This blog is dedicated to cloud backup experts to share their knowledge in online backup software and everything that has to do with any new technologies available for cloud backup solutions for disaster recovery.
What is online backup?
Today we all save many data to our computers, different kind of files based on our work and preferences. Some people have lots of photos others lots of documents and emails and others all of the kind of different files. You are definitely not alone and probably you have many MB or gigabytes of valuable data on your personal computer. We all be troubled about our valuable data safety and backup methods are becoming more and more of a necessity than a simple procedure.
Everybody now turns to cloud backup or what people are commonly refer to it, Online Backup. So in this article we will explain what is online backup and how it works? We will see how you can choose a backup service provider and ensure that your valuable digital life will be safe forever.
Traditional Backup
A backup is a process of copying your data to another location using different kind of media. Traditional backup methods are tapes, CDs/DVDs and external hard disks. So let’s say you are a professional photographer and you have covered a wedding and you have stored in your camera hundred photos of the special day of the new married couple.
Apparently, you transfer the photos from your camera to your personal computer. In order to avoid any disasters and lose your work, you backup your computer data to an external media such a DVD. That DVD is called your backup and you can use it in case your computer hard disk crashes so you will avoid any data loss.
Online Backup
Online Backup is a way of backing up your data to a secure offsite and remote location via your existing internet connection. Backup software is installed onto a computer or server which will compress, encrypt and then backup your chosen files to an offsite and totally secure storage infrastructure. Should the worst happen then your data can then be recovered back to its existing location or to a different location.
With Online backup you gain the following advantages over any traditional backup method:
- You will not suffer if you lost the data stored on your PC or notebooks and you ensure that recovery from the online backup provider is going to work 100%
- Forget the hassle and frustration of using USB keys, CDS/DVDs or tapes for backups.
- Peace of mind knowing your data is always safe and secure and most of all 100% recoverable.
- Ability to instantly retrieve lost or deleted files over the internet
How does online backup work?
Lots of online backup providers are out there and they differ in technology they use, the backup software they provide and the service that they offer.
Nevertheless, to register with an online backup service is quite the same process:
Step 1: Account creation
First you have to decide which online backup provider you will register with. Check what software they use and contact them to ask any questions you have. Make sure that your cloud backup provider has the FIPS 140-2 certification that ensures secure encryption of your data through the transmission of your data over the internet.
Usually you can go through their FAQ section and lots of your basic questions will be answered. Very important is to check if they are powered by Asigra the no1 cloud backup provider of the market. Backup Easy is an online backup provider that is powered by Asigra and offer affordable prices to home users and small medium companies.
Backup Easy online backup provider offer packages from 25 GB to 1 TB to really affordable prices using the Asigra technology that ensures reliability, speed and security through FIPS 140-2 certification. Moreover, make sure that your provider software uses deduplication, meaning that any existing data you have twice on your computer will cleverly backed up only once. Finally, make sure that your provider does not offer web client recovery because this is not a proper backup security since web clients are fragile and easily hacked.
Once you create an account you can decide whether 25 GB is enough or if you want to buy a bigger package that gives you a lot more online storage. Also you can use their instant backup calculator to estimate the backup storage you will need based on your data.
Make sure that the backup software is working with the Operating System you have installed on your computer by checking the system Requirements of the Asigra software.
Step 2: Download & Install the backup software
The online backup provider will send you an email with all the details how to download the software and install it. Once you install it you can start sending data to the remote locations through your internet connection.
Step 3: Create your initial backup Plan and schedule backups
Many backup software have simple wizard screen that you can follow and create your backup plans. Asigra made it easy with these wizards and will guide you to create your first backup plan and also give you the option to schedule your future backups to run on different time intervals.
Step 4: Initial Backup may take few days until is complete
Be patient because through your internet connection it will upload your backup data to the remote servers and that may take some hours or days based on your connection upload speed. This does not really matter because once data are uploaded; BackupEasy software will do incremental backups and add any new data you saved on your PC in few minutes. The average GB you can upload per day as mentioned above can be varied but from a normal connection it can be between 4 - 6 GB per day.
Step 5: The Restore Day
Once you experience failure, hard drive crash, PC is damaged or stolen at least you have a peace of mind that your data is safe and you an download them fast to any location you like.
There are two ways that online backup providers can offer you to restore your data through a web client.
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I recommend not to choose a provider that gives you this option since it is against the backup principles, since web portals are fragile and anybody can log in to that.Through the re-installation of the software to a different machine.
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This is the best backup method to restore since nobody has a web access to your data and this is the actual principle of backup, to safeguard your daa from external sources.
Restore from a backup software is fast and you can select to download the files you need most to restore and slowly to build up your restorable data. Backup to cloud is simple and easy and the most handy way of storing and securing your valuable digital life. Finally, focus on your work without worrying about your digital life with as low as 0.13 cent per day.
