Online Backup Snapshot

What is online backup?
An online data backup service is a proven alternative to traditional optical or tape backup solutions.

Businesses understand the need to protect their most valuable business asset. It is too easy to become victim to human error, PC crash, a virus, malicious actions, flood, fire, theft or loss of a PC.

Traditional backup solutions can be effective, but require capital expenditure and internal staff to maintain and operate them. There are generally considered a hassle - especially during a crisis when key data is to be recovered quickly.

Online data backup is a refreshing and modern solution to the niggling and critical process of backup.

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What are the benefits of online backup?
It is often said that online backup is cheaper, faster and better than traditional solutions:

Cheaper -

• No capital outlay, payments on a monthly basis 
• No set up fees nor license fees 
• Zero or very low running costs 
• No internal/external staff time needed for backup or recovery 
• No tape storage costs

Faster -

• Setup and installation is simple and complete within minutes of downloading the software
• Near instant recovery of data in case of need
• No need to wait to find the right tape nor waiting for the IT person to find the time to recover lost data

Better -

• Daily automated backup provide maximum protection and no hassle
• Multiple versions backed up, ensuring fine-grain protection
• Instant recovery means less down-time and less lost productivity
• Anywhere web-access to backed up files for mobile users
• Works with small servers and individual PCs / Laptops
• World-class, secure technology and data centres
• Ability to share files with co-workers, clients or home PCs

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How does online backup work?
A small software agent is installed on the PC or Server to be backed up. This software helps you select which data is to be backed up, it then manages the connection to the internet and the encryption / compression of the data prior to transferring it to the secure data centres. It provides a simple method to view and restore backed up documents as well as viewing log files to review activity.

Scheduled or manual backup
- Backups can be set for hassle-free daily backup or can be performed at any time with a single click. 
Security
- Security is provided through secure-sockets connections to the data centres, 128-bit encryption and account passwords.
Efficient data transmission
- Compression and block-level incremental backups ensure on-going backups are efficient and non-intrusive.
Anytime, anywhere access to restore data
- Backed up data can be accessed via the software agent 24 hours a day or via a web browser when travelling away from the office.
CD restore option
- CD's can be ordered containing a copy of the software agent, as well as all backed up data in case of complete PC / disk loss or for archiving.
File sharing
- For those with multiple PCs, it is possible to grant sharing permissions to others. This is a highly secure process, which allows co-workers to share key documents, service providers to share key data with clients and tele-workers to access office and home data in a secure, protected manner.

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Who uses online backup?
Online Backup is used by businesses including lawyers, accountants, consulting organisations, finance intermediaries, manufacturers, schools and universities, retail organisations, distributors, not-for-profit and service organisations.

Businesses of all sizes with a broad band internet connection can benefit, ranging from independent workers, SOHO environments, branch offices, large enterprises, local and national government.

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What are the limitations of online backup?
Online Backup relies upon an internet connection. Although this can be a traditional dial-up or ISDN connection for smaller data volumes, it is ideally suited to permanent broadband connections such as ADSL, Cable, DSL and Leased Lines. These have the advantage of faster throughput, no additional usage charges and the ability to handle significantly larger volumes of data.

Typically a dial-up and ISDN connection will handle up to 500MB of data, typical ADSL / Cable will work well for up to 10GB of data. DSL and Leased Lines can handle significantly more capacity across multiple computers, depending upon the actual bandwidth available.

A second limitation of online backup is that the initial backup can take some time to perform. This is because a complete copy of the data must be encrypted, compressed and copied to the secure data centres. Subsequent daily backups will be significantly faster because the software will only send file changes to the data centres, which will typically be at a 'block' level within a file i.e. if a change is made to document previously backed up, only the change to that document is sent, not the whole document.

Perceived limitations of online backup are security and costs, although these are not significant when fully understood.

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Is online backup secure?
Online backup is very secure. Only secure connections are made to the data centres, data is encrypted to 128-bit level (military grade) before transmission, thus making it effectively impossible to intercept and decrypt the data.

Customers have a secret password, an account number and an encryption key to ensure that only they can access their data.

The data centres themselves are class-A facilities, making use of fire suppression, security cameras, ID access controls, backup generators, multiple ISPs and high-end firewalls. Clustering and mirroring technologies are deployed to ensure the data is always available.

All these combine to ensure a service that is usually considerably more secure than the client's own environment.

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How much does online backup cost?
Online backup is charged for on a per computer per month basis, although companies with multiple computers typically pay one fixed fee for all their machines.

There is no setup fee and no software license fee, nor are there additional charges for data transfer and recovery.

Prices start at £10 per month for a PC with 500MB of data, £20 per month for 4GB of data and £35 per month for 10GB of data with additional system file protection. An organisation with multiple PCs can combine these prices to cover all their machines.

Servers requiring larger volumes (up to 50GB per server) cost more and prices are available on request.

When comparing prices with a traditional tape system, is it necessary to include the administration costs for a tape system. At 20 minutes per day, this can mean 10 days of work for an administrator - at least £1500 per year in costs. This is on top of the costs to purchase and maintain software, hardware and tapes, which can become redundant over time.

In summary, online backup is cheaper, faster and better than traditional tape solutions - so why not try it risk-free for 15 days?