The idea behind this service, is to make sure that if the worst happens and your computer is physically damaged, stolen, or if it crashes and the data on it is unrecoverable for some reason, you won’t lose all your precious files because you’ll have backed them up to a location outside of your computer. The system costs £30 to buy, but Bullguard offer everyone a free 14 day trial.

There are a number of system requirements for using the software as there is with almost all software. You’ll need to have, either, Windows 7, Vista, XP or Windows 2000 running on your computer in order to use the software, and you’ll need 20MB of free space on your hard drive. You will also need a broadband internet connection, and if you are planning on using the online storage space for online backups then this will need to be a good strong connection so that data can be transferred safely and easily.

The (Bullguard Backup Service is very easy to use, when you first start your trial or use your purchased product for the first time, you are provided with a simple step by step online back up wizard that will talk you through the whole process, and once you’ve gone through it once and set everything up, online backups can be scheduled to run automatically, something Bullguard call ‘set and forget’.

When the files are being transferred onto the online storage space, they are encrypted to assure your privacy, and they remain encrypted all the while they are stored online. Once they have been backed up online however, they are then always accessible to you through secure online access.

Bullguard backup service is fully able to back up e-mail as well as all your regular files, and is fully integrated for use with Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail. This means that all the e-mails that you choose to keep, can be backed up regularly making sure that you never lose important information or people’s contact details.

Bullguard run a free 24 hour 7 days a week customer support set up, so that if at any time you have a problem, there will be help and support available to you.

Which Magazine awarded Bullguard Internet Security 9.0 their best buys status, saying ‘Bullguard’s comprehensive, easy-to-use security package is backed by an excellent online support package and is well deserving of its Best Buys status.’

Why can’t Iomega install Mozy (which is also owned by EMC) on the NAS drives they sell? I know there are some hacks to make backups from a NAS to Amazon’s S3, but I would much rather make use of the space I have at Mozy.

*rant over* Oh, and I would love suggestions in the comments for a NAS which can do automatic independent online backups!

Thumbs up for Online Backup

But most people have not yet discovered the convenience of online backups, and for those people I have decided to create a list some of the most important advantages of online backup.

• With online backup you always have a backup, whatever happens. Every day your backup is created automatically and immediately stored safely outside your home and/or business. Even after fire or burglary, you can easily get your data back with the click of a button.
• Online backup runs quietly in the background so you do not have to worry about it but it can also provides you with extensive statistics if required. After each backup you can request a comprehensive report about the backup job. You can determine at which moment of the day the backup is made, so your productivity is not affected.
• Even though you will have to pay a small fee for your online backup subscription, using online backup brings considerable cost savings since you do not have the cost of tape streamers, tapes, backup software and servers and the time you need to backup and verify. In this time of higher energy bills you can also count on a considerable saving on your energy costs since you do not need a dedicated backup server running 24/7. All these benefits account for an average saving of at least 60%.
• The backup is always ready for restore. You can restore your data at any time and at any location with a simple press of a button retrieval. Some online backup providers can even deliver your backed up data by carrier so you don’t have to wait for your backed-up data to be downloaded over the internet.
• Your data is automatically encrypted before it is sent over the secure Internet connection. The data remains stored encrypted. This is your data only for you to read.
• Making your backups online gives you peace of mind. You will no longer have to worry about backing up your data and the safety of your backup media. As your online backup provider will take care of this.

To be fair, I have to mention that as with most things in life next to all these advantages there are also downsides. The most important issue with making your backups online is the complete dependency on a broadband connection. Making the first full backup can sometimes take days, and while download speeds are usually higher than upload speeds it can still take a considerable amount of time to download your backup.

You will also have to make sure you set a very strong password on your account as the weakest link in the security chain is always the user.

What are your experiences with online backups? Can you think of any more pros and cons?

The online backup software performs regular and automatic backups of your files to avoid the loss of important information in the course of theft or loss of your computer, virus attacks, hard disk failures and other calamities.

Online Backup Diagram

For home and small business computer users, online backup services may be too expensive if the intent is to totally back up a hard drive on a frequent basis. This problem can be overcome by backing up only the most critical or often-changed files online, and using physical offsite backup methods for less important or infrequently changed files. For medium-sized and large enterprises or for particularly valuable data, the cost of online backup can prove to be a wise investment.

In a database, an online backup, more often called a hot backup or dynamic backup, is a backup performed on data even though it is actively accessible to users and may currently be in a state of being updated. Online backups can provide a perfect solution in multi-user systems because they do not require any downtime, as does a normal offline backup.