Good Morning Everyone,It's been a busy 3 weeks with all the travel to Manzanillo, WPPI and Photoshop World, so it feels good to be home for a while and get caught up on a few things around the studio. The travels are great, the conventions were inspirational, all the info is great - but I have to say, "There is no place like home."
Although the studio is not super busy this week and I have the week end off we still have a few projects in the works. It's nice to have a little breathing room this week in which to get them completed.
One of our projects is to review the computer backup strategies for our 6 computer studio network. A friend of mind in Columbus who runs a very successful family portrait and senior studio just had a visit from an IT consultant who quoted him $14,000 for a new server and tape back-up system. No offense here, but it's not "brain surgery" and I think that's a bit high for a business the size of our studios. Anyway, Kent and I are comparing notes so I'll keep you posted as to how things come together the next few weeks.
I'm also looking forward to the blog getting back on schedule, so let's get right to it.
I'm also looking forward to the blog getting back on schedule, so let's get right to it.
David,
ReplyDeleteFound this Flash sync unit at our local supplier --www.tallyns.com -- our plan is to use for our "Hot Stick" set-ups.
www.smdv.co.kr
Thanks for ALL the helpful tips -- we've gleaned so much from your experiences!
Steve & Nancy
David:
ReplyDeleteI manage our IT department for my day job and that's not a bad price for a big time set-up. You can do a lot better if you can do the work yourself. However, I would NOT recommend a tape backup system. If you research this at all, you will find that tapes are infamous for failure and they are quite expensive.
I'd also be interested to see what you come up with. The Drobo units you described look interesting, especially if you use Apple & Time Machine. Otherwise, it's just a matter of getting good backup software to schedule backups. Also, I use Adobe Bridge when loading pictures from the memory card because it automatically saves a copy on my external HD as well as adding the copyright info.
ReplyDeleteKeep us posted!!
You could do a lot worse than buy several large external disk drives and set up a rotating backup onto them each in turn.
ReplyDeleteI do IT for my day job as well and while $14K sounds rather high, there are many variables that can drive up the cost (disk storage space, RAID level, video card, RAM, etc.). I would research and ensure that you're (he) isn't being oversold extras he doesn't need.
ReplyDeleteOn the backup side, keep in mind that you're trying to cover a couple of scenarios here, hard drive and file system failure and physical loss (fire and water damage). While external hard drives are great for the first (I use an external with Time Machine) they don't do anything for physical loss unless you're willing to take your backup drive off site each night.
I saw you were thinking of getting the Drobo. I was swayed as well until i read the tech reviews. They say its not quite ready yet. One reveiwer actually lost the demo video of the Drobo he was going to use in the review..from the Drobo!!!
ReplyDeleteI say get a a few firewire or SATA externals or even a few RAIDed externals. Just make sure you have an offsite area for the backups.