What Online Backup Services Vendors Must Have

Having an offsite data backup plan is a necessity to support your business continuity and disaster recovery needs. To support these objectives, you may also have ascertained that using an online backup services provider to be viable but find it a challenge to identify suitable vendors.

If so, here's a two-stage methodology that can make life easier for you:

- Stage 1: We will use an initial set of criteria is used to identify a short list of candidates that are able to provide a minimum standard of service for immediate and longer term.

- Stage 2: We will determine your provider of choice by assessing the short-listed candidates against a final set of criteria.

Today, we will discuss the details of Stage 1 and outline key requirements that must be fulfilled by all short listed candidates.

I. Established operations

In the past, many impressive start-ups have gone bust. Based on experience, vendors who have been in business for 5 years or more are more likely to be able to support in the long haul.

II. Large customer base comprising of business clients

A sizeable business clientele usually co-relate with the vendor's proven ability to provide a satisfactory level of service for business requirements that are usually more stringent by nature.

III. Premise that is secured

As a rule of thumb, consider candidates who use world class data centres for their operations. This is because data centres often have good physical security equipment and measures to prevent unauthorised access. Data centres also have built-in protective measures against natural disasters that include earthquake and fire.

IV. Scalable offerings

Data storage requirements will increase along with the growth of your business. While your immediate need is the priority, the short-listed vendors must have expandable data backup plan offerings to accommodate additional storage when the need arises.

V. Affordable plans

Vendors who offer "too good to be true" free storage for life are hard pressed to survive in the long run and therefore should be excluded from the short list. Instead, identify candidates who can provide the required service at prices that are affordable, based on a budgeted price range.

By evaluating using the five criteria above, you will have a short list of candidates that can offer the minimum level of online backup services to support your offsite data backup plan objectives.

Source: EzineArticles

Spare Backup Begins Hardware Upgrade

The upgrade of our storage capabilities to a scalable platform capable of supporting millions of users is a significant step forward for Spare Backup as we begin numerous product launches with our distribution partners, particularly in the mobile space, said Tim Page, Vice President of Application Development of Spare Backup. "The ability to seamlessly scale our storage capabilities as usage increases will enable us to rapidly build Spare Backup's subscriber base while providing 24/7 availability of our cloud based services. With this storage solution, we are confident in our ability to rapidly grow with our partners and insure their valuable customer data and devices are safe, secure and easily restored."

Management anticipates the new storage platform will be operational in the next 30 days with full deployment taking place by the end of 2011. Upon completion all user backup data will be stored on state of the art NetAPP SAN storage. User account information and transactional information will be stored in a secure SQL-Server redundant distributed database utilizing special high-speed RAID drives. In addition, Spare Backup's IIS web servers each can support thousands of simultaneous users. Combining this with Spare's new scalable Virtual Machine array allows the system to be used by millions of users.

Commenting on the new storage platform, Cery Perle, CEO of Spare Backup stated, "As our distribution pipeline fills, it was imperative that we also make the appropriate capital investments into our backend, to enable us to keep up with demand in a seamless and cost efficient way. The new hardware coupled with our new uniquely designed backend, will now meet our objective to support millions of users throughout our system across all devices and operating systems for years to come. This architecture can also be replicated in additional datacenters affording us the opportunity to license software to future partners who have expressed the desire to have proprietary control of customer data."

About Spare Backup, Inc.

Spare Backup, Inc. is a leading provider of data backup and security software for smartphones, tablets and PCs. Spare Backup's software enables consumers and small to medium sized businesses to easily protect valuable computer and mobile data quickly, automatically and cost-effectively. Spare Backup software intelligently selects, secures and stores personal and business content on a continuous basis or according to the schedule of the user's choice. It also allows for the integration of that content across various devices and provides enhanced security features to protect valuable data on any lost or stolen devices. Spare Backup software is the first totally automated cloud-based backup service that is distributed on a stand-alone or private label basis through major retail and warrantee service partners in North America and Europe.

Safe Harbor Statement

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking information made on the company's behalf. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, which address the company's expectations of sources of capital or which express the company's expectation for the future with respect to financial performance or operating strategies can be identified as forward-looking statements. Such statements made by the company are based on knowledge of the environment in which it operates, but because of the possibility of unknown factors, as well as other factors beyond the control of the company, actual results may differ materially from the expectations expressed in the forward-looking statement. An investment in our common stock involves a significant degree of risk. You should not invest in our common stock unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. You should consider carefully all risk factors and other information in our annual report and quarterly filings before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the following risks and uncertainties develops into actual events, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be materially adversely affected and you could lose your entire investment in our company.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the outlook of the Company's business and results of operations. By nature, these risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Generally speaking, any statements using terms such as "will," "expect," "anticipate," or "may," or which otherwise predict or address future results or events, are likely to contain forward-looking statements. It is important to note that actual results may differ materially from what is indicated in any forward-looking statement. Readers should consider any forward-looking statements in light of factors that could cause actual results to vary. These factors are described in Spare Backups filings with the SEC, and readers should refer to those filings, including Risk Factors described in those filings, in connection with any forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

How to Backup & Restore Outlook Data

If you utilize Microsoft Outlook on a daily basis it is always a good idea to backup your data. With a good backup system in place, in the event of a computer disaster you can always have your data to restore back into Microsoft Outlook. Backing up your outlook information is a simple process, as all of the data you could want to back up is stored in one file, the outlook PST file. The Personal Storage Table (PST) file is available on your hard drive and can be accessed from within Outlook.

