Hi,

as well as installing a small office network I need to be able to back up the data off the machines to one central source which then can be accessed from another location. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best way of doing this?

Thanks

I provide backup services & consulting as a part of my business offering & I can tell you that having workstation operators perform their own scheduled backup tasks consistently is not reliable. If you don't want to contract for that type of service, then I'd recommend the following:

1. Assign the backup task to one employee and have that task performed after hours. This could be done automatically but you'd need to leave all the computers on and probably unattended during this process - not great for security.
2. Install a simple backup program on each computer, or use Microsoft's Windows Backup utility.
3. On a scheduled basis, have the backup operator perform the backup task, backing up each workstation's critical data to a selected network location, then back up that location to an external source such as an external HD, DVD, or Tape if you have enough data to warrant using one - the HD is the most convenient, but also the most volitile (most prone to failure).
4. I would make three backups of the network location, each one stored in a separate location (disaster plan).

All these backups are of no use unless you know for certain that you can recover from them - imagine the surprise when you try to recover from a serious failure only to discover you've been storing garbage. You need to make a comprehensive disaster recovery plan for your business and this plan MUST be excercised with the real computers and with real data to prove that the backups and the procedures actually work. This preparation & dry-run takes quite a bit of time in both planning and exercising, but this is the only way you can give yourself the guarantee you'll need - you should have someone in the planning & prep group with experience in this.

Thanks for the help

You're welcome mkyle1