Right now there's a lively, on-line discussion on a popular dental forum about data backup. The topic is centered around an unfortunately doctor who's server crashed while he was on vacation. It took him nearly a week to get his data restored correctly, which made for some interesting and stressful days for his team. Patients were walking in and the practice had no clue what treatment they required.

I've been amazed by the comments other doctors are making about backing up their data. Here's just a sample:

• "First raid hard drives... 2nd, I backup the eaglesoft data folder (entire folder, not incremental) every night over the office network to a workstation. I use syncbackpro (first backup). Then the next day that backup is copied to a USB drive and taken off site. (2nd backup). I verify the backup frequently. Everyday I check the backup log and it tells me if there was a problem overnight."
• "I simply take my backup from work and copy it into the eaglsoft directory at home. You have to rename your old data folder and change the name of your backup to 'DATA'. These steps depend on your software and image setup.  You need to figure those out... Then I start up eaglesoft... Once its open I have to point eaglesoft to the proper directory of the data file... Then I test it. Check for recent xrays. Check the schedule."
• "I logged in serious hours this weekend. I'm backing everything up to so many devices. I'm buying higher internet speed so that my data can be backed up to secure fTP overnight but the pisser is I have a small window to do this which is when eaglosft software server is off and back on. And then I worry about proper encryption. Then I worry about not just backing up but making sure the back up is not corrupted."

I'm not posting their comments here to poke fun. These doctor obviously have the skills and the interest to want to go through all that work; they obviously enjoy the tech side of things and there's nothing wrong with that. But most doctors either don't want to bother with it or don't have the skills.

Would you put yourself through this kind of worry? Do you have time for all of that?

Friends, a cloud-based solution, like Curve Dental, eliminates the stress and worry of backing up your data. When you manage your practice from the cloud you will never have to carry a backup home, test the backup, store the backup in a secure place, etc., etc.

Why would you want to? Surely you have more important things to do.

You can learn more about the advantages of the cloud by chatting with one of our dental software consultants at 888-910-4376. Call today to learn more or visit our website.