The online backup and remote data backup market has really exploded with solutions and options lately. Several of the contenders are running commercials during prime time--you know competition must be heating up. With so many choices out there, it can be overwhelming to evaluate them all. Questions always include "will this company be around later when I need my data?"
The other choice is to use a local, on-site backup solution. Backup software running on your PC or server backs up or makes an image of the data on your drives, or more often copies files once then later only copies changed files. What's the best choice? What are the pros and cons of each?
Local, or on-site backup has several strengths. Usually locally connected backup solutions can run far faster than Internet or Wireless network bandwidth allows. FireWire and USB 2.0 run at 480 and 400 Mbps respectively, much faster than any broadband link. Local LAN speeds are commonly Gigabit (1000 Mbps). This is likely both the greatest strength for local backup and the greatest weakness for online backup. For home users, the upload speed of their link to the Internet is far slower than their download speed. Backing up can be orders of magnitude slower using an online solution!
Local backup, like the solutions from ioSafe, can offer disaster proof enclosures that are safe from fire or flooding. Even if your PC or server is a total loss, your data can be recovered in full. If you purchase a disk-based system and know how much space you need (or estimate very well) you pay once. This is another strength. On the other hand, if you add and create many files, you may find that you must purchase additional media or a larger model of the backup device.
Backing up remotely, online, via the Internet has a couple of great strengths, especially for home users, students, and roaming laptop users. This is the ability to back up wherever you are, whenever you are connected to the Internet. There is no need to haul a backup device or media around with you, have it connected, and run a backup session every day. Online backup solutions check for and send changed files over the net whenever your PC is idle, (or at a time you select). Local solutions could do this too, of course, but then you must have the storage device with you, and connected all the time. A related big strength is the ability to restore from anywhere that you have Internet access, anytime.
Robert Ellison, CEO of Cucku describes some of their online backup options:
"Cucku Backup supports external, network, flash and many other devices. Cucku supports removing unwanted files from both local and remote backups. You can purge files that have been deleted and also files that are no longer included in the backup set. This prevents the common irritation of needing to start a backup from scratch in order to reduce the backup size. For remote backup Cucku allows you to send backups on an external hard drive and then new and changed files over the Internet, repeated if needed. This hybrid approach solves the upload speed problem inherent in most online backup products."