Advantages of online backups

There are several advantages of online backup  over the usual method of creating backup copies of your essential files in flash drives, hard drives, or CDs.  Well, one important advantage of web storage is that it usually does not require user intervention.  The significance of automatic backup is that you do not have worry about anything once you have specified the schedule and the files to be duplicated on a regular basis.  As long as your Internet file storage provider is one of the best, they will conduct the backup procedure in such a manner that you may not even notice that it is being performed.  This is done by taking advantage of the idle times for the computer system and the Internet connection.

Another vital benefit of online backup is that the duplicate copies are kept in a remote site.  This means that you do not have to carry the CDs, flash drives or hard drives to another location just to ensure that they are safe in the event that a burglary, earthquake, fire or some other kind of disaster occurs in your home or office.  Moreover, the disaster recovery process will be much simpler, such as accessing the files stored in the provider’s server.  It may even  be possible for the provider to keep a duplicate copy of the operating system to that the disaster recovery process would even be much simpler.

Another important benefit of online backup is the use of advanced encryption technologies to prevent illegal access to the files.  Naturally, you may also manually apply encryption methods on the backup files kept in physical media such as hard drives, flash drives, and CDs.  However, the advantage offered by the web service is that this is performed without the user having to worry about it.  You do not have to be concerned that you might neglect to encrypt the backup files because this is automatically done in your computer before they are sent to the data center of the provider via the Internet.  Another advantage is that even when an Internet connection is not available, you can still change a file because sync software will automatically alter the corresponding file in backup storage once you are back online.

Backup from anywhere – if you are on the move then use of traditional backup techniques may simply be impossible. Backups may may require connection of a hard drive to you computer, the use of a server in a central office, or use of writable media that you cannot carry with you. Because with online backups your data is stored on a server with a connection to the internet it is accessible from anywhere in the world.

No equipment or consumable costs – Using online backups means you are using hardware owned, maintained and operated by someone else to store your data. There is no longer any need to buy backup consumables like CDs, DVDs, tape drives, disks, or whatever else you were previously using; neither will you have to buy equipment that uses consumables, software with which to perform the backups, or servers to manage the process.

No reliance on fallible materials – Hard drives crash, CDs and DVDs get scratched or broken, tapes are notorious for perishing and breaking. Online backups mean that you don’t have to rely on equipment that can fail, break or get lost. True, you have to rely instead on a third party’s equipment but given that their entire business is based around reliable online backups, it is a safe bet that their equipment is more reliable than yours. It is probably also the case that the online backup service will have better systems in place to deal with disasters than you can afford.

There are free solutions – Depending on the service, you may be able to backup online entirely free. Those services that charge do so at a minimal rate and certainly the money saved in hardware and time will almost always outweigh the yearly cost. While cost should not be one of the first considerations when you are safeguarding very valuable data, it will be important to some users – especially those using it as a secondary line of defence.

Disadvantages of Online backups

While online backups maybe very helpful to some people, use of online backups and  the reliance on online services should be considered  very carefully. Your data is valuable, and entrusting it to the hands of a backup company could prove extremely costly if anything happen like for example the data is compromised. Below are few of the top reasons you should think carefully before using online backup services.

  •     Slow transfer times
  •     No love for dial-up users
  •     Privacy of your data
  •     Continuity of service
  •     Reliability of service
  •     Limited capacity
  •     Security of transferred data
  •     Security of stored data
  •     Time for data restoration
  •     You need the internet!

Reason 1: Slow transfer times – Transferring the contents of your hard drive over the internet will take A Very Long Time. Even if you carefully select the data you want to save and limit it to only the very essentials, the initial transfer time is likely to be monumental. While this shouldn’t really be an issue for people with a little bit of patience, it is listed at number one because it is a practical bar that will likely put most off. Even if the slow data rates don’t deter you before you start, once you’re in the middle of your cherished photo collection and you realise it’s a year after you started, you may be thinking twice. Some estimations time the initial transfer of 100 Gigabytes of data at 120 days. That’s if you’ve got your computer on for 24 hours every day and you’re willing and able to devote all your upload capacity to the job.

