Security is multi-layered. Bushel enables some settings on your Macs that help to keep you secure. But there’s another layer that we believe in: Backup. We protect devices, but a good backup ensures the long-term availability of the data that is on those devices, giving you the peace of mind to wipe or erase a device in the event that the device falls outside your control.
There are a number of tools to backup your Macs. The first and probably most important to discuss is Time Machine. Time Machine is free. There aren’t a lot of options. As with many Apple services, Apple has made some key discussions on your behalf. With Time Machine, you plug in a drive, say backup to it, and then boot holding down the R key to restore in the event of a system failure. I’m not really sure you can get an easier backup tool.
Many will need more options. For those, I recommend checking out CrashPlan. They have a free option, where you can backup to your friends computers (your data is encrypted and safe) or backup to their cloud. It’s not bootable for restores, but the raw technology that is built into the product is super-impressive (from data deduplication and other nerdiness to a clean user interface).
In addition to CrashPlan, there are other tools, including Backblaze, Carbonite, Mozy, iDrive, OpenDrive, SOS, and DollyDrive. These are the more common tools that we see for the Mac clients. There are certainly larger products that support tape libraries and the such, including P5 from Archiware. But for many reading this site, those are likely overkill.
No matter what you do, make sure that you know exactly what steps you will perform in the event of a file being deleted, of a whole system failure, and if you need to restore a backup to another computer for eDiscovery purposes. And good luck out there!
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