Backing up data online can mean less
hassle, more reliability and lower costs. Here are some things to consider when
looking at online backup options. Traditionally, companies have backed up their own data, on-site,
with software and hardware purchased on their own. Although that's still a good
approach, it's often best suited to large organizations with the IT staff to
handle the headaches that can arise.
Companies with several hundred or fewer employees, however, are perfect
candidates for considering online backupthat is, offloading the responsibility
for storing key data onto another company, which conducts backups via a network
connection. It's more reliable, less of a hassle and often less costly.
"If you create widgets better than your
competitor, you'll see the effect. But doing backup better than your competitor
doesn't necessarily give you a competitive advantage," said Arun Taneja,
founder of Taneja Group, a storage consultancy. "So if one guy is doing it
5 percent better than the next guy, who cares? That's exactly the type of
activity that makes sense to give to somebody else, as long as the service
isn't outrageously more expensive than what it would cost to do it
yourself."
Read the full story on eWEEK Midmarket.