Remote data backup is essential for small business as well. However, having large remote backup infrastructure is not affordable for small businesses.
If you follow a proper data categorization model, the size of the data to be remotely backed up remains less and you get a number of options for systematic remote data backup.
Method1 : Remote data backup to a web hosting account
The high competition in the web hosting market has caused the hosting companies to offer large disk space quotas for very attractive prices. This gives a favorable situation for remote backup as well. You can take the backup, compress and encrypt the data and then upload the file to the remote server through FTP.
If your data size is not too large , uploading to one or more web hosting accounts is a really a good option that you can consider.
Also, you can automate the FTP upload process by having a script that compresses, encrypts and uploads the data to the remote server through FTP.
Method2: Remote data backup using a remote backup service
There are remote data backup companies that offer service to the small/medium sectors as well. The charges depend on the data size. You will need to install a custom piece of software that does the backup.
- You signup with the Remote data backup service provider
- Download a software tool and install it on your PC from the service provider
- Configure the software to backup the files to the remote data centers
You can schedule the remote data backup software to run at predetermined intervals and do the backups automatically
Incremental backups
It is not required to backup ALL your data every time you take the backup. Incremental backups backup only the files that changed after you had taken your backup last time. Incremental backups help in reducing the bandwidth costs and the disk space costs
Comparison
Remote data backup service gives you a ready-made solution. Rather than spending time on putting together automation scripts to upload your data to web servers, you can just download the software from the remote data backup service provider, configure its and let it run the show.
Cost
Remote data services are becoming cheaper. For just $29 per month, you get whopping 10 GB remote data backup space. 10GB should provide sufficient data backup space provided you follow the data categorization. So you have techniques to keep the data backup size to minimum, remote backup service providers that provide data backup services for cheaper rate and software that automates the entire backup process
There is no reason why you loose data one more time!
