While local backup is important and highly recommended, it does have its downfalls. As an example, I was doing an initial consult for a new client last year, and discovered that while employees had been dutifully swapping out tapes every day, the backup itself had been failing for over 3 years. This included all of their financial data and accounting. Needless to say, we rectified that issue immediately.

In that particular case, the issue can be mitigated by using a backup software that sends alerts on the backup status each day. But other issues remain: what happens if the building burns down, or there is a natural disaster? How is that data protected?

One way is by using an online backup service. There are 2 main kinds: one that protects the data, and the other that not only protects the data, but allows you the ability to restore–using that backup–even onto dissimilar hardware. For the purposes of this page, I’ll be focusing on the former as a lower-cost alternative.

Online backup is only as good as the particular service and its software client. It must be secure, both in protecting your data, but also in transmission of the data. Datacenters need to be geographically dispersed. It must allow for multiple methods of retrieving data. And it must be reliable.

$6.95/system/month + $.35/GB storage.

For example, let’s say you are currently backing up 50GB of data on your server: $6.95+ (50x$.35)=$6.95+$17.50=$24.45. That’s it.

This backup utilizes Amazon Storage, so it is extremely redundant; uses up to 4096-bit encryption, so it is secure (and adhere to HIPAA standards); allows for recovery from both client and web; backs up open files, SQL databases, and Exchange.