Question : Thoughts and comments on a backup solution

I am in the process of setting up and testing a backup solution for a small company with five people, and I would be very happy to get some feedback on different aspects of this solution and possible alternatives, etc.

At the office we have one desktop serving as a backup station and file server, but also hosting our Access database backend. All of our employees have laptops and are often out on the field. We also have a ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer as a second backup unit.

The set up: Every laptop has a sync software called Super Flexible  File Syncronizer which is capable of silently monitor in the background until the laptop connects onto our office LAN. And as soon as the sync software notices the backup share on the ReadyNAS, it backups all the files and encrypt them.

This means that the local backups are stored on the NAS and also copied over to the Desktop.

On the desktop I have also installed Gbridge which, among other things, also  is capable of syncing folders over the Internet via encrypted VPN.

The same programme is installed on one of my home PC:s as well and during the night it syncs the accumulated content in the backup folder at the office with a folder on my home PC.

As the backup folder is quite large, the first sync session with the two PC:s was done at the office with the "Home PC" connected to the same LAN. Once that was done, the Home PC was transferred back home and the consecutive backups are made over the Internet.

As we do not produce that many documents/files per day, the backup process over the Internet does not take more than 15 minutes or so.

When the backup is completed at our house, the Home PC then copies all the changed files on to a second ReadyNAS in our house.

Now in case of fire/theft at our office, it is fairly quick to take the ReadyNAS from our house and start using it at the office.

In such a way we do both have local backups and off-site backups at a very modest price (Gbridge is free, and Super Flexible File Syncronizer is $60 dolars with discount if you buy several licencees).

The much more expensive Business version of the ReadyNAS NVX has capability to do backups with another unit using rsync over SSH, but this downscaled prosumer unit from Netgear does not have this function, thus this "workaround" in order to get something which does not involve fiddeling with firewalls and routers, etc, and hopefully is secure enough to use over the Internet??? (Before sending the files over the Internet to the Home PC, they are encrypted with 256-bit AES, an option built into Super Flexible File Syncronizer).

Well if any of you have any comments on this setup, they would be most welcome!

Answer : Thoughts and comments on a backup solution

Well done. You've obviously invested some time and thought into this.
256-AES is very good encryption. I think you can rest easy with that.
A couple of things to think about;
Does the sync just synchronize all changes? What if a user deletes a file, will that file then be removed from the backup? If the sync is keeping files in the backup set, after they've been deleted from the laptop, you will eventually have a very large backup set. Is there a way to age out old files, or will you have to do this manually?
As you said, your employees are often out in the field. This would make me a little nervous as the user may lose critical data before they are back in the office to sync. You may want to look at some of the online backup solutions. I've heard good things about Mozy Pro and Carbonite Pro.
http://mozy.com/pro
http://www.carbonite.com/