Online Backup - What's all the fuss about?

A brief 'demystification' of online backup

When the American Hard-drive manufacturing giant, Seagate purchased Online Backup provider, E-Vault for $185 million (USD) in 2007, it caused quite a stir.

This was a huge departure from their traditional business of manufacturing hardware storage devices. The purchase sent a clear signal that Seagate saw the future of information storage as being service-based, rather than hardware based. They were right.

HP, Dell and Iomega have all followed suit with their own acquisitions in the USA market. In New Zealand, Nexus leads the way as the largest Online Backup provider.

These bold acquisitions signalled the beginning of the Online Backup revolution that has changed the way businesses think about Information backup, storage and protection. Rather than continuing with a ‘DIY’ solution to information protection, businesses can now cost-effectively outsource the task to specialists. Although the service is relatively new to New Zealand, businesses are adopting the idea in their hundreds. Here’s why.

Security

All businesses have confidential information and the cost of losing it is usually devastating. Just think, more than 60% of businesses are forced to liquidate following a major data loss .

In addition to business protection, the medical industry has a particular responsibility to protect information about their clients (patients). Most medical practices store names, addresses, medications, history and other highly confidential details about their clients. For them, protecting the data from loss is secondary to preventing its misappropriation. Imagine a felon with interests in a ‘P’ lab, acquiring a list of your clients’ addresses and medication. The risk to their safety is real, not to mention the attention the media give to such data breaches. Just ask the police…

The majority of businesses in the medical sector give inadequate thought to how they protect computer information. Backup procedures often comprise copying data to a portable device and the owner, or trusted staff member, takes it home with them. The number of these devices that are lost, stolen or damaged is staggering. USB pen drives are a target for thieves as they often contain useful, confidential information. Hundreds of them turn up at drycleaners too.

Online backup solves the security problem. The information gets encrypted before leaving your computer, meaning it would be useless to anyone who got hold of it. The information is then transmitted across a secure internet connection, solving the problem of getting it offsite. Finally, it is stored in a vault-like storage facility, and replicated across an array of servers to prevent against hardware failure.

Automation

If you’re going on holiday, the checklist probably includes bags, passport, tickets, credit card etc. Great, but who runs the backup while you are away? Do they know what they are doing? Does the backup go offsite? Where?

Overcoming these issues may actually be relatively minor – find someone you trust, and give them a system to follow. Trouble is, the system itself may be flawed. In a study carried out by Nexus in 2008, it was revealed that up to 30% of manual backup systems would likely fail. This was often because the wrong files were copied, were copied incorrectly or the device itself was faulty. In many cases, the data itself was not restorable. It’s far too late to discover this kind of problem when your computer is smouldering in the corner of the room and you urgently need the information back.

Semi-automated systems were actually found to be worse – these were usually automated tape or hard-drive systems. Because of the lack of reporting and feedback from the system, they failed to notify anyone when the device was full, or failed. They are rarely checked, as it is assumed that they perform their duties unabated.

Online backup systems will always perform their tasks on a schedule and have multiple systems in place to prevent failure. The backup storage server is expecting your computer to backup at a certain time. If it does not receive the backup, it will notify you by email. Supervising technicians are also alerted and are able investigate the issue. Once the data is received on the storage server, it is checked for validity – ensuring that it can be successfully restored when needed.

Availability

Offsite backup can be somewhat of a paradox. If you are running a good manual backup system, then you will have taken your backup to an offsite location. When you need it back though, you have to go there and get it. This can be a waster of valuable time. Plus, the backup may not be accessible – eg; if it is at your home, but you are on holiday.

This is where Online Backup has a distinct and immediate advantage. All files are readily available for restoration, without you even needing to leave your computer. Additionally, this task can often be performed by a technician through a remote connection to your computer. Files can also be restored via a web browser if required.

Nexus Online Backup has unlimited, customisable retention. This means that the system will store a daily snapshot of every single file. It also keeps files that you have deleted. Typically, it is recommended to keep daily versions of accounting files for 365 days (or 7 years if you’re really diligent). Unless you have 365 USB pen drives, you simply cannot achieve the same thing.

Chillax

A customer used that phrase on me a few days ago. I think it comes from “chill out” and “relax”. Anyway, I liked it. I think it sums up the benefits of the Online Backup system. Chillax, it’s all taken care of.

Peter Thomas, Chief Executive, Nexus Data Limited