The 3-2-1 philosophy
Do you have a current backup? From past experience, I would guess that less than 20% of people have a good backup strategy in place. Online backup options have increased in number and have been greatly simplified over the last few years, so there is no reason not to protect your data. But which one to choose?
One popular take on this subject is the 3:2:1 backup philosophy. 3 copies of your data - on 2 different types of media - with 1 existing off-site. Simple and effective.
There are many online solutions that are fairly inexpensive on an annual cost basis. Some Internet providers offer up to 2 GB of storage free. There are "Cloud-Based" online solutions such as Microsoft SkyDrive, Google, Dropbox "or others" that also exist. That's cheap insurance and peace of mind when you begin talking about losing all of your pictures or customer files. The three most popular online solutions support encryption - both in transfer and on their servers, as well as duplication of your online backup to a local external hard drive. Let's break down how this fits the 3-2-1 philosophy:
One popular take on this subject is the 3:2:1 backup philosophy. 3 copies of your data - on 2 different types of media - with 1 existing off-site. Simple and effective.
There are many online solutions that are fairly inexpensive on an annual cost basis. Some Internet providers offer up to 2 GB of storage free. There are "Cloud-Based" online solutions such as Microsoft SkyDrive, Google, Dropbox "or others" that also exist. That's cheap insurance and peace of mind when you begin talking about losing all of your pictures or customer files. The three most popular online solutions support encryption - both in transfer and on their servers, as well as duplication of your online backup to a local external hard drive. Let's break down how this fits the 3-2-1 philosophy:
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3 copies of your data: You've got one on your C:, one on "Online servers", and one on your external hard drive or DVD media.
2 types of media: You've got copies of your data on locally accessible hard drives, plus another copy "Online" or on DVD. 1 copy off-site: Again, Mozy, Carbonite and Dropbox are all "Off-Site" storage facilities. If your home or office experienced flooding or fire, you've already got an up-to-date copy of your data elsewhere. |
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Do your Backups work? Scratched DVD or CD
Don't wait until you need it. Do your backups actually work?
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Backing up online is far more secure
The average user can't come close to achieving the level of security offered by the top online computer backup service providers. Carbonite and Mozy, for example, use state-of-the-art data storage centers and security methods to fully safeguard your valuable information.
With the risk of hardware failure, accidental deletion, theft, fire, etc.--not to mention viruses and spyware becoming a bigger problem by the day, it simply makes sense to take advantage of the security that the major online backup companies offer.
Furthermore, it is much more likely that you will experience loss of data due to hardware failure than Carbonite or Mozy. Statistically, 1 in 12 hard drives will fail within the first two years of service. Want to trust a single hard drive with your wedding videos, or baby pictures considering those odds?
So, if hard drives fail so often how can you protect your data? Well, you can spend tens of thousands of dollars building a state-of-the-art backup center. Or, you can let Carbonite make the investment in equipment. They will then charge you the "hefty" sum of $55 per year to use it. Not a bad deal at all.
Carbonite's data center houses arrays of 1-terabyte (TB), enterprise-grade hard disk drives. When you upload your files to Carbonite they will be spread across a total of sixteen of these drives in a RAID-6 configuration.
Get this: These RAID-6 arrays are 36,000,000 times more reliable than the single hard drive in your home computer. For you to lose data, three of the sixteen hard drives must fail, and your PC must crash simultaneously--very, very unlikely.
Carbonite's data center is guarded 24/7/365, and entry is controlled by fingerprint ID locks. As well, they have redundant web servers, Internet connections, and power.
The personnel at Carbonite never work with unencrypted data, and they encrypt using 448-bit blowfish encryption to 'scramble' all of your data.
For extra protection you can choose a provider that offers a private encryption key. Remember that if you lose the key you will not be able to access your data.
With the risk of hardware failure, accidental deletion, theft, fire, etc.--not to mention viruses and spyware becoming a bigger problem by the day, it simply makes sense to take advantage of the security that the major online backup companies offer.
Furthermore, it is much more likely that you will experience loss of data due to hardware failure than Carbonite or Mozy. Statistically, 1 in 12 hard drives will fail within the first two years of service. Want to trust a single hard drive with your wedding videos, or baby pictures considering those odds?
So, if hard drives fail so often how can you protect your data? Well, you can spend tens of thousands of dollars building a state-of-the-art backup center. Or, you can let Carbonite make the investment in equipment. They will then charge you the "hefty" sum of $55 per year to use it. Not a bad deal at all.
Carbonite's data center houses arrays of 1-terabyte (TB), enterprise-grade hard disk drives. When you upload your files to Carbonite they will be spread across a total of sixteen of these drives in a RAID-6 configuration.
Get this: These RAID-6 arrays are 36,000,000 times more reliable than the single hard drive in your home computer. For you to lose data, three of the sixteen hard drives must fail, and your PC must crash simultaneously--very, very unlikely.
Carbonite's data center is guarded 24/7/365, and entry is controlled by fingerprint ID locks. As well, they have redundant web servers, Internet connections, and power.
The personnel at Carbonite never work with unencrypted data, and they encrypt using 448-bit blowfish encryption to 'scramble' all of your data.
For extra protection you can choose a provider that offers a private encryption key. Remember that if you lose the key you will not be able to access your data.
