Benefits of Online Data Storage over Other Backup Solutions
- Why you should store your data online!

Many small businesses and entrepreneurs either make a half hearted attempt to back-up their data on a regular basis or they simply don't make any attempt at all.

Whether it be a genuine oversight, or simple laziness, making backups does not happen as often as it should.

The biggest part of the problem for small business owners as well as entrepreneurs lies in determining what type of backup solution best fits their needs There are a myriad of options to choose from. They range from CD-R and DVD-R media to tape drives, flash drives, portable hard drives, and other types of backup devices. Using one of these options to make backups can be frustrating and even more importantly, can be outright dangerous! Data can be lost should a disaster occur if measures are not taken to protect the backup device. For example, a fire, natural disaster, vandalism and even theft can render backup media useless or missing altogether.

In addition to the problems outlined above, tedious and time consuming intervention is required to perform the backups in the first place. Hand picking files to backup each time is a very tedious and time consuming process and is the #1 reason why backups are not performed on a regular basis.

One other thing that needs to be taken into account is file encryption. A good online data storage solution will encrypt the files for you. However, backing up files directly to a CD-R or DVD-R does not automatically provide file encryption. What's worse is if the backup drive and your computer are both stolen or vandalized at the same time. In that case, there are no file backups at all and data can *NEVER* be recovered.

Online data storage solutions, on the other hand, solve *ALL* of these problems.

With an online data storage solution, data is stored offsite so there is no potential loss of information due to fire, theft, etc.

And if the online data storage solution is good enough:

1. Your data is backed up automatically on a user specified backup schedule.

2. You don't have to hand select files to backup each time. You simply setup the types of files and folders you want to backup once, and may never need to modify these settings again.

3. The files you backup are encrypted and can not be read by anyone other than the one who has the password.

4. A secure password protection scheme is implemented and the password can never be retrieved through an automatic password recovery system or by hacking any part of the backup system.

The Small Business Administration recommends an offsite data backup solution as part of a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. Using an online data storage solution fits that need perfectly.