Research suggests that up to 75% of small businesses that experience significant data loss go out of business within a year. Osmosis offers both file and image based backup solutions to help protect your business.

Simply stated, a file based backup copies your files (Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PDF docs, etc.) from the server to a secondary storage media. This gives you access to those files if the primary files get deleted or corrupted. File based backups do not back up the file server’s operating system or settings. File based backups work well if you just need to restore files to the original source. Because of the inherent simplicity of file based backups, they are inexpensive to deploy and maintain.

An image based backup takes a snapshot of your server, in its entirety. In the event of a catastrophic failure, the image file is simply restored to the original or different server and everything works as if nothing had ever happened. If a simple file restore is all that is needed, you can extract those files from within the image. Image based backup software costs more that file based due to the special way it is capable of creating a full image of the server’s hard drives. The size of the image created is greater than the size of a file based backup because the image is including the server’s operating system in it.

Consider a typical server which has been configured with user accounts, shared folders, shared printers, email, and database applications such as QuickBooks. Recovery of a server like this using file based backup could take several days because the operating system, user accounts, folders, settings, and database applications would need to be reinstalled first. Also, all work stations would need to be reconfigured to connect the new server installation. Lastly, the backup software would need to be reinstalled and configured before being able to restore your files.

Every backup solution is useless if it is not being run on a consistent basis, is not being monitored, or is not periodically tested. Many of those companies which suffered a significant data loss had a backup solution and never maintained, monitored, or tested it. Osmosis has systems in place that not only verifies backup images daily at both the customer location and the remote location but we also do a test boot of backup images monthly to ensure that you are protected if anything “hits the fan.”