Evaluating Online Backup Services

Online Backup Services are the by far the most effective way for business and home computer users to backup their important data to an offsite facility. Tape backup systems are no longer the most cost effective or reliable solutions. Backing up data to portable disks, CDs, and DVDs works but has some serious drawbacks when it comes to offsite storage, security and data retention. New remote backup services are coming online every month. Everyone who stores important data on computers who does not have professional IT support should be evaluating online backup services, if they are not already using one.

Below are some guidelines and important features of online data backup services that should be considered selecting a provider:

Security

This may be the single most important area that should be examined when evaluating an online data backup service provider. You obviously don't want your data stored on a web server somewhere on the Internet where it can be accessed by hackers, identity thieves, or any other unauthorized persons or entities. Almost all online data backup services provide basic levels of security that will prevent most exposures. Most of the online backup services will provide information about their data storage facilities on their websites. There are two distinct types of security that you should be looking for.

• Physical Security - the better online service providers locate their servers in secure co-location facilities. This provides excellent security for physical access to the hardware. Co-location centers provide power, bandwidth, and environmental controls to companies who lease space in their facilities. These facilities are utilized by most large companies as well as online service providers of all kinds. Good co-location facilities control access to the equipment and also use surveillance so that all access is monitored and recorded. When evaluating an online backup service, make sure the data is stored in professionally managed facilities. The server room in some leased office space is not usually secure enough to be used for online data backup. You also should be aware that some of the newer online backup services are being offered by companies who have traditionally been in another business, and they may be storing your data in facilities that were not designed for online backup services.


• Data Security - Firewalls are commonly used to protect servers and systems from unauthorized access and attacks from the Internet. All Internet service providers, including online data back up services use firewalls for basic and fundamental protection against attacks. Online data backup service providers need another level of protection to ensure that customer data is never disclosed either intentionally or accidentally. Data that is stored offsite should always be encrypted using modern and strong encryption technology. SSL is not adequate protection. SSL encrypts data while it is being transmitted, but does not offer any protection against someone gaining access to the stored data. It is absolutely essential that your data be stored in encrypted form. Do not compromise on this. Many of the online data backup service store data in encrypted form and many store data in unencrypted form. This should be stated clearly on the service providers website. Some of the better online data backup services allow you to maintain your encryption key without ever providing it to the service provider. This is an excellent way to ensure that your data is never made available to any unauthorized person, not even an employee of the service provider or a technician at the data center. It is highly recommended that you select an offsite data storage service that stores your data using strong encryption and they do not have your encryption key.

Reliability

Online data backup service providers can suffer the same hardware, software, and equipment failures as any other business. If you are going to rely on one of these providers to safeguard your data in case you have a loss of data, then you want to know that your will be available when you need it. Offsite backup storage facilities should use redundant hardware to ensure that your data will not be lost in the event of a disk or hardware failure at their facilities. Your data should be stored on redundant disk arrays at a minimum. The better online data backup services not only store your data on RAID arrays with hot spare disk, but they also replicate the data to secondary facilities to protect data in the event of loss of the entire primary facility.

Incremental Backup

All online data backup services use incremental backup to reduce bandwidth requirements. Only new files and files which have changed since the last backup need to be backed up. There are some online storage providers that were not originally designed to be data backup systems that do not directly support incremental backup. Online storage providers are different than online backup providers in that they offer a certain amount of storage on a remote server or storage system that their customers can use for anything they want to. Some online storage providers market their products as online backup solutions, but they don't have the full functionality needed to be an effective backup solution.

Delta Backup

Incremental backup limits the files copied to the offsite storage facilities to the new and modified files. Delta backup technology takes incremental to whole new level. With delta backup technology, only modified parts of large files are transmitted to the server. Email databases are a great example; the entire file may be multiple gigabytes in size, but only a small part of it changes on a daily basis. Rather than backup the entire file, only the sections that have changed are actually sent offsite where they can be assimilated into the entire file. In recent years delta file technology has become extremely efficient and reliable. If you have a need to backup large files that change frequently to an offsite data storage service, then you will find that delta backup technology is a must have.

