Software for Online Server Backup
A Backup Article Contributed by Melissa Larose
Software for Online Server Backup
Online server backup needs software in order to initiate and complete the download. Online server backup has gotten a bad reputation because of its beginnings. Early on in the Internet game when speeds were terribly slow and security was non-existent, no one, especially someone guarding sensitive and critical information would have thought to send their data across the web and have it land in someone else's server in a location that may or may not be safe. It just would not have happened.
As time progressed there were those that dared to load the right software and backup their server or servers across the high-speed connections that were more prevalent. But there were still questions about security that lingered. Recently, due to the broader use of virtual private networks, encryption and authentication techniques and speed increases, more people are taking their backup online despite the risks and concerns of the past.
Software Foundation for Server Backup
There are many online services that will backup your server for a price. The price has to do with the amount of storage you are renting from them. It is like renting a storage space and using the driveway they provide to get to your storage space. You pay for the storage and not the driveway. In fact one of the earlier online storage sites was called Driveway. The foundation for the process is the software that the service company will give to you free. This server backup software will allow you to set your preferences before sending the data across the Internet.
Server Backup Software Requirements
There are certain things you will want to make sure your software can provide. You should be allowed to tell the software which files and folders need to be copied. This should be a setting that allows you to adjust as you go. You may want to do a full server backup with the software on the first download you commit. Using this as a baseline for future incremental backups will decrease the time and manpower needed for the backup to take place. So your software should allow for you to make that adjustment every time you download if that is what you choose to do.
Your server backup software should also have settings for automating the backup process. This is a tricky proposition if you choose to backup when no one is around to monitor the process. But sometimes the choice of backup during the night is a necessity due to business operations taking place during the day.
Server Backup Software Security
Securing your server backup data can happen with the right software. Authentication should be enabled through the software. Authentication merely allows only those people designated to handle your data to initiate the backup. You can authenticate by company and then by user.
Encryption is the biggest security key there is these days and 128-bit encryption is one of the main reasons people are feeling good about using online backup. Your software should allow encryption and should even give you the options to encrypt. As long as the data is encrypted before it leaves your premises, and you never reveal the key to the encryption, your data should sit safely on the service's server.
