See also Multi-Level Backup System

The basic goal of this page is to keep the cost of backup as low as possible while mitigating risk and minimizing administrative effort (your effort).

The cost of your backup is closely related to the amount of data being backed up. With online backup, the cost is usually directly related to the amount storage space used. With our online backup system, the account sizes and pricing on based on compressed storage.

While some of the recommendations made on this page may be specific to our own online backup system, the concepts are generally applicable to most backup systems.

There are two basic components to your backup storage:

1. Data Area - Current files being backed up
2. Retention Area - Deleted files and older versions of files

In most common small business scenarios, the retention area is a very small percentage of the total storage space used. This means that retention adjustments to backup jobs rarely result in the desired outcome of cheaper backups.

This is where adjustments to backup job definitions can result in significant changes to the amount of backup space used (to keep costs lower).

Here are a few things one can do to minimize the amount of data being backed up and, therefore, reduce backup costs:

Exclude certain folders (directories) on the source from being backed up:

• Folders/directories often contain data/files that may not need to be backed up:
  • Backup files - don't always need to be backed up again
  • Downloaded files - are usually easy to re-download
  • Temporary files - don't usually need to be backed up
• Calculate the importance of files currently being backed up then minimize the files selected for backup
  • Perhaps you have a multi-level backup plan in place where:
    • The 'level 1' (local copy) backup system may back up everything to be useful for disaster preparedness
    • 'Level 1' backup systems may allow you to prioritize only core files/folders for online/offsite backups in order to save on costs

Files deleted from your file server are not immediately deleted from the stored backups. They are retained for a period of time based on the retention settings.

We generally recommend at least a 90 day retention period, but many prefer longer.

Changing the retention settings, even drastically, will probably not save much space. However, there are sometimes good reasons to adjust retention settings:

1. You need to lower the amount of used space immediately
   • You can change the retention to a shorter period
     • Wait a day for the system to clean out the retention area
     • Then (re)set the retention period to the desired setting
2. You recently moved or renamed large folders/directories on the source
   • You can change the retention to a shorter period
     • Wait a day for the system to back up all the 'new' files/folders and clean out the retention area
     • Then (re)set the retention period to the desired permanent setting