Five Freuqently Asked Questions about Online Backups

A Backup Article Contributed by Andrew Whitehead

I Already Have a Tape Backup System, Why Should I Have an Online Backup System?

If you run a tape backup system alongside an online backup system, you have gotten yourself the best of both worlds. Your most critical files - your billing, your customer contact files and databases - can all be kept safely remote on the online backup system, while the convenience and capacity of a tape system can be exploited to create a full backup of the entire system once or twice a month.

Using this system the tapes and the drive are worked less hard, so they will last longer and require less maintenance, and the remote online backup system will provide you with a fast, convenient, and easy way to retrieve all those critical files without going through the hassle of searching through a pile of backup tapes.

How long Does an Online Backup Usually Take?

Those with high-speed internet connections should face no problems with online backup speed, though it will obviously take longer for dial-up users. It is good practice to back up your most important files first, and as the backup progresses you can select the less critical files that you want to backup.

What is the Difference?

Put simply, an online backup system works just like regular tape backups. It does have one very important advantage, instead of sending your backup files to a tape drive or other media, an online backup system sends encrypts your files and then sends it over an internet connection to a file storage system on an offsite (often third party) computer . For businesses, things are usually arranged so that this happens at night when nobody is using the computers, as it can often be completely automatic process - nobody needs to be there to swap media.

Why are Online Backups Considered More Beneficial?

Their are several advantages, the main one being that your critical files are remotely stored off-site. This put them safely out of the way of any disasters that may strike your premises, such as fire, theft or acts of God. It would need both your premises and the third parties premises to burn down simultaneously to lose your information, and that is assuming that they don't also use a remote backup system!

As no human needs to be around to swap media, an online backup can be completely automated. The only equipment you need is an internet connection, this completely eliminates the need to provide expensive backup equipment, media, and its associated management as online backups never wear out so you have no more worries about physical loss or deterioration.

The capacity is almost unlimited for practical purposes, though the cost will obviously rise as you rent more space on the server.

How Secure are Online Backups?

Online backups are very secure. Your backup files are encrypted before being sent over the internet, usually with military-strength encryption. Neither the third party provider nor anybody else has any way of decrypting your files; only you can do that.