Backups are worthless, restores are priceless... (Score 0, Offtopic)

I've been in the business of running networks for many years. I generally find that, as the company gets smaller, the amount of redundancy and unknown problems goes up. I expect every small business that I walk into to have no redundancy and backup systems that work 10% of the time. However, the fact that someone as large as NG and the government overlooked this critical part of system design is amazing to me.

I always explain to my small business clients that 'backups are worthless, restores are priceless.' It generally takes a few seconds to set in before the questions or statements start coming. "But, I have a backup scheduled every night. I take the tapes offsite every Friday."

It's always an eye-opener when I show them the console on their server with lots of red errors indicating that the data on the tapes are incomplete at best. Then, I start talking about the fact that if their server were to die, not only would it take a day or so to get parts for that old thing, but that the likelihood of being able to get it running at 100% again is slim or very costly at best.

Even small businesses will invest in a backup/business continuity device after hearing that and reading our blog that contains 'my company saved the day for a client yesterday'.

Shameless plug: Backups are worthless, restores are priceless blog.