The idea of trusting important corporate data to an online backup provider can be unsettling--secure data backups have typically resided on local tapes that stayed under your physical control. And many IT pros still harbor bad memories of the collapse of a number of free online storage providers during the Great Dot-Com Implosion of 2000.
The good news is that online backup services have evolved over the past few years, and customer concerns about security and reliability are not lost on the current generation of online backup providers. Every vendor we evaluated listed data security and 24/7 availability as primary responsibilities. In addition, all the services in our review store customer data in mirrored, Class A data centers that are either privately owned or co-hosted in some of the most secure facilities in the world.
We believe these services will be especially attractive to those tasked with protecting data at remote sites. First, running tape backups for a multitude of servers is an expensive proposition. Costs for hardware, backup software and tapes will vary depending on data-set size and the amount of automation required. But to give you a rough idea, a 100-gigabyte single-drive DLT or DAT system can exceed $3,500 per installation--not including annual support, maintenance and off-site tape storage costs, or inevitable equipment upgrades.
Even if you can swing these expenses, you'll still have to find personnel at remote locations who are capable of ensuring that backups are properly handled. That's a huge challenge: The average human is ill-equipped to review a typical error log, much less tackle a jammed tape drive or server rack of flashing error messages.
This is where online data backup services can save your bacon. After initial configuration, the service monitors your servers' backup status while invisibly handling garden-variety backroom problems. Failed backups and tape-drive implosions can become a thing of the past, and you'll no longer lose sleep over hardware contingencies for data growth or spikes--that's now your service provider's problem. Even more alluring, you can usually negotiate lower rates for higher-volume storage as your data needs grow.
We found substantial variations in the cost and features of online server backups, the main sticking points being storage volume and length of retention (for a side-by-side comparison of the features offered, go to www.nwc. com/go/SE1004RD1.jhtml). Most online services log each incremental backup as a restoration point, and the retention scheme (and cost) is based on the number of iterations available for restoration. For example, on a service with 10 retention levels, files marked for backup remain on the service indefinitely, but only 10 historical versions are available for restoration. A file deleted from that data set will remain available for restore until the 11th incremental backup is made.
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