Are online backup and recovery solutions cheaper than the counterpart traditional solutions? Before I deal with this argument I would like to point out a few points: – online backups provide an offsite disaster recovery solution, you can access your data from anywhere given that you have an internet connection and additionally, you will be enjoying the expertise and the scalability of big vendors.

Online backups offer cheaper costs per GB for the same functionality because you only pay for what you use. :) The costs include the storage used, bandwidth consumed and other related services. Data security is based on the latest encryption algorithms and adequate auditing features would place the end-user’s mind at rest!

A typical SMB that generates a full backup of say, 600GB of data would need an initial expense consisting of an entry level LTO-3 storage drive and an entry level server plus a couple of LTO-3 tape cartridges. Such setup would permit the full backup to be completed in about three hours and the need of one IT staff to be present to swop the tapes if compressing the data is not good enough to fit all data on one tape.

The Initial capital or better the total purchase cost for a similar tape solution would be about $3600. Therefore, the initial cost per GB would be of $6 per GB. If we assume that the above mentioned setup would run for a period of three whole years without entering into additional expenses such as, maintenance and repair costs (which is highly unlikely), then the cost per GB would be much lower. However, one would need to include the IT staff, space requirements and electricity expenses into the costs equation.

On the other hand, an online backup solution requires a good and stable internet connection, especially with regards to upload speeds. Various service providers provide services to move the initial large volumes of data through other means and hence, at cheaper rates. However, if an SMB had to implement this solution, it would cost him/her about $360 to transfer the initial 600GB of data which would yield a cost of 0.60c per GB. As already noted, an adequate internet connection is a must since an internet connection with an upload speed of 2Mbps would take a month to upload a full data backup of about 600GB. This may not be practical; however, alternate arrangements can be made with the provider to shift the initial data!

Conclusion: – An online backup solution has a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) when compared to an internal solution.

Last 3 posts by George

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