How many times have you forgotten to swap out or take the external hard drive off-site at the end of the day? Most people responsible for this task need more fingers to help them finish counting.
The great part about backing up to the cloud is costs are low, the convenience is amazing and it’s HIPAA compliant.
Cloud backup utilization increased dramatically in recent years due to the introduction of new products, improved dental networks and lower storage and transmission costs.
What type of cloud backup is best for me?
The most common type of cloud backup in the dental industry is called a data or file backup. File level backup involves an information technology expert defining and selecting specific files on your server to encrypt and securely transmit and store your information to an off-site location. File level backups are popular because it’s easy to be very specific and granular in defining want you want to back up and restore. Because you can be very specific with a file level backup, you can exclude items you don’t need to back up and thus the backups might be smaller, which should reduce your overall price for the cloud backup service. Also, as a general rule, only changed data are backed-up each time, which allows for a fast and efficient backup, even in situations where dental practices haven’t invested heavily in internet speeds or server space and processing power.
A second type of backup that is gaining in popularity is called an image level backup. Image level backup is simply the name of type of backup and has nothing to do with the patient x-rays or pictures within your practice. Image backup allows you to back up and store the state of your system at a moment in time that you can go back to in the case of a failure. All of your system information (files/folders/configurations/software, etc.) are stored in a single image, which can be deployed when a failure occurs. Image level backup works great for dental practices that have recently made investments in server upgrades and internet upload speeds. Recent investments in your network plus use of image backup will allow you to restore your system to a fully functioning state in the shortest period of time, even in the case of a serious failure. Ultimately image level backup should reduce your down time and get your practice back to producing faster. However, it’s important to remember that image level backup will take up more storage space, speed and time to back up your information. These factors could ultimately require greater investment on your part in order to reap the benefits of a faster restore process.
The easiest way to determine which backup option is best suited for your practice is to have an IT professional assess your server capacity and internet upload and download speeds. These results will help to guide your implementation of a convenient, cost effective and reliable backup solution for your practice.
