Backing Up To Cloud

POS SOFTWARE

Cloud_point_of_sale.jpg


What it enables you to do is backing up your data, to an online storage service. Popular services include Dropbox, OneDrive (which is my favourite) and Google Drive.

When I first started talking about low-cost or free online backup for point of sale available, many of my competitors were negative. I suspect as they wanted to sell the dearer one. 

Today almost all my clients use such a service, and most of my competitors offer such services in their software. 

Some of the pluses would be 

  • Your backup can be largely automated.
  • It is safer as it is off-site so even if the shop burnt down and every backup was lost; you would still have a copy.
  • Data can be easily transported from one computer to another say at home.

However, we recommend all our clients use cloud back up *ONLY* as a secondary and last emergency service as some of the minuses would be 

  • Online storage services sometimes do lose data, do not believe just because Microsoft has your data that it is safe. One of my clients lost most of their backups when one staff left and removed the store's Microsoft 365 licence from her home computer. You still need to watch it.
  • It can take a long time to do the backup. A 1.5 Gigabyte point of sale date file at 512 Kps (which is a good rate) will take about 7 hours. While it is happening, your internet will slow down dramatically. 
  • People tend to take it for granted once it is back up to the online site that it is okay. Not necessarily. I have seen corrupt backups from the cloud. The data can be faulty just like any other backup system. The backups still need to be checked.
  • The free cloud services probably will not provide you with an automated solution from what is today a significant problem - ransomware attacks.  

 

Comments

Keeping aside a few bad experiences and errors it has always been a smooth experience for me and my company while backing data on cloud. It saves you the unnecessary hardware and gives a sense of security that the data is in safe hands. I have been using cloud for a long time now. Giving commands over the cloud to my Fuji Xerox C2270 is something that has made my life easy as I can provide my staff with the necessary documents for approvals.

Sam, we do it too, but we use gmail. The big pluses are that anyone with access to that gmail can access the documents, saves people having to go to the filing room and look plus we get a search facility in the cloud.

Great insights on online backups! Cloud services like OneDrive and Google Drive definitely make data backup easier and safer. However, I agree that relying on them solely can be risky. Regular checks and a secondary backup solution are essential, especially when considering potential issues like data corruption or ransomware attacks.

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