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Online Backup Solutions?
OmnipotentEntity asks: "I'm an IT Manager (and also a lifeguard, don't ask) for a small private club. Recently parts of our server's RAID went bad just as Hurricane Dennis hit, making life a living hell for me and everyone involved. So, I figured perhaps backing up information online would make stuff like this less incredibly painful. A quick browse of Google will show that there are a lot of businesses offering automatic, offsite, online backup solutions. It seems it's becoming a big thing. The largest problem is that they all look alike -- same implementation, similar websites, it looks like someone came through this part of the Internet with a cookie cutter, and by the information available on the website and pricing (which may or may not be available without filling out 100 forms) I can't tell a good company from bad company. I've never had any experience with any of these companies, and I wanted to know if any of you guys had, and if so what were your experiences with them? What are the things to look for? What are the things to avoid? Am I barking up the wrong tree?"
Encryption would keep them from viewing your data, but if the provider was hacked, the attacker could still delete it even if you used a 1 time pad for everything. But I suppose this is for backups, not in-use now stuff, but it still would be a problem. Jared
Par down your data and use Gmail as your server. If it's too much more then a gig it's going to take forever for you to upload,DL the backup. At a gig you can probalby store the core db as long as you haven't poluted it with images and files.
*duplicate - fixed formatting*
Good rebuttal arete - some very valid points.
My last words on the subject:
Larger corporations have an easier time justifying "warm backup" sites. Streaming data (using rsync or similar) that has changed is simple enough, and usually they can afford bigger pipes.
In the smaller business market, ISP's often charge based on capacity of pipeline utilized / duration of time / or some other "Penalize the greatest users" scheme (I don't think that is 100% evil, but it's not a friendly business model).
While I am a strong believer in a combination of services (I'm very paranoid about losing someone else's data), if you can only afford one service, I would still recommend Tape/Disk based archival.
As for how to get the tapes / disk / pieces of ivory offsite? I would recommend using a data storage company for storing your backups. Most will come to your business, bring an older set of tapes, pick up a new set of tapes, and place your tapes in a fireproof vault off of your site.
I am a firm believer in the power of data transmission, but I wouldn't bet my business on it.
- Avron