In past blog posts, I had written about disaster recover options—and there is one solution that I like even more as prices for this solution have come down drastically. Specifically, the solution that I talked about a year ago was installing a Network Area Storage (NAS) system into your network, for a one Terabyte it is less than $500. This is a 50 percent price reduction from almost a year ago. If you use a completely outsourced solution, it will cost you a minimum of $200 a month.

An NAS is simply a very large hard drive that is specifically made to attach to your network and the main word that I like with NAS is AUTOMATIC.

• They normally have two to four drives for an automated internal backup process
• You can attach a second one remotely (your home), have the two units sync with each other
• If a drive fails, the NAS will send you an email
• You can replace a bad drive yourself, no techs needed. Also once you replace it, the system automatically starts backing up again.
• User interface for NAS administration is very simple to use
• You have the ability to access your NAS via the web

Although I think NAS is great, I still think you should utilize a remote third party service as a backup. This may sound confusing, but there are two parts to disaster recovery. First, your firm needs an archiving ability for all your email, and then you need a backup ability. I suggest you use NAS for your archiving and your local backup solution. This takes the largest expense of process and reduces it to a one-time cost of hardware and setup. I would suggest using a third party remote backup server to backup your NAS. There are many services available, but ensure you use a service that has redundancy in multiple parts of the country or world. Amazon is the latest company to launch a backup service with redundancy all over the world. Most services offer a 30-day trial, so make sure the user interface is something you can work with. 

Ash Bhatnagar, CFP®
President
RIA Independence Co.
Princeton, N.J.