Going Paperless...Looking For Feedback
- Thread starter OBI Texas
- Start date
Actually, done right, electronic storage of documents is far more secure than paper. Many document management programs have an audit trail, so if you change a document, it is logged.
That said, I can alter paper documents as well. Not much different. If I'm going to cheat, there is a way. Better off just not cheating.
Dan
- 150
Gentlemen and/or Ladies,
Please, Please, Please, if you are going to go paperless, do two things. SAVE YOUR DATA DAILY. And Store at least one copy off site in a secure location. This comes from someone who is an IT Guru. (It's what I've done for the last 15 Years). Backups should be done daily, and kept OFF SITE in a remote and SAFE location. Remember, you may or may not have RAID 5 Servers, you may or may not have tape back up. However Backups are essential; and you know what else is? RESTORING! Tapes go bad over time. CD or DVD can be scratched. If you are doing this for a small office, make two copies, daily; keep one in a secure offsite fire proof box. At the end of the week, keep another (AT A MINIMUM Once a week). At the end of the month do the same. At the weekend, and Month end; put these in a safety deposit box.
If you are a large office, then you can sign up for a service that will pick up your tapes.
Once a month do a restore to make certain that your tape/cd/dvd is good.
Your backup is ONLY as good as your restore.
In regards to paper vs. electronic. electronic real estate is much more compact and cheaper than office space. and for those seven years...IF you change software or hardware KEEP A BACKUP copy of the software used, including the Operating System used to back it up on.
If you are using PDF's then you are probably A-OK. Just keep backup copies in an offsite, secure location; Using any other type of backup software, then save a copy of the software, and the Operating Systems software; in seven years you will not be using the same OS guaranteed.
Web Bacon Saver was used in this post.
Please, Please, Please, if you are going to go paperless, do two things. SAVE YOUR DATA DAILY. And Store at least one copy off site in a secure location. This comes from someone who is an IT Guru. (It's what I've done for the last 15 Years). Backups should be done daily, and kept OFF SITE in a remote and SAFE location. Remember, you may or may not have RAID 5 Servers, you may or may not have tape back up. However Backups are essential; and you know what else is? RESTORING! Tapes go bad over time. CD or DVD can be scratched. If you are doing this for a small office, make two copies, daily; keep one in a secure offsite fire proof box. At the end of the week, keep another (AT A MINIMUM Once a week). At the end of the month do the same. At the weekend, and Month end; put these in a safety deposit box.
If you are a large office, then you can sign up for a service that will pick up your tapes.
Once a month do a restore to make certain that your tape/cd/dvd is good.
Your backup is ONLY as good as your restore.
In regards to paper vs. electronic. electronic real estate is much more compact and cheaper than office space. and for those seven years...IF you change software or hardware KEEP A BACKUP copy of the software used, including the Operating System used to back it up on.
If you are using PDF's then you are probably A-OK. Just keep backup copies in an offsite, secure location; Using any other type of backup software, then save a copy of the software, and the Operating Systems software; in seven years you will not be using the same OS guaranteed.
Web Bacon Saver was used in this post.
Wow, how 80's.....
It all depends how you do things, I guess.
My computer is backed up every night, automatically. No big deal. Go buy an HP Windows Home Server, takes care of the backup grunt work.
My client files are stored on my office computer, on my backup machine (different location) and then checked into a file management system which is in an entirely different site.
Set fire to my office or my home or have an earthquake or whatever. Get me to a place I have an internet connection, I'm back in business inside of an hour with all of my client files from the 'checked in' files. I don't need to go to a bank, find the keys to the vault, or even do a computer restore (just a file restore), to have access to my client files.
I do agree, test your methodology. I gave up backing up os's and stuff offsite, though it is backed up daily via my windows home server. For $350, I can buy a new computer, check out my files and be up and running.
What do I use to check files in? Subversion. It can be downloaded and used for free. You'll need some offsite space to store the files, but that isn't expensive to come by.
Dan
It all depends how you do things, I guess.
My computer is backed up every night, automatically. No big deal. Go buy an HP Windows Home Server, takes care of the backup grunt work.
My client files are stored on my office computer, on my backup machine (different location) and then checked into a file management system which is in an entirely different site.
Set fire to my office or my home or have an earthquake or whatever. Get me to a place I have an internet connection, I'm back in business inside of an hour with all of my client files from the 'checked in' files. I don't need to go to a bank, find the keys to the vault, or even do a computer restore (just a file restore), to have access to my client files.
I do agree, test your methodology. I gave up backing up os's and stuff offsite, though it is backed up daily via my windows home server. For $350, I can buy a new computer, check out my files and be up and running.
What do I use to check files in? Subversion. It can be downloaded and used for free. You'll need some offsite space to store the files, but that isn't expensive to come by.
Dan
Now I want to invent my own
