Backup Solution for Medical Office - Opinion Needed

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Konowl

Limp Gawd
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Jan 16, 2005
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I've been tasked with creating a backup solution for a medical office of 6-8 computers. Each computer is only 75gb right now but will be replacing many of the hard drives as they are throwing SMART errors.

My initial plan was to go with a NAS device (LG or QNAP?) and installing Acronis for Business on each computer, and performing incremental updates daily. They use software that they "dial" into, so there actually isn't much or any mission-critical software on any of the computers. They want a backup solution to thwart future hard drive failures, as they've already had one and it took a fair amount of time to get the computer up and running (not to mention it took hours to find the XP key).

Thoughts? They want a couple of different options - Windows Home Server 2011 could also fit the bill. Solution has to be idiot proof and transparent.
 
tossing items on some raid array / NAS / DAS/ SAS is not backup.

You need to consider off site storage some how or storing of multiple drives in a safe and so on.
 
Sounds like overkill. If all the machines are the same create a common image to reimage thm in the event of hdd failure.
 
So you build a small computer and install 6-8 small hard drives (or whatever amount is necessary) and do an incremental backup to each. That way personal settings can be maintained.

Perhaps use 2 external drives to maintain a backup of all the drives, one on site and one off site.

But it might be easier to just replace all the hard drives now and keep an off site backup. Update the backup once a month.

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Hard to tell what the proper time interval is to avoid loosing too much data.
 
Since it is a medical office, you have certain legal and HIPAA implications for backup, which you need to take into account. I would suggest offsite backup as one of the backup strategies you take into account, you don't want to have your entire practices backups in the same location as the original data.
 
The software they use they "dial into" where the information is stored - nothing is stored in regards to patient files etc on the local computers. One backup to rule them all wouldn't work either, as each doctor tends to keep personal files on each computer (personal pictures etc). If there was a case of a fire that wiped out the entire office the backups would be useless anyways. Thus, something on site simple to setup and use is in order.
 
Well, since it is a professional setup, I would suggest something reliable like a Synology NAS, where you can get 24/7 onsite service included in the package. In any case, if you are backing up the local machines, even if you are backing up to the software publisher, you are also backing up the local software which could include temp files, hibernation files, swap files which could contain fragments of patient data, which are covered by HIPAA regulations. If your software is HIPAA certified, you should talk to them about the local backups because they are likely to know the specific legal issues than I.
 
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shanker said:
Sounds like overkill. If all the machines are the same create a common image to reimage thm in the event of hdd failure.
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And if the system with the important files goes down? cant image those back....or you would loose everything since the last image.
 
MrGuvernment said:
And if the system with the important files goes down? cant image those back....or you would loose everything since the last image.
Click to expand...

if all the software is on the cloud there shouldnt be anything on the local computers
 
In all honesty, if my entire practice was riding on the availability of my patient data / billing, I would feel more comfortable having MY OWN copy of the data backed up in case of some problem on the head end.
 
mwroobel said:
In all honesty, if my entire practice was riding on the availability of my patient data / billing, I would feel more comfortable having MY OWN copy of the data backed up in case of some problem on the head end.
Click to expand...

I made the same comment earlier:

"Hard to tell what the proper time interval is to avoid loosing too much data."
 
mwroobel said:
In all honesty, if my entire practice was riding on the availability of my patient data / billing, I would feel more comfortable having MY OWN copy of the data backed up in case of some problem on the head end.
Click to expand...

thats where a SLA (Service Level Agreement) comes into play..

(I work in healthcare IT...formerly was an IT Director of a hospital, now I'm a Sr Implementation Analyst)

In all reality, in healthcare for providers everything is moving to the cloud...no onsite anything but workstations with browsers and a good internet connection with VPN connectivity to software vendor
 
Just tossing out:

Acronis -> QNAP/SYNOLOGY NAS with a reasonable rotation/retention policy

and also

Crashplan -> Cloud

That gives you immediate local access to backups to facilitate fixes/restores ASAP as well as giving you off site backup as well.
 
one thing is if you go all cloud.. what happens if your office internet goes down for some reason?

router goes out
modem goes bad
someone cuts a cable

so some form of on site should be considered for sure.
 
+1 on the create a master image comment above.

if one of the annoying things is having to find the win XP keys and re-install, what will backing up the data give you? (unless your backing up a drive image)

do the backup stuff, but also make a master image that can be applied to each computer (or use ghost or something on each one)

that way if a hard drive dies you dont have to do a re-install.
 
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