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    Backing Up Your Google Apps Data: A Belt and Suspenders Will Look Good on You – Part 2 of 2

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      (See part 1 for native Google Apps data backup tools.)

      Having a reliable backup of your data is just as important whether you’re using traditional, boxed (or downloaded) software and storing your data on your computer (or a file server in your office) or using cloud tools and storing your files in the cloud. If you’re using Google Apps for Business you should be backing up your data – e-mail messages, documents, calendar events, contacts, tasks and any other important data you’re storing in your account.

      There are a number of third-party backup services and applications available:

      Backupify
      Starting at $3/user/month; 14 day free trial
      Designed specifically for business users, Backupify stores its backups of your e-mail, calendar events, contacts, and documents in Google Drive, and Google Sites on Amazon’s cloud services and also allows you to store a backup locally. Because it is meant for business users, it includes an administrator’s dashboard to manage backups, a keyword search function for messages and documents, and the ability to export the contents of an entire account or selected files. Backups can be automated to occur daily and the service includes one-button restore capabilities. Restored documents include metadata such as sharing permissions.

      Spanning
      Starting at $2.92/user/month; 14 day free trial
      Because Spanning is also designed for business users, it offers many of the same features as Backupify, including a full set of management tools in its administrative control panel. Like Backupify, Spanning also stores its backups of your e-mail, calendar events, contacts, documents in Google Drive, and Google Sites on Amazon’s cloud services. Similarly, it also includes a keyword search function for messages and documents, and the ability to export the contents of an entire account or selected files. Backups can be automated to occur daily or can be conducted on demand. It also allows the administrator to restore files from one account to another.

      Cloudfinder
      Starting at $2.50/user/month; 30 day free trial available
      Like the other services discussed here, Cloudfinder includes an administrator’s dashboard to manage backups (and restorations). Backups of your e-mail, calendar events, contacts, documents in Google Drive, and Google Sites are full-text searchable across all users or can be filtered by individual users. Administrators can restore individual files, individual folders, or an entire account. Cloudfinder also stores the backup data in Amazon’s S3 cloud service. Backups can be scheduled/automated.

      SpinBackup
      Free for single user with 2GB of cloud backup; $2.50/user/month for 4 users with 100GB total cloud storage
      In addition to backing up e-mails messages, contacts, tasks, calendar events, and documents in Google Drive, SpinBackup also backs up photos stored in connected Google+ accounts. Backups are full-text searchable and individual files and folders are restorable with a single click. (Full accounts can also be restored in this manner.) SpinBackup also allows you to download individual files from your backup to a computer or mobile device. Backups can be scheduled/automated.

      SysTools
      Free feature-limited version; $49 full-featured purchase/download (Windows only)
      Local backup storage only.

      Like the other options discussed here, SysTools backs up e-mails messages, contacts, calendar events, and documents in Google Drive in standard formats that allow you to restore them to your account in case of failure or import them into other software or cloud providers. Unlike the other options discussed here, SysTools is an executable “program” that you download and install on your Windows OS computer. Google Apps for Business administrators can backup an individual account, multiple accounts, or all of the users in their domain of users.

      Because the program relies on your own local storage capabilities, the only limitation on backup size is the available space on your hard drive. The company claims to have “tested [the software] with data of size 2 TB.” Backups must be initiated manually.

      If you rely on the data stored in Google Apps for Business to run your business, then having a separate backup of your data is never something that you will regret.

      ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
      Carole Levitt, Esq. President and founder of Internet for Lawyers (a CLE seminar company), has over thirty years of combined experience in the legal field as a California attorney, Internet trainer, Law Librarian and Legal Research and Writing Professor. Ms. Levitt has served on the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section’s Publishing Board since 2004 and served on the Section’s Executive Council from 2007—2011.
      Mark Rosch Vice-President, Internet for Lawyers, is the developer and manager of Internet for Lawyers’ (IFL) website, Facebook Company page, and online education services. He also is the editor of IFL’s newsletter, The Internet Legal Research Update. Mr. Rosch serves on the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section’s TECHSHOW Planning Board.
      Together, these internationally recognized authors and Continuing Legal Education speakers have given hundreds of CLE seminars and have written six books published by The American Bar Association, including “Google Gmail and Calendar in One Hour for Lawyers” (2013).
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