Reason 2: No love for dial-up users – Are you on a dial-up connection? You need to find another way to backup. As a corollary to point 1, above, consider the implications of transferring all that data across a line that is at least 5 times slower for uploads than your average broadband connection. 120 x 5 = 600 = just under two years. Ouch. When you come to restore data your downloads will be at least around 20 times slower than a broadband connection. Good luck!Reason 3: Privacy of your data – While we will not suggest that companies offering online backup services are anything other than legitimate (there’s certainly no reason to doubt their integrity), you must be comfortable with having all your data on their servers. You can of course encrypt it first, but many users do not have the knowledge or resources to do this; encryption also adds another step to what is supposedly a ’set and forget’ system. You may be happy for employees to look through your photo collection, but if you are putting private financial data on there it may be another matter altogether.

Reason 4: Continuity of service – Again, there’s no reason to think that this should effect anything, but you need to consider the possibility that the service you choose will not be around in 5 years. Further, what if the service disappeared overnight? What if it was sold to another owner who wanted to do things differently to how they were previously done? These might not present significant problems – you may be prepared to swap to another provider at short notice, for example – but then again it might. The pertinence of this reason depends on your situation.

Reason 5: Reliability of service – what if the service isn’t quite what it sells itself to be? There is the possibility that at a critical moment the service will lose your data, it may not provide you with the access you require to your data, or it might corrupt every file you send for backup. Reading reviews from other users can prevent you making the wrong choice to start with, but this cannot protect you from any changes that may occur to or within the service.

Reason 6: Limited Capacity – Most of the free services available at the time of writing will limit the amount of data you can store. If you want more – sometimes unlimited – capacity then you’re going to have to pay. Check the amount of data that you’re likely to be uploading, and check your service provider’s capacity. If the amount of data you want to store increases (this is very likely), then you may have to upgrade or move. Neither moving or upgrading should necessarily cause problems, but as always it is worth considering in relation to your requirements.

Reason 7: Security of transferred data – is your data secure as you transfer it to the service’s servers? You don’t know? Then check! Many services offer encrypted transfer; check yours is one of them. Unencrypted data can be intercepted and read by people with nefarious goals. With identity theft on the increase, this should be a something you consider whenever you transfer something across the internet, not least the contents of your hard drive.

Reason 8: Security of stored data – once your data is backed up on the service’s servers, is it safe? Can hackers or crackers gain access and view the data? Online services will most likely have safeguards in place, but they will vary in potency. If you’re worried, then you need to check.

Reason 9: Time for data restoration – How can you restore your data if you ever need to? You may need to download all your data across a relatively slow connection, and this may be a few days’ work. If you’ve got a lot of data then it may simply not be feasible. Services sometimes offer alternatives like mailing a DVD to you; while this may ease the problem you will still have to wait!

Reason 10: You need the internet! – What if you can’t connect to the internet for whatever reason? Perhaps you’re somewhere without reliable connections, or perhaps you need a code or file that was on your computer’s hard drive before it crashed? If you can’t get online then you may not be able to retrieve your data. If you’re not online then you will not be able to backup your data, either, so you could be a few weeks’ worth of backups behind schedule at the time of a data disaster. If you haven’t got regular, reliable access to the internet with your computer, then online backups may worse than useless..

Online backups are not A Bad Thing. It is excellent second line of defence, providing off-site protection for your data; perhaps in some limited circumstances they also provide an ideal first line defence. The idea is not without its flaws, though, and unless you have very good reasons for doing so, relying on an online service as your first line of defence could be a very risky way of protecting your valuable data.

Above all, the decision to backup data online needs to be considered carefully, along with your unique requirements whether you need an online backup or not.

Leading online backup providers

Xdrive www.xdrive.com

Xdrive offers 5Gb of free space controlled by a web-based interface. Features include the ability to share folders and send files to friends, family and colleagues.Professional plans are available at $9.95/month with 50Gb of space and unlimited customer support.

Mozy  mozy.com

Mozy offers 2Gb of free space, with unlimited space offered with a $4.95/month home user plan. All accounts are able to use 128-bit SSL encryption when transferring data to the site, and 448-bit blowfish encryption whilst stored on Mozy servers (the key can be either Mozy’s own, or one to be chosen by the user).Professional plans are available.

Omnidrive www.omnidrive.com

Omnidrive offers 1Gb of online space. Many technical features include the unique ability to edit Microsoft Office documents online, and access to the service API (which may be of particular interest to programmers). Omnidrive has bandwidth restrictions on all of its accounts. There is no SSL encryption on free accounts.Standard professional plans range from $40 to $199 per year, for, respectively, 10, 25 and 50 Gb of space. it claims to allow as much space as required, though pricing details for this are unclear.

 

If you know of other online backup companies or you own one then send us the details via our email a2zarticlesdirectory (et) yahoo (dot) com