Automation

Most backup solutions, traditional and online, provide some kind of automated scheduling mechanism to help ensure that backup jobs are run on a consistent schedule. One huge advantage to using an online data backup system to backup data to offsite storage facilities is the fact that it can be 100% automated. No backup system that involves removable media can be completely automated. While almost all true online backup services provide a way to schedule backups, there are many online storage providers that are being marketed as online backup systems which do not automatically backup your files. Eliminating human intervention, eliminates a major source of failed backups and failed backup policies. For the most reliable backups, select a service that automatically backups up your files without any need for human intervention.

Retention

Online data backup services have various policies on file retention. Some retain old and deleted files for 7 days or 30 days. Others allow for the extension of the retention period for a fee. Depending on your situation, you may have requirements for the retention of backup data. You should evaluate online and offsite data backup services to ensure that your data can be retained at the offsite facilities to meet your requirements. The better backup services allow the customer to set their own retention policies according to their needs. Some of the online services even allow the customer to specify elaborate retention policies that allow for end-of-month, end-of-quarter, and end-of-year backups to be retained for specific periods of time.

Continuous Backup

While most of the true online backup services allow for schedules to be set so that backup jobs will run automatically according to a schedule. Some of the services are providing a continuous backup system, where changed files are backed up immediately as soon as they are saved. There may be situations where this is warranted, but be aware that the processes that are running on the computer to monitor all file changes and perform backups while you are working on your computer do levy a price in terms of overhead and performance. Some online backup systems offer a good compromise to this level of backup, in that you can schedule multiple backups to occur at various times during the day. Rather than monitor all file activity and start backups immediately, they wake up and check at predetermined times to see if any files need to be backed up. This is usually much more efficient and less likely to affect performance.

Notification

You should never assume that no news is good news when it comes to backing up your data. Automation of backups is essential to eliminating the manual procedures that often break down over time, leaving data vulnerable. Automation must be complemented by a notification system to alert the appropriate persons when backups fail. In addition to notifications of errors, online backup systems have the unique ability to notify you when the backup job itself does not run. This is a significant advantage to using a professional online backup service. When your computer fails to contact the backup system and perform a scheduled backup, the server systems at the offsite data storage facilities should notify you that a scheduled backup was missed. A good email notification system is an important component of an online backup system.

Price / Plans

Finally, pricing and plans. While price is important to most of us, it shouldn't be the primary factor in selecting an online backup service provider. Having reliable backup copies of your data in a high-security and high-reliability offsite data storage facility should be the primary concern. Most of the features discussed above are essential to ensuring that your data will be secure and available when needed. With that said, there are widely varying prices of services available. You should determine the type of service that meets your requirements and then shop around for the best value.

Be aware that some services may have hidden costs that are not apparent in their pricing and plans. Some providers charge fees for bandwidth utilization, others charge fees for restores, and yet some use bandwidth throttling to keep their costs down. Another factor that can have a significant impact on the price is how the provider charges for storage, some providers quote storage allocations assuming that you certain data compression ratios will be achieved. We prefer the providers that allocate the amount of storage that you pay for and then let you store compressed files in the space you paid for.

Conclusion

Backing up computer data should be taken seriously. Online data backup services are an effective and reliable way to handle offsite backup. The cost is usually very affordable compared to using traditional methods. All online service providers are not the same. You should determine which features and criteria are needed to meet your requirements and then visit the websites of the providers to find a service that meets your needs. There are a number of reasonably price providers that are very good.

The Truth About Digital Photos

A customer called recently and said "I think I lost most of my digital photos." This is never a good way to start a conversation! I rushed over to his home and after about 15 minutes I determined that he was using the Kodak EasyShare software to organize his photos. After importing his photos into the software he had deleted the originals from his hard drive. Unfortunately, he did not understand that the software does not actually import a copy of the photo but rather just creates a thumbnail and reference back to the original file. Once he deleted the originals the link was broken, making him think that he had lost his photos.

While this was a easy fix (I just restored the photos from the Recycle Bin) I had an opportunity to discuss digital photos and their management with the guy. I asked him a simple question; " who are you taking these photos for?" "My children and grand-children," was his reply. I pointed out to him that what he was really trying to do was save these photos for the next 50-100 years. That comment got his attention!

