Remote Data Backup – What is it?

By | July 20, 2015

What is data backup?

Data backup is where where you pay a company to make a copy of your data. This is done on a regular basis so you are sound in the mind that all your data and critical website information is always kept safe! One of the main disadvantages of this is your data isn’t being constantly backed up. It is only transferred to CD or server at a quite time so your data will never be fully 100% backed up.

What is a remote backup?

Remote backup is now critical to businesses of all sizes that hold business sensitive data. Increased risk and web security issues have enforced the fact that it is necessary to have your data backed up on a very regular basis. Remote backup, sometimes also known as cloud backup will usually backup your files constantly throughout the day. Typically the data is compressed, encrypted and transferred to the remote data backup servers when changes are made to your data.

Advantages of Remote Data Backup

Your data is essentially stored in a different location to that of your primary data server so if there is ever a problem with the onsite servers your data will always be safe.

  • Remote backup no longer requires the use of cds or other media formats to backup your data.
  • The loss of important data is minimised as the remote backup is constantly copying across your new data.
  • Data is compressed and encrypted thus nullifying any potential security risk.
  • Many remote backup centres will maintain a log of the times of types of data that has been backed up.
  • Usually you will be granted a user account in order to access your data at any particular time, so all you will need is a username and a string password. Try to use a desktop password generator to produce a secure password. Doing this will prevent anyone else from guessing your password and being able to access your secure data.

Disadvantages of using Remote Data Backup

  • Even with modern bandwidth speeds constantly improving their is still a chance that some data will take a long time to transfer
  • If you require your data to be restored at any point this could take a long time to retrieve and although data is constantly backed up there a possibility that some data will be lost between the time of the last backup and when the retrieval request is submitted.
  • There is always the chance that a remote backup service could suddenly go out of business thus making it impossible to retrieve your data.
  • If you have no real knowledge of remote backup you will need to do some research to ensure you get exactly what you are expecting.
  • Some backup centres do not guarantee 100% privacy of your data. It is imperative that you find out from the start if your data will therefore be encrypted giving you peace of mind.

If you have any questions about remote data backup or computer repairs in Lincoln, then do get in touch with SCIS UK who are based in Lincoln in the UK.