There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of vendors out there and I’ll list a few for you. But first let me explain the process. In almost all cases after you establish and account for service you place a small client on your computer (or server) and the after a few settings you’re done. That’s it. The system now begins the process of backing up every file that’s in the group that you so indicated in the setup. In most cases this set of files is quite large, multiple gigabytes, so the initial upload can often take days or even weeks. Most systems are smart enough to throttle their bandwidth use so as to not interfere with your day-to-day Internet use. Once the initial upload is complete the small client you installed begins to examine your computer (or server) for changes and uploads those changes. The secret here is that it only uploads the bit-level changes, not the entire file. For example, if you have a large Excel worksheet the system would initially upload the entire large file but subsequent modifications to that file would include only those modifications which, in most cases, results in a very small upload. Additionally, some systems automatically detect identical files and simply create a “pointer” rather than uploading an entire separate copy of the file. This can be very important when backing up the entire hard disk on multiple computers as the operating system is essentially uploaded only a single time. A great example of this technology can be found in the Windows Home Server --- it automatically backs up all the computers on the (home) network – up to 10 – and stands ready to perform a complete hard disk restore for any one of them. Yet, for example, if all machines are running Widows Vista then the WHS has made only ONE copy of the Windows Vista OS files. Many small firms have actually adopted the WHS to back up all their computers and then they simply backup the WHS to the Internet. I do that with my home network using a nice WHS add-in from Jungle Disk and Amazon S3.
If you’re ready to consider on-line backup here’s a top 10 punch list of the things you should consider:
1. Does the system back up files that are often left open (Outlook, SQL, etc.)? Many higher-end products support this while entry level, consumer-based services often do not.
2. If you have, or will have, Macs --- does the system support multi-platform?
3. Does the system allow access to your backed up files via web browser?
4. What type of data compression does the system use?
5. What about data encryption? Are the files encrypted end-to-end including while they are stored?
6. Can you control the timing of backups and throttle bandwidth during various times of day?
7. Is cost calculated by storage, data transfer, or both? Be SURE to do the calculations. Online storage is cheap, but mistakes here can be very costly!
8. How many versions of each file is kept? Can you control this versioning?
9. What is the data retention policy?
10. MOST IMPORTANT --- Who is the company storing your files? Where are the files actually stored? Is the data-center world-class and SAS 70 certified? Know and understand their redundancy and fail-over policies and procedures. What is their SLA (service level agreement)?
And finally, here’s a list of providers --- please note that we’ve not reviewed these providers so please properly vet them before trusting them with your most precious asset --- your client data.
Consumer Level:
Business Grade
Specifically for CPAs