More and more smaller businesses are backing up their data online. It's automatic, off-site, and now it's affordable. bMighty asked online backup expert Sam Gutmann what smaller businesses should look for in an online backup service
Sam Gutmann, CEO of Intronis Technologies, equates backing up online to an insurance policy for smaller businesses. And for those smaller businesses that rely on their data to function, he has a point. CDs, DVDs, or tapes are all at the mercy of human error -- whether it's leaving the material on site or forgetting to do the backup. Online backup is done automatically and the data is never housed in the same location as the company, making this a no-brainer for most businesses. But the key for smaller companies is that it's also affordable. bMighty talked with Gutmann about the virtues of online backup, what smaller businesses need to know, and what are the features they should look for when choosing a service.
bMighty: What's wrong with the way smaller businesses back up their data?
Sam Gutmann: Most small and midsize businesses don't back up at all or effectively, if they do. They use CDs or DVDs, a manual process that gets done every once in a while. Some use tapes, but in an ideal scenario, they will use 10 tapes to do a weekly backup. It's costly and it's a manual process. The big downfall of all of these is someone has to take it off-site, and that rarely happens. So if the building burns down, [that backup] doesn't help. Or sometimes they put back up tapes in their bags and forget about them. And if that gets stolen, you're in trouble because the data is unencrypted so it's out there.
Some smaller businesses use removable hard drives and they have the same limitations. You have to do it manually, take it offsite, it's unencrypted -- the same problems. Also, at least with CDs and DVDs, you can burn a new CD, but with a removable hard drive, it will typically overwrite the old data. So you're preserving data only for a limited time.
bMighty: Why should small to midsize businesses consider online backup?
Gutmann: It's automatic, it's off-site, it's encrypted. At least some are -- you should look for an encrypted service. And don't use the service provider's encryption key, because then they have access to it, especially if you're a doctor's office. You wouldn't want to use a provider that doesn't offer a unique key.
bMighty: What about the security issues when using an online service to back up data?
Gutmann: We use 256-bit AES -- that's the government standard. Only customers should have the encryption key so no one can access their data. Even if someone intercepted the data, it's encrypted so it's unusable. We have a secure connection between the user and the provider.
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bMighty: What do small and midsize businesses need to think about when choosing an online backup service? What are some of the features they need to look for?
Gutmann: Make sure the provider believes in what they do. If they only have the data at one location, that's a red flag. You want redundancy. Some providers just keep the latest copies of a backup -- we let users go further back in time. You want multiversions of archives. Let's say you have a spreadsheet that you update every day. If, accidentally, someone deleted some information and needs Monday's version, or there was a virus and information was lost, you should be able to go back and access an earlier version.
For small and midsize businesses with in-house IT, look at the services and support. You want a company that you can call and they'll help you. Be wary if there is only e-mail support.
Next Page: The Costs of Doing Backup Online
