Every year, thousands of people and businesses lose data due to system failures, hard drive crashes, or simply user error.
Due to the unpredictable nature of data loss, the best defence against losing your critical information is to regularly back up your files and store the data elsewhere.
There are many different ways to store your data and one of the best options is to use an online (or remote) data backup service.
There are a large number of online services who will store your data for a reasonable fee.
Online backup service is usually directed by software that you can store on your computer which will save your files to a remote server.
The files are sent through a secure internet connection to ensure the safety and integrity of the data.
Once you download the software, you'll have a chance to customize your options via the installation wizard.
You can choose to back up every file on your computer, or chose specific folders.
The software monitors your files and backs them up whenever they are created or changed.
Online Data Backup Features Here are some of the features common to most online data backup services: Data Encryption.
Before you send sensitive files over the internet, they should be encrypted to prevent it from being stolen or hacked.
Online data storage companies can store the data in its encrypted state, so it's unreadable even if someone were to access it.
You should use your own encryption key and keep it to yourself to prevent data leaks.
Continuous Data Protection.
Online data backup services can back up your files continuously or at scheduled times.
For most users, setting a predetermined schedule such as once per day at a specified time is enough to protect you against losing large amounts of data.
File-by-File Restore.
This feature lets you restore files without the assistance of a service provider, as long as you know the name and folder of the file you wish to restore.
In some cases, you can search for the files by name, date, or other criteria.
Multiple versioning.
Most services will allow you to store multiple versions of the same file.
For example if you have a file or database that you update regularly, you can go back and see what past versions of the file looked like at a certain date and time.
Redundancy.
This allows you to have more than one copy of your data stored in different places.
This redundancy significantly reduces the chance the backup service will lose your data.
Network and server backup.
Many services allow you to backup several computers on a network or backup a server.
This is particularly important for businesses that have large amounts of data spread among multiple computers.
Backup Management Services.
Some services provide assistance to their customers for things such as initial configuration, continuous monitoring, failure alerts and restoration and recovery.
Permanent storage.
Some providers will store your data for as long as you maintain your subscription.
Others will only save it for a specified period of time.
Either way, you should make sure that you know the terms of you contract before you sign anything so that you don't get caught by surprise.
Advantages of Online Backup There are many advantages to using an online backup service.
Here are some of the most useful: It's automatic.
Data storage programs automatically store your data when it's created or altered, so you don't have to remember to back it up manually.
Files stored in a remote location.
Your files are stored in an offsite location and are therefore immune to any problems you experience that can affect your data, such as power outages or surges, fires, floods or computer theft.
Unlimited data retention.
You're not restricted to a specific volume of data, you can store as much as you need.
Version control.
Most online backup programs keep a list of all the versions of your key computer files.
Safety.
Most online programs use data encryption to keep your files secure.
If they don't, you're better off to find a service that does.
Unencrypted files may be seen by employees of the data storage company and they may also be vulnerable to hackers.