Six advantages of using online file backup

To those of you who are already making their backups online, the advantages are surely obvious.

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 cloud storage 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?

Tags: advantages, online backup

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 8:50 am and is filed under online backup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.