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If you are like many law firms you use TABS and actually in many cases this is the main product that law firms run on.  We have had great success transitioning companies to our on line off site backup solution (ASE BackupPro) because it reduces the problems of in-house backups such as reducing CapEx by not having to buy the expensive products, it takes the human element out of the equation since no tapes have to be changed or taken off site, and, it works – everyday.  But there are some products that don’t lend themselves kindly to on line off site backups so that is what this article is about.

I received a call from a law firm who had a disaster inquiring about our on line off site backup solution.  I explained that for me to give them the best possible advice they needed to list all of the products on their network.  When I saw TABS I contacted the manufacturer who verified that TABS and all of its modules cannot be backed up using a method that performs differential or incremental backups (we’ll use differentials).  To explain how it works: once installed, the backup solution does a complete backup of your network (what you designate to be backed up) and from that point forward as files are changed, added or deleted, they are backed up every day (simple way of describing it.).  TABS is a product whose data cannot be restored if the backup solution performs differentials.  Please note that many of the external hard drives you buy to use as a backup solution also use this method.

So how do you solve this problem?  Create a second task where only the TABS program and its data are backed up in one complete process.  You can also configure your external hard drive to do the same.  Now you will have a complete backup of all of your data not including the TABS stuff and a second with just the TABS data. 

Timeslips by SAGE is another product for the legal niche and must be handled in the same way.

I would be interested in knowing how many of you knew this.

Robert Lane.

ASE, Inc.

Robert Lane is the owner of ASE, Inc. a provider of IT consulting, engineering, hosted and managed services in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC since 2000.  For more information on ASE’s BackupPro contact Robert at 703-273-8388  ext 111.  You can find more information at goaseinc-staging.coydhea2-liquidwebsites.com and www.IT4smallbusiness.org.