While taking digital photos is very convenient, much more so then traditional photos, this convenience comes at a cost. Now we have more photos that we have to manage, and managing digital photos is very time consuming! With digital photos we just can't throw them in a shoe box or a drawer. We are forced to try and manage them in their digital form.

Let me ask you a few questions. Do you think that your grandchildren will have access to a CDRom in 50 years? If you store the photos on DVD's do you think that there will be DVD players in 50 years? The reality is that a typical home computer that would be used to store digital photos is expected to last 3-5 years and then is replaced. Are you going to remember to transfer all your photos? What if the hard drive crashes? How much money are you going to spend trying to recover these photos? If you upload your photos to the web do you think that site will still be online in 50 years?

As you can tell, the convenience of taking digital photos means that you now have to spend a lot more time managing and preserving these photos for your children and grandchildren. So what do you do? These are my recommendations:

1. Have an online backup plan for the digital form of your photos. This is the best way to protect your photos from hard drive crashes and will allow you to easily restore the photos when you upgrade your computer.

2. Do not think that you have to preserve every photo that you take. Identify the really good ones and delete the others.

3. Read the manuel or the help files for the software that you wish to use to manage your photos. You are going to invest lots of time with this software, so take the time to understand its capabilities and much more importantly, its shortcomings!

4.Identify the photos that you want to preserve for posterity and have them professionally printed and store them in an album or drawer. The reality is that paper still lasts a lot longer than digital media.

5. Talk with a professional photographer and find out what software he uses to mange his media.

If you take the time to follow these simple recommendations you will have achieved the best incorporation of new and old technologies for dealing with and managing your photos for today and tomorrow. You children and grandchildren will thank you.

Saving Money on IT

Small Businesses usually manage expenses carefully. Some expenses cannot be avoided, like rent, telephones, and taxes. Others can be minimized by carefully selecting vendors and using low cost providers. And then some expenses can be avoided all-together by doing it yourself. I am sure you have heard the stories of small business owners doing their own office cleaning to save the money for the cleaning services. I know a car wash owner who occasionally helps vacuum out cars rather than hire another part-time employee.

One area that is often skimped on in small businesses is IT and computer support. Good IT help is not cheap and many business owners and employees know enough about computers and networks to get systems set up and running. The other problem with IT help is that there are a lot of consultants and freelancers who will do the job, but they are barely more competent than the business owner or his nephew. I am not intending to slam the IT consultants, it's a complex world and special skills are needed to properly care for a small business computing environment. The business owners are just as responsible for any problems if they are not willing to pay the full price for the proper equipment and services.

The lack of good IT support in small businesses exposes the business to losses due to outages and downtime caused by less than optimal configuration and procedures. Those costs are the ones that most business owners look at when they decide how much risk they have by using low cost IT equipment and services. A business owner may determine that he is willing to tolerate a few hours of downtime every couple of months, if it saves thousands in cost.

The problem that I see is that most small business owners are not aware of the most devastating consequence of skimping on IT. That is the potential loss of critical data. I think the business people have a fairly good concept of how valuable the data is, and the consequences of losing it. I just don't think they realize how vulnerable they are to a permanent data loss on any given day. There are so many events and circumstances that could cause data to be lost that the typical computer user has never thought of. On the other hand, experienced IT professionals, who have experience in business environments know that any data can be lost at any time and processes and systems must be designed so that important data can be recovered when a loss occurs.

Good IT people know that data loss is inevitable and the only way to protect against devastating consequences is to store current backup copies of all critical data offsite. Data backup and recovery is not something to be left to chance. A prudent person would not drive a car without insurance because if an accident occurs the costs can be overwhelming. So why would an otherwise intelligent person, risk permanent loss of critical data that could cripple their business? Furthermore, the data loss event is almost a certain eventuality, whereas most of us will never be involved in a serious automobile accident. The answer lies in the fact that the business owner is not fully aware of the exposure and risk. Skimping on effective and competent IT is often much worse than driving with no insurance.