Back in 1996 at the Internet Company I worked at, we had a customer that was developing backup software that would transfer your encrypted backups to a server on the Internet. Slow, expensive, and not user friendly.
In 2008 however, our options are far better! There are many companies offering this for personal and business use. They are fast, safe, more reliable and inexpensive compared to traditional backup methods.
Advantages
Some of our customers have asked why they should move to this solution instead of using their existing backup software, and the media (tapes, CDs, external hard drives). While those solutions have been good, here are a few things to think about:
- No more maintenance of a software package with annual service agreements.
- No reliance on hardware in your posession.
- Removal of the “human element” to take your backups offsite. This is one of the BIGGEST causes of data loss in today’s IT world, the “human element”.
- Your data is stored in Level 4 Data Centers
- Less labor paid to your IT Company (like Verus). You’re investing in a product instead of labor. We always recommend this if possible.
- Many more!
Here are a couple of products that we have some experience with, and like:
Dell DataSafe Online
The first one I’ve tested is Dell’s DataSafe Online product. You can get a certain amount for free with the purchase of some new home, or small business products. You can also purchase it separately. It installs a small client on your PC, and you easily choose what to backup, and schedule when you want it to backup. It encrypts the files, and sends them up to their data center(s) on the Internet. Storage starts at 3GB for $9.00 per year.
Mozy.com
Mozy is a service that’s owned by EMC, so you can feel safe that it’s backed by a company with a good history and plenty of capital. They have products for personal and business use. One advantage of Mozy is that you can specify you own “Encryption Key”, so that even Mozy can’t read your data! It is similar to Dell’s DataSafe in that there’s a small program you install on your workstation or server, however there are more configuration options to choose from. The online reporting is nice to look at what’s going on with your backups. Personal plans are $4.95 per month for unlimited storage. So all the pictures, email, and videos your Internet connection can handle! MozyPro for businesses starts at $6.95 + $1.75 per GB per month. This also backs up Exchange, SQL Server, Active Directory, etc…
There are many other services out there that we haven’t tried, these are the two we’re used, and are very happy with. If you are interested in taking your backups to the next level, give us a call, and we’ll help you get started!
