Remote Online Backup to Protect Your Vital Data

Data disasters happen. It's all too tempting to think that it won't happen to you, until it does. Data protection is essential - could your company survive a cataclysmic systems crash, causing your data to be compromised or lost? Hint: probably not.

So what to do? The days of the floppy disc are dead and buried, and backing onto another hard drive kept on the same premises as the original data will not protect against fire or theft.

One of the most comprehensive solutions available is to copy your data to an offsite location using a remote online backup solution. But just searching on Google reveals hundreds, if not thousands of potential services to choose from. So how do you know which one is right for you? Consider the following points to help your decision...


Space

Space is the first thing to consider when choosing an online backup service. How much space are you currently using across your network? Is that likely to increase? If so, at what rate? You'll want to "hire" sufficient space from the online backup service you wish to use for your current and future needs, so work out how much space you require and check out the best prices.


Security

Companies advertising more than one data center offer simultaneous duplicate backups of your data. Look for warnings from companies about your passkey. They will tell you if you lose your passkey, you cannot access your data backup account. This is a good thing! It lets you know that no one can randomly access your backup account without your permission or passkey.


Frequency

More is better. You want to get multiple copies of your data, automatically uploaded on a frequent and regular basis. The more often your data is backed up, the more protection you have in the event of a virus or irreparable corruption. Ensure your remote backup solution allows updates as frequently as you'll need them.


Price

As the old adage goes, “You get what you pay for.” Typically low-cost services take longer to complete the initial backup. They reduce their bandwidth costs by slowing your upload speed, which limits the amount of data that can be backed up, therefore limiting you when all you want to get done with maintenance and backup and get on with your work! Equally, there's no point in wasting your budget on an expensive yet fast backup solution if you're unlikely to regularly require fast backup of large files.

The best online backup service is the one that fits your needs and pocketbook, so do your homework before you buy to make sure you make the most out of every penny spent on online backup.