Online Backup provider lost all of my clients data

[Virtuo]

I have a virtual office client who has just recently found out that the backup service they had with another provider has not been running for, wait for it.... 2 Years! He has been paying for it though every month.

he had a hard drive failure on friday and only found this out once he went to recover his data.

Legally, what can he do?

 

[stugster]

Suppose it depends where the break in the chain is. If it's the backup provider - then there's probably a case... if the problem was at the client's side (i.e. they've not logged into the backup software, or misconfigured it) then there's probably not much they can do.

Additionally, there's probably a clause in the service contract that says it's the clients responsibility to check the backups on a regular basis to confirm they're working?

 

[Gouldie0]

I think it depends on what your client should've done, i.e. should they have instructed the service provider to backup particular files and this hadn't been done Or has the service provider just not been providing the service.

Had a similar experience myself at the weekend........... needless to say i didn't really look at the 'In's and Out's' of it all and just assumed that they were backing up my entire hard drives. On closer inspection they backed up the mandatory program files and data but nothing else.

Luckily i only lost a few documents.

Kind Regards

Neil

 

[Gouldie0]

You beat me to it Stu :lol:

 

[Virtuo]

It was the service providers servers that were down. His client was configured correctly. I have told him to take them for everything they have, he has a big chance of losing his business over this and thought he had "insured" against it. He has now sent the disk off to a specialist recovery firm to see what he can get back

 

[stugster]

2 years and not noticing that the backup hasn't been working? Servers down for 2 years?

Does the software not handshake and confirm successful transmission?

 

[shredder]

Sounds awful. Can you name and shame the service provider? Was it one of the main offsite back up brands or was it a small service provider?

 

[LumleyMedia]

With all due respect he should have been checking weekly to make sure the process of backing up was happening, and the host involved should maybe invest in having a report system so there clients get an email alert if back up fails.

 

[leema]

Unfortunately most online backup providers and blogs where most information is gained only talk about the backup process and not the restore process or what happens if things go wrong. The majority of backup suppliers ask you to agree to their terms and conditions prior to sign up which are unfortunately water tight from their point of view. At worst they will get bad press. This obviously does not help with getting data restored.

There are a few reputable companies out there who do offer data restore guarantees and also offer very proactive support, have a look at:-

Online Backup, Remote Data Back-up for Business - Online Backup, Remote Data Back-up
MSC - Managed Services Centre
SortmyPC - home (based in Edinburgh I think)

Please do not let your bad experience stop you from backing up, its the second most important thing a business can do.

 

[Virtuo]

We actually managed to save the day ourselves and recovered his hard drive. We also offered them an online backup service via one of our IT clients and may resell this for them in future.

Perfect Backup are pretty expensive from the looks of it, we have around 100 clients now looking for an online backup service and need to find a reliable partner we can resell to our clients.

Any ideas?

 

[Edward]

As an IT phobe I gotta say thanks and that this posting is a reall 'heads-up' for the likes of me on the need to do the old-fashioned, hands-on regular checking that your IT systems and arrangements are doing what they are supposed to be doing - don't assume anything is going on automatically as intended!

This is a lesson that I wish that many IT industry guys would acknowledge in their selling pitches and admit the need to their customers.

 

[Aillum]

This reply is a little, late, but I did only start using the forum today, so apologies.

To answer Virtuo first of all ... it might be worth looking at Humyo. I use them and haven't had an issues as yet, although my backups are mainly general files (and not items such as SQL DB backups and so on). They have a free account option with 1GB storage space, but the backup process is manual. However, it is free and gives you the chance to try it out. Upgrading to premium (around £5 per month) comes with extra features, including auto backup. They also allow for reselling if you contact them.

As for the general incident discussed, I've a lot of experience from the hosting industry and have seen many debates between provider and customer ... most messy. Terms and Conditions are all fair and well, but whose fault it was is often subjective (hence the "messy"). My tip, and it is old skool: regardless of whether you have auto offsite backup or not, it's always worthwhile regularly backing up to your own USB stick or external harddrive. It's time consuming, of course, but does give you another option in such a scenario.

Brian
Brian Tait (taitbw) on Twitter