Before We Buy - HELP AND QUESTIONS

Question

Hello all,
I am in a tight spot at my office with my boss who knows absolutely NOTHING about Macs let alone how large the files we work on are from day to day. To make a long story short he is bent on us backing up to the network servers nightly. His belief is that if something happens we could magically go to any office and plug a machine in and have access to all our files needed to start working again.
I have TRIED my best to explain that is simply CAN NOT HAPPEN the same way a little ole PC office worker does. They work on super small Word files directly off of a server. They can sit down and login to any PC with a network connection then call up the little help desk and they click a few buttons and BOOM they are back to working.
IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY FOR US. Not because we are on Macs but because the nature of what we do ON the Mac. I can't even imagine trying to connect to a server and work on a file that is upwards of 1.5 gig!
If anyone is out there who could help me get this point across that would be SO helpful. I am at an utter loss as to what to do. I can't make any one here understand that we just don't and can't work the same way. I don't even know where to start to offer an option. They (being our IT people) don't ever want to work with us anyway.
Anyway I'm just frustrated. If any one has run into this where you work and could offer a solution or ANYWAY it would be helpful!
Thanks
Jenny

Answer 1

Dave,
Thanks for replying and I'm happy to answer you questions!
First let me explain the current backup solution but first understand we have always been "outcast" because we are 6 Macs in a PC world over well over 4,000. In fact at times it was so bad that we had to use the web version of our companies mail because no one could or would offer any support for us. But slowly I've managed to work these issues out by simply trail and error on our own part.
Okay so back to your questions...
CURRENT BACKUP SOLUTION:
Each designer has 4 folders on a second HD within their machine - Completed, Working, Resources and Personal.
The Completed folder is for projects that have been closed and are ready for completion and archiving.
The Working folder is for projects currently active.
The Resources folder is for files such as our company logos, fonts, forms, reference files, downloads for projects, etc.
The Personal folder is anything you might need or house on your computer that is NOT part of project (ex: Year End Employee Review). Basically this folder is considered off limits to any but the user.
NOW...
The COMPLETED folder gets backup to DVD and cataloged then stored in a cabinet by year/month. Then the contents are archived on a network server by year/user (ex: 2008>JENNY>PROJECT CODE.....etc). This scheme works okay because it means that we have those completed projects in two locations - one offsite and one on disk. The issue here is two fold firstly the user (designers) must take part in backing up their files and archiving per our guidelines.
OKAY...
Here's the issue I've got. I have yet to find a GOOD SOLID solution to back up the 3 (not the Personal although I wouldn't care).
I've tried Syncronize Pro, Carbon Copy Cloner, Retrospect, etc. For some reason there is ALWAYS an issue. Either I can't get it connect properly to our network so it hangs up overnight and nothing is backed or it just has too many options and never works simply across the 6 computers.
MY CURRENT TRIALS...
First, I've been using CCC to create a disk image of my entire second HD each morning my computer starts at 7:30am. By the time I get into work its backed up my files from the previous day. This works fine.
Second, I'm using Syncronize from our Share Mac to mount my machine and grab that single disk image and place into a backup folder. I've had to do this after I get into work to make sure it doesn't time out and not mount my machine properly.
Finally, MANUALLY I take the disk images Syncronize has collected and put them on the server. I can't use CCC or Retrospect because I don't have ANY access to the server side. Syncronize works about 50% of the time over the network but it will error out over some of the files (I DON'T KNOW WHY!).
This all works OK but just OK. It's still cumbersome!
I guess my biggest issue is getting IT to help us with the server side issues (mostly give us more space - they are CONSTANTLY moving our files around on us) and more times then not a file we pull down from the server loses its brain...so it has to be manually opened and resaved or it doesn't work (that's a whole other issue).
My other biggest issue is getting my boss to understand that no matter WHAT I do, in the event of a disaster these 6 Mac people can't go buy a new machine, sit down in front of it, mount a server from within the network, and work as if nothing happened. It would take days if not weeks to recover and rebuild.
Here's where this is coming from. A few years ago the building lost all power due to an ice storm. 2 days into it we finally got access to go up our offices and get our machines. Then each person took it home and worked there. HOWEVER, all the PC people just went to different location with VPN access or worked from another branch (we're a bank). All was lovely and seemless for them.
Anyway. I don't know I just get frustrated some days with the attitude of like... well WHY... you know just do it... just push that button and make it work!
Thanks again!
Jenny