Small Business Toolkit for Busy Entrepreneurs
Businesses can no longer afford the risk of storing important data only on their computers or on premises. More than ever, data has become a business' lifeblood in today's technological world, and protecting it very essential. In todays Small Business Toolkit for Busy Entrepreneurs series blog we are going to a take look at Online File Backup Options. In early days businesses used to rely on magnetic tape, floppy discs and later on CD and HDD as data backup options, today online data backup is gaining popularity. Let us examine the reasons behind it.
Why Online Data Backup?
Data backup provides assurance of business continuity by guaranteeing availability of all critical data in an event of disaster such as computer damage or stolen. But it will be useless, if data is not saved offsite location and business be inaccessible due to fire, floods or any other disaster. Online Data Backup offers this safety.
Another advantage of Online Data Backup service is data is constantly being backed up without the need for user input. Other features include archiving, incremental backups and file managers.
Online data backup services also give business owners and employees the ability to access data from remote locations. Some Online Backup Providers even provide Mobile Apps, allowing businesses to access and change data from a smartphone or tablet.
Security of Online Data Backup
While Online Data Backup very convenient, Security of data is most important. In order to ensure the data is protected while it's being transferred to and from the backup location, online data backup providers use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol when transferring data with 128-bit SSL encryption.
Some Online Backup service even provides geo-redundant storage to help protect the data. This type of storage keeps two copies of backup files. Each one is in a different geographical location, so if something happens at one location, the copy is still safe at the second.
Benefits of Online Data Backup
In summary, there are a number of benefits for small business of using Online Data Backup.
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Very cost effective over other backup options such as external Hard Drive, or Network Backup Devices or CD.
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Automated backup procedures, no need to invest your time or worry of forgetting.
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Incremental backups, which only copies new data or changes that have been made to already backed-up files.
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Data is stored in an offsite location. Should a disaster strike a business location, the data is protected.
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Online data backup services also store multiple copies of the data in different geographical locations, giving the business owner extra protection.
Though there are many advantages of Online Backup, small business owners must consider few drawbacks while deciding Online Backup Service Provider.
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Essentially you are entrusting your sensitive data to the service provider. So possible risk of your data falling in wrong hands.
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Internet speed. If it isn't fast enough, either it will choke your bandwidth or your data may not completely backup.
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If the online backup provider suddenly stops operating, a business may never be able to retrieve those files.
So be carefull when you look for an Online Data Backup Service provider. Our choice of Online Backup Providers for Small Business are Google Drive and Dropbox.
Please let us know your prefered Online Backup Provider in comment section.
Other topics from Small Business Toolkit for Busy Entrepreneurs series: