The Backup Service Alternative
A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose
The Backup Service Alternative
The backup service is gaining in popularity as the latest way to protect your data. Data backup is the most important piece in a company's disaster and recovery package. Data is the revenue generator of most businesses. Finding ways to reduce the risks and threats surrounding data should include a close look at the backup service.
A Backup Service Should Reflect Your Needs
A great backup service should not dictate backup needs to their clients. If backup service cannot give you what you know you need, move on. If your data requires instantaneous updates then the backup service you choose to work with should be able to give you instantaneous updates. If data is your business then without it your ability to succeed is taken off-track.
With few requirements of new equipment or complicated software, a backup service can make your backup and recovery plan easy to implement. First you must know what your data needs are. Second, you must compare your data needs with what the backup service can offer.
Does the service company value your data as you do? Are their business and work ethic similar to yours? Is security at the top of both of your needs? What does a secure facility mean to them? It may look great but what have they done to backup their claims? A backup service should provide state of the art security for your data and their equipment.
A Backup Service Should Be Easy to Access
A great interface and some simple security measures should be all that lies between you and your data. Recovery needs to be as easy as identifying the file(s) needing recovery and a simple click to copy and relocate the damaged files back to their original location.
Logins should be authenticated at several levels. A login should always identify the company, the department requesting the access and the specific employee handling the request. All encryption should take place on your end of the data stream and be initiated with compression first and then the encryption.
Group or individual access from any Internet connection is a convenient tool. A backup service that offers this should also offer authentication and encryption at every login. This service can allow off site employees access during emergencies by alerting them with an email or phone call. With a login process running through a secure server, your data is still safe and the emergency taken care of.
Backup Service Technology and Your Data
Many issues concerning backup and backup software efficiency and storage have been addressed in the latest technology upgrades. Finding ways to backup data changes only and not full files by using the technologies found in mirroring data from one hard drive to another have been successful.
The technology of binary patching, as used in software upgrades, has also been used to instantly upgrade existing backup files with efficiency and reliability. The size of the backup file update is markedly reduced and the backup process speeds up dramatically.
