Whether at home and in the office, each day we save an increasing amount of data (documents, worksheets, contracts, pictures, drawings, projects, videos, music, etc.). Protecting this data is essential but, at times, we only realize this when it’s too late. Today, traditional backup devices (DVD, external HD, USB keys, floppy disks, etc.) have become obsolete since unreliable, costly and inconvenient. A new service is now on the market that promises to revolutionize how we protect and organize our files: Online Backup. The purpose of this guide is to help you select the Online Backup service that best meets your business or home needs.

What is backup and why is it so important?
Backup is nothing more than a copy of your data, stored to prevent it from being lost or stolen. All system administrators and computer experts suggest you protect you data with one or more backup copies.

Normally, information is saved on optical storage devices like CDs or DVDs that are cheap but subject to wear. Hardware devices like USB keys or external HDs are also used but cost more since they only last a couple of years 1 (Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population).You can now use a new and increasingly popular way to protect your files: Online Backup.

Over the last 10 years, digital content production has grown exponentially throughout the world, confirming the UGC – User Generated Content - generation trend launched in the mid ’90’s. Studies indicate that the continuous growth of generated content will reach billions of Gigabytes: from 12 Exabytes (billions of billions of bytes) produced in 2002, to 161 Exabytes in 2006 to the 988 expected for 2010 (source: University of California, Berkeley). Losing ‘crucial’ data has become our worst nightmare. For this reason, the search for new file protection systems is in continuous evolution. Online backup seems to be the best solution to this problem, thanks to continuously lower connectivity and storage hardware costs and to extremely simple and convenient services.

What is Online Backup?
Online Backup is a service managed by software usually installed on your PC to save files on a remote server via a secure internet connection. This new internet user tool automatically backs up any type of file.

Download pdf Online Backup Quick Guide