A History of Online Backup
A Backup Article Contributed by Ashley Lister
A History of Online Backup
The facilities of online backup have been around since the inception of the internet.
Initially used by universities and research organizations, the value of online backup was realized early on by those with a need to keep valuable information stored safely and securely away from the site.
A Description of Online Backup.
In its simplest form, online backup is the copying and storage of data to a physically remote location. Usually the information is passed (securely) over the internet to the storage location.
All computers are susceptible to data loss or corruption. It is a sad fact of life that even the most extensive system of precautions and preventive measures can be undone by fire, flood, theft or virus attack. While this means that data can easily be wiped from an existing machine, it also means that storage media, and the hardware used for writing backups to storage media, is just as susceptible to the vagaries of misfortune.
Initially Online Backups Were the Bastion of the Purely Technical.
Modems to remote labs were queried by "AT commands" and complicated instructions and lines of dialogue were needed to ensure that the information could be transported. Those operators responsible for instigating the online backups were usually experienced professionals with graduate qualifications and years of dedicated learning involved in the conception of telecommunications. Many of those early operators could "speak" in low level computer languages as well and as fluently as they used their native tongues.
But technology has since advanced and interfaces today concentrate on being user-friendly. It is no longer necessary for the person responsible for organizing the online backup to be particularly computer literate. With drop-down memories, familiar screen styles, easy navigation and help on demand, online backup software can be installed swiftly and easily by those with little or no computer knowledge at all. Operating online backup software can be a simple matter of leaving a scheduled routine to run at a set point in the day.
Partly because of this ease of use, and partly because of the low cost involved, it is easy to see why online backups are now so popular.
Traditional backups involve the use of expensive initial outlays.
These outlays include sufficient amounts of storage media, staff training so that someone competent knows how to run the backup, and of course, the cost of installing software and hardware to perform the actual backup itself.
The initial cost of negotiating a solution from an online backup provider is seldom as expensive as the initial outlay required for a system that involves storage media.
Traditional backup methods are also prone to failure when storage media is either lost, damaged or some other form of corruption.
Online Backup Solutions Do Not Have This Problem.
The data is stored (securely) on a dedicated server and can be retrieved instantaneously. As long as the internet remains available, it seems that online backup facilities will remain too. And, with faster communication speeds and the dwindling cost of online backup facilities, it looks like more people in the future will certainly take advantage of this method of storing data.
