Backup solution required

[mattyy]

Hi,

I'm looking for some advise on sorting a back up solution that will offer the following.

Back up 2 x Macs locally and some form of offsite backup
be able to file share locally as well as remotely.

What is the best way of achieving this?

Thank you

 

[Avalon]

Your solution could be as simple as crash plan backing each mac up at zero cost and using one of the macs to share files etc. and some cloud storage space or an external HD and leaving one of the mac's running up to one of the many appliance distributions that support Time Machine such as DSM or FreeNAS etc. combined with some form of remote hosting or in the case of crash plan a friend/family members computer at another location, a lot depends on what you are prepared to spend and how much data we're talking about.

 

[mattyy]

The data will be less than 1TB and we have access to another location that could be used for offsite backups.

Both the macs need backing up locally (current done with a time capsule) and offsite, which by the looks of things can be taken care of by crash plan.

What i need more advise on is the file sharing side;

We want to be able to share data between the two mac and be able to access this data remotely out of the office on numerous devices.
One of the main things we need is to be able to access PDFs whilst out of the office on our phones. I'm not sure file sharing on the mac will be able to do this due to the way we need to access the files?
Is there a better way of achieving this?
We would rather it was shared from a source at the office as opposed to the cloud as this data also needs backing up locally - does that make sense?

Budget isn't strict and we are willing to spend for the right solution but obviously don't want to buy equipment we don't need.

 

[Mark M]

A Nas (possibly a Synology?) or a server sounds like its going to be the solution if you want it local. What type of files needs sharing/accessing as some types of database files may cause you problems and need a more complex solution?

 

[Avalon]

At the most basic/cheap level you could use drop box and crash plan which was where I was going before you mentioned the B word. PDF's and mac's to me usually means graphics/artwork so how big are those PDF's going to be and is it realistic to download them on mobile?

Dropbox keeps a local copy on each mac it's installed on and allows you convenient access via mobile devices via an app for the main platforms. Would I trust it with sensitive/business data? Probably not, but I know others do. Crash Plan will backup each mac to the other, this obviously depends on space available, a NAS or external drive is an option as is another computer off site, it also offers paid cloud backup options. While this sort of set-up is probably fine for home user now you've mentioned business use i'd be a little more reserved. Dropbox could be replaced with your own in house NAS or server with a VPN back to the office assuming the mobile devices support a decent VPN client. A lot of current gen NAS'/distro's have Time Machine support baked in so this would also take care of the mac backup situation. Synology have a support life cycle based on 3 years for major DSM support which personally I don't get on with but it is an off the shelf solution where you just add drives. The other option is a basic server set-up, something like a Gne8 Microserver is cheap, add RAM and 2-3 drives and whatever NAS distro you prefer, xpenology or Un-Raid etc. are popular. You could also run the VPN from one of the mac's and connect the mobile devices back through that for little/no cost.