The Online Backup Alternative
A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose
The Online Backup Alternative
Online Backup is the latest way to protect your data. Data backup is the most important weapon in a company's arsenal of recovery weapons. Critical data is the lifeblood of most businesses. Fear of data loss or corruption can be quelled with the proper backup and recovery plan.
Online Backup Should Reflect Your Needs
Online backup services should not dictate the backup needs of their clients. If an online backup service cannot give you what you need, move on and begin a dialo gwithanothercompany.Ifyourcompany requires instantaneous updates of data then your online backup service should be able to accommodate you. Your critical data is your business and without it your ability to succeed is damaged.
Without implementing new equipment or complicated software, an online backup service can make your backup and recovery plan easy to maintain, service, and access. But first you must know what your data needs are. And you must compare them with what the service offers its customers.
Does the service company put the same value on your data as you do? Do they hold similar business and work ethics as your company? Is security at the top of their list? What do they mean when they say their facility is secure? It may sound great but what is the reality behind the claims? Online backup services should provide state of the art security of their facilities and their data.
Online Backup Should Be Easy
Access to your data should be a matter of a great interface. You r employees should be able to login and see their data. Data recovery should be as easy, identifying the files(s) needing recovery and a click to relocate should be all that is involved.
Logins should have levels identifying the company, the department requesting access and the employee handling the request. All encryption should take place on your end of the data stream.
Access from any Internet connection is a nice touch. This means that your employees can collaborate as necessary whether they are in the same location or not. If an emergency arises and someone in the know is not in the office, an email alert or phone call can clue them to the emergency. Logging in through a secure server aids the security of your data.
Online Backup Technology
In the interest of creating a better product programmers have worked through some rather sticky issues concerning backup and backup software. They have tackled the need for efficiency by finding ways to backup data changes only and not full files. Using the technologies found in mirroring data from one hard drive to another, block technology has been found to have some areas of application when it comes to online backup.
In addition, the technology of binary patching, which gets used in software upgrades, has also been found to have the ability to instantly upgrade existing files in an efficient and reliable manner. The size of the file upgrade is reduced markedly and the speed of the backup process increases.
