Network Design for Accountant

[Squintz]

I got a friend who wants me to redo the network in his office. This guy is an accountant who is currently running 3 PCs. He has been using multiple external Hard Drives to manually back up his data. He wants to automate this so that all 3 computers share a drive and that drive is backed up all the time.

I've never done this but it does not sound hard. It's just a matter of picking the right components for the job. What do you experts suggest? I figured there is no need for anything too complex. Just a simple home network should work right? I know I've seen a few networked RAID drives on cocoon in the past that would work for this job.

 

[Sacedog]

Windows Small Business Server with RAID-1 with a LTO tape drive. They woudl need to change the tapes once every X days (depending on how often they wanted to back up). They should store the tapes in a fireproof safe, or even better, store them offsite. On the SBS, you can also turn on Volume Shadow Copy, which will give you backups multiple times a day (which are easy to restore).

It is easy to set up, deploy, and manage. I installed one for my wife's business with 12 employees, and it works great.

 

[dykwok]

Many of the recent media server has automatic backup of the specific folder(s)
in any computer within the intranet.
One of them is the HP Mediasmart server.
Check it out and it should do what you want to do.

I got a friend who wants me to redo the network in his office. This guy is an accountant who is currently running 3 PCs. He has been using multiple external Hard Drives to manually back up his data. He wants to automate this so that all 3 computers share a drive and that drive is backed up all the time.

I've never done this but it does not sound hard. It's just a matter of picking the right components for the job. What do you experts suggest? I figured there is no need for anything too complex. Just a simple home network should work right? I know I've seen a few networked RAID drives on cocoon in the past that would work for this job.

 

[aard3]

What about a Windows Home Server, like the HP box? I don't know what level of backup you want, or how "professional" it needs to be, but I have a little home server box at home, and it works wonders. Extremely easy to set up, backups are totally automated, and if some natural disaster is coming your way (we are in New Orleans ), it's really easy to just pick it up and leave, it's only the size of a shoe box.

 

[cbass377]

I got a friend who wants me to redo the network in his office. This guy is an accountant who is currently running 3 PCs. He has been using multiple external Hard Drives to manually back up his data. He wants to automate this so that all 3 computers share a drive and that drive is backed up all the time.

I've never done this but it does not sound hard. It's just a matter of picking the right components for the job. What do you experts suggest? I figured there is no need for anything too complex. Just a simple home network should work right? I know I've seen a few networked RAID drives on cocoon in the past that would work for this job.

If he is good with manually backing up his data, and he has multiple external hard drives, I would recommend the Windows Home Server such as the HP Media Smart box. Once you configure the machines to back up to it. You can plug the hard drives right into the server to increase capacity. Next I recommend a subscription to an online backup service such as Jungle Disk or Crashplan Pro

This would let him reuse his existing drives.

SBS is a great product and I run it at home, but it may be more than he needs. He could wear you out with questions.

Whatever you go with, remember a UPS for the server component and the network gear.