Your five-minute guide to online backup

Your five-minute guide to online backup

Online backup services can be a really convenient way to take a safe copy of your company data and store it away from your main business location.

This means that if anything goes wrong your data, you still have a backup copy to work from.

How does online business backup work?

Online backup services are generally simple and easy to use:

• Your important data is uploaded to the backup provider’s servers, over the internet.
• These servers are usually located in a data centre, keeping your files available and safe.
• Software on your computer or server automatically keeps track of changing data, backing it up automatically.

And that’s pretty much it. You change a file in the office and the backup copy gets updated for you. Delete a file by accident and you can get a copy back within minutes.

With some research showing that 48% of businesses experience data loss each year, online backup can be a really effective way to protect your company.

Why use online backup?

Businesses have traditionally backed their data up to tapes, hard drives or CDs. So, why use online backup instead of these tried-and-tested methods?

• You don’t have to mess around swapping tapes or disks, or remembering to keep them somewhere safe, off your premises.
• Online backup is largely automated. Although you still need to monitor and test your backups, online backup has fewer management overheads.
• Fewer capacity issues. Online backup services are flexible, so as your data grows you can just pay a little extra for more storage.
• No hardware to buy or replace. You never need to replace backup drives, tapes or disks when they wear out.
• Keep track of file versions. Most online backup systems let you recover copies of files that have changed several times.
• Even if your office burns down and your server is destroyed, you can access your data online — from anywhere in the world.

Online backup: what to look for

Not all online backup services are equally safe and effective, so it’s important to choose an online backup supplier that:

• Takes at least two copies of your information and stores them in two different, secure data centres.
• Charges you only for the service you need. You shouldn’t be paying for unnecessary storage space or add-ons.
• Checks your data regularly for inconsistencies, so you can be confident your backups will work if you need to access them.
• Offers disaster recovery services, to be sure you can get up and running again quickly if you do have a problem.

Are online backups right for your business

An online backup service could be a good fit for your business if:

• You want a cost-effective, future-proof backup solution.
• You need a flexible data backup and retrieval mechanism.
• You need a backup system that doesn’t require too much looking after
• You want file-versioning without having to juggle lots of backup tapes.

To learn more about backups, read about how to find the right backup methods, and see the five key questions to ask about your backup system.

This is a post from Danny Walker, director at IT Farm.