest.

 

About three years ago the IT person I had been using closed his business. When hiring another IT Company, they did a full evaluation on my computer system and recommended that I stay with Carbonite. What impressed me about this is that the new IT Company actually has its own backup system that they could have switched me to but were honest and said that the Carbonite backup system was doing a great job at a fair price.  So, I’ve stuck with Carbonite.

 

In July 2018 I had a very unfortunate experience at my business. The hard drive on the server failed. We didn’t have access to our point of sale system data. We didn’t have access to any of our computer files. It could have been horrible. However, because of Carbonite, it wasn’t. 

 

While the IT Company was installing a new hard drive on our Server and restoring the data from the hard drive, we were still operating. How? Because of Carbonite. Because we provide graphic design and printing services for our customers, we store hundreds of customer files on our Server. During the two days of not having a server, we simply downloaded the files from the Carbonite website as we needed them. Customers didn’t know we were having computer issues. We were able to edit and print files as efficiently as always.

 

Can you imagine how this experience could have been different? If we didn’t have any backup system it would have cost hours and hours of labor re-creating files. Some of the customer files we wouldn’t have ever been able to re-create because there wouldn’t have been access to original artwork, logos, and other design components. Just thinking about the extra labor costs and potential loss of sales is disturbing. 

 

 

I always know that Carbonite works well because it provides visuals in the form of little dots next to your folders and file names. If the dot is GREEN, it has been backed up. If the dot is YELLOW it hasn’t been backed up yet. Carbonite works in the background and periodically finds files that are new or updated and backs them up. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carbonite also has great phone support. When my server’s hard drive failed I called them and was able to talk to someone promptly who was professional and helpful. 

 

 

Carbonite has plans for both home and business use. The peace of mind will be worth the price. And, if you ever need to retrieve files it’s easy to do and they have telephone support to help. 

 

For an overview of Carbonite, check out their video: