In the information age having a secure backup of your most important business data is a major area of focus for all businesses. The data that resides on a company desktop, laptop or netbook computer can be an elusive entity to keep safe.
The technology of computer data backup has changed significantly in the last few years and there are many computer tips and tricks regarding data backup. In recent years a large number of Internet based backup services have grown from small start ups to healthy businesses offering real backup solutions for both businesses and consumers.
Most of these services provide backup software that allows you to back up your files (usually through a secure connection) across the Internet to a highly secure server at the vendor’s location. Your files are available for access 24x7x365. Most service providers have highly secure servers and some also have redundant locations so your files are always accessible in case of natural disaster with no single point of failure.
Online data backup solutions have many positives including: secure, off-site data storage; ease of use; highly accessible data from multiple locations with the correct authentication information (username and password) allowing for transferring data to another system in case of disaster; flexibility in backup schedule with backups being done on a daily basis if needed; and scheduled automatic backup being run at a specific time each day.
One potential downside of this type of backup solutions is that it can be expensive. If your business has significant amounts of data the costs per gigabyte can add up quickly as pricing for this service is generally done on a per gigabyte basis.
Another potential downside is speed. Backing up across the Internet is slower than backing up to a local backup device, but since this can be done at night or over a period of days speed is not usually an issue.
For a business, as well as many home users, the data is worth far more than computer hardware or software. Some or most data can be recreated if it is lost due to hardware failure or other forms of data disaster, but the process of recreation can be a time consuming and potentially quite expensive. In some circumstances data such as photos and videos cannot be recreated when lost. For a small business the impact of lost data can have big consequences, including a potential impact on profitability.