Offsite backup server

[yatesey021994]

Ok, so I've had a trawl through the forums and Google and can't seem to find a good answer for this and was hoping people here could help.

I'm wanting to create a good backup system for my parents, normally this would be easy but as they live in a bushfire prone area of Australia I'd like it to be an offsite system (probably at my house in Melbourne) that will automatically backup their computers from home. It would also be handy if my parents could access all their files and documents from their new apartment in Melbourne without having to regularly transport their desktop.

I'm basically just looking for suggestions and ideas as this is something I've never done before (I'm relatively computer literate but don't have a massive amount of experience in building and designing them).

Basic requirements:

Must be both Mac and windows compatible as mum has an iMac, dad has a Windows laptop and they both have iPads.

Low power consumption

Easy to use (at my parents end, ideally setup and forget for them)

Extremely reliable

Budget wise, it's not fixed as I'm just getting some ideas to take to my parents so multiple options would be great but I know they don't want to spend ridiculous amounts.

Thanks in advance

William

[brob]

It might be better to use a cloud service. Much more reliable storage, easily accessible anywhere, and no need for additional hardware.

 

Some backup software vendors offer cloud storage (Acronis, for example). There are also providers like Microsoft and Google.

[Streetguru]

Ok, so I've had a trawl through the forums and Google and can't seem to find a good answer for this and was hoping people here could help.

Ya, you might as well just pay for a cloud service, it'll be a lot easier to use

 

a basic proper back up server is going to run a fair bit of cash

[yatesey021994]

It might be better to use a cloud service. Much more reliable storage, easily accessible anywhere, and no need for additional hardware.

 

Some backup software vendors offer cloud storage (Acronis, for example). There are also providers like Microsoft and Google.

 

 

Ya, you might as well just pay for a cloud service, it'll be a lot easier to use

 

a basic proper back up server is going to run a fair bit of cash

Thanks guys,

I've just had a look at acronis and it does what they are looking for, at $150AUD per year, I have no idea if its good value for money over doing it myself as I'm not sure how much an initial setup would cost and how often parts would need to be upgraded. Also, knowing my parents, they may not want to trust a cloud service as they like to see a physical thing as their backup and as they are both doctors and will want to back up some of their files (confidential stuff). I will give them this as an option though as it could work well but more ideas are always good