Is Online Backup Really Better?

How safe is your method of backing up critical data?

It has been an interesting couple of years watching the development of online backup services in Australia and most importantly seeing the actual demand grow.Choosing the right solution is obviously important because swapping them isn’t as easy as installing a new piece of software on a few PCs.

Statistics (can’t remember exactly were I read this) suggest that if a business has a major data failure, it is 80 per cent more likely to fail within 3 years.

So what is online backup?

Some people see it as a replacement, I see it as a compliment to existing/traditional backup services such as tapes, drives, USB sticks and even CD/DCDs used for backing up critical business data.

Online backup providers use multiple, secure, replicating data servers that are sometimes located locally or in many cases overseas where your data is transferred and for you in real time over the internet. Most importantly its not just a once off transfer, its an initial backup of all files and then a regular backup what changes from day to day (or even hour to hour). The business benefits are huge.

There are many inherent problems with what were the only real alternatives for backup in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The problems included failure of hardware and the human error. As we all know, as soon as humans are introduced into an equation, mistakes will be made which is why your disaster recovery strategies and systems should be as far removed as possible from humans. More human element equals more exposure to risk.

Also, the biggest risk faced (bigger than human failure) is that backup that is stored onsite is really not offering much protection should the building suffer a break in or fire or flooding. Backup needs to be kept offisite away from the premises. You can also add to the failure of many businesses to actually test their disaster recovery strategies.

The bottom line is: a business without backup is an accident waiting to happen.

Online saves on downtime

So why use online? One factor is the amount of downtime involved with using any of the old backup systems, even if you have a successful backup routine, is at least a minimum of several hours if not several days.

Online backup solutions, however, remove the human element, along with any concerns over hardware failure and they reduce the downtime you do have if things go wrong. Also, when all costs are taken into account, they can actually work out to be pretty cost effective for your business. Personally, I think online backup is a no-brainer for any small to medium sized Australian business.

What do you need to look out for? When you are running your initial upload, you need to keep a eye on your ISP data usage as it is easy to blow your monthly quota. The options you have are to update your broadband plan, wear the cost or simply split the upload over a few months doing the most important files first.

Some guidelines when looking for a provider:
•   The location of the servers may be important for some. Providers with servers in the US will be much cheaper than those with servers in Australia. Its an issue of scale.
•   Incremental updates. Some providers will take a snapshot of your drives every day and upload them. Others will simply do incremental updates. The more control you have over this the better.
•   Multiple replications across tier 1 data centres.
•   Sliding scale for data usage. This means that if you do go over your allowances, you either get notified immediately or shift plans immediately to ensure you are never in danger. Some companies simply cap the data and then do not upgrade you automatically. This means some of your data does not get backed up.
•   Online ability to get your data when things do go wrong
•   Clear ability to show which parts of your systems are and are not being backed up. If it fails and they fail, culpability has to sit with the provider 100 per cent. Conversely, if you fail to have key parts of your data backed up because you either stored it in the wrong place or did not inform the provider of its importance, the fault should lie squarely with you.

This is an outsourcing relationship, so the more clarity there is around responsibility, ownership and timings, the better the relationship will be.