A remote or online backup solution is the way forward for off-site data protection. Due to regulatory compliance some corporations are holding back from going to this direction, however, much work is being made in this area and soon we have providers that will provide such conformity. On the other hand, the majority of SMBs that have no specific regulatory requirements and certainly most households should consider this platform as their main off-site backup solution.

Nevertheless, SMBs and households should not forget to backup their data locally first and then use a remote storage location as a second means of protection - my advice is:

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1. To perform regular Data backups locally, on some reliable and inexpensive media but most importantly is to use a different storage media other than the local drive.
2. Then move/archive this data off-site – again using a reliable, secure and economical solution

I have come across a couple of online backup providers that lack comprehensive management tools. When I say comprehensive I mean ample features that allow end users to monitor the backup/restore process and check for errors, costs and edit account details.

Such as, a user-friendly Web-based GUI (graphical user interface) that provides the following information:

1. That shows and logs the successful completion of backup and restore jobs
2. For failed jobs one should be able to view a brief but complete explanation of what went wrong in plain English and not a series of error codes
3. That shows the storage space consumed and the remaining space if the account is limited by space quota. Graphical statistics would give a good overview such as, usage per day, month, etc
4. Timestamps for the backed up data that will help the end user identify the right data in case a data recovery is needed
5. A section (tab) with all the billing and payment details without disclosing any critical information
6. A personal account section where one can change passwords, email address, quota settings if any and other account related settings.

Last 3 posts by George

• Backup considerations for Microsoft SharePoint - July 26th, 2010
• What is Cloud Computing? - July 19th, 2010
• Is Cloud computing getting safer? - July 13th, 2010