Instructions

Backing your outlook data

1. Insert a USB Memory drive into the computer.

2. Open Microsoft Outlook.

3. Click "File" come down and click "Import and Export." This opens the "Import and Export Wizard."

4. Click "Export to a file," and then click "Next."

5. Click "Personal Folder File (.PST)," and then click "Next."

6. Click "Personal Folder," and then click "Next." Look in the "Save exported file as" box you will notice your PST file path and a backup.pst file that is already created for you.

7. Click browse and save this file into your USB Memory drive and click "Finish." This completes the backup of your Outlook Data.

Restore your Outlook data

1. Insert a USB Memory drive into the computer.

2. Open Microsoft Outlook.

3. Click "File" come down and click "Import and Export." This opens the "Import and Export Wizard."

4. Click on "Import from another program or file," and then click "Next."

5. Click on "Personal Folder File (.PST)," and then click "Next."

6. Click "Browse" to access the backup.pst file from your USB memory drive, select your options, and hit "Next."

7. Select the folders you want to import from the "Select the folder to import from" box and click "Finish." Your Outlook Data should now be restored.


Source : eHow

Choos your Best Online Backup Provider

For many people, finding an online backup support they can rely on is an important issue. This is because this backup support will serve as the lifeblood for their data. Without this backup, they won't be able to recover their files in case of a major hard drive crash which may require reformatting. As a result, this backup support will be the help that a computer user needs in order to get his files together again.

As such, finding an online backup support that can be trusted is really important. So much so that it has already become a pressing challenge in today's time. With so many different online backup services, finding the right one has indeed become a huge issue. There are even some who don't know how to choose which one is the best. But because their friends recommend it to them, they decide to use them too. Little do they know, there are so many other options that may do better good to them.

So when it comes to choosing which online backup support is the best one, the answer really depends on how much support an individual needs. Regardless of this though, there are some common questions that need to be asked in order to find out if the program is the right one.

* Data Transfer Rate- Look for an online backup support that offers a high speed internet connection so that large amounts of data can easily be backed up.

* Provision of Data Encryption and 256-bit SSL connection- Most of the online backup service providers now are already offering 256-bit SSL connections. However, there are some instances where these secure connections are only optional. In doing so, they require a fee to be paid. Before signing up, it is best to research how much security is given to the account.

* Security of Data In Times of Disaster- It is better to look for an online backup support provider that has a number of redundant data websites so that once their data center encounters an issue, they can secure the files of the account holders. Unfortunately, there are some that do not have this. These providers often store account holder's data in just one data center/site.

* Policy on Data Retention- To get the best protection of an individual's files, it is best to go with backup support providers that have a fee. But in cases when the account holder is unable to pay the month's bill, what will happen? Will they automatically delete the data of the account holder? Or do they have a retention period of 30 or 60 days?

* Recovering Data- In times of an emergency, how fast can the account holder recover his data? Since it is called a backup support, account holders need to retrieve their files in as little time as possible. This is why they have chosen to store their files with the backup support in the first place.

Source: EzineArticles

Definition of Online Storage

Online data storage websites offer a place to keep documents, pictures and other information via a server connected to the Internet, giving people a convenient solution for computer backups, file sharing and data accessibility without the hassle of external drives. Online storage sites are available in free and paid versions, depending on the size of space desired and features.


1. Where Are the Data Stored?
Once your data are uploaded, it gets stored on a server owned by the online storage service. Sometimes these servers are stored at the same location as the company's office, or they can be located in a different city or state. It doesn't matter where the server is stored; as long as it is in a secure location and connected to the Internet, you can retrieve your information through the company's secure website connection.

2. Reasons to Use Online Storage
There are many reasons to use an online data storage site, from keeping a backup of your information offsite in case of fire, theft or natural disaster, to needing the ability to access your work files during travel and not wanting to pack an extra drive for storage. Some people use online storage to share files with friends, family or co-workers, an especially attractive option if you have large files such as family photos.

3. How Much Space Can You Have?
Depending on the company, the options for online storage are nearly endless. Choices range from 1 gigabyte up to 1,000 gigabytes, known as a terabyte. Some plans can include unlimited storage, allowing businesses or individuals all the space they need.

4. How Much Does It Cost?
Many online storage sites offer free accounts. These accounts usually have limited features and a small amount of space, such as 5 gigabytes and less. For more storage, a monthly fee is required. Security, the ability to automate backups, file-sharing privileges and customer support are important things to consider when purchasing online storage.

5. Is It Secure?
Security is often in the eye--or hands--of the beholder. While an online storage site can offer encryption, password protection and physical server security, none of that will matter if the customer shares usernames and passwords with several people. If a high level of security is important, ask the vendor about separate authentication for file sharing, and never access your online storage on an unencrypted public Internet network.

Source : Ehow

5 Best Online Backup Services for Small Businesses

You've heard it thousands of times -- backup your data. A good data backup strategy is to have two copies of your data – one local (it resides in your office or place of business) and one offsite (you pay an online data company to store it remotely on their secure servers).

Here are five of the best online data backup services for small businesses. They range from simple and inexpensive to more expensive with all the belts and suspenders you could ever want.
What Constitutes 'Best?'

All online backup services are not created equally when it comes to data security. The strongest security is "zero knowledge" strong encryption. This means that your data are encrypted using a unique encryption key that only you possess, and nobody can access your account without this key.

If you lose your encryption key then you are locked out of your backups, and all the vendor can do is open a new account for you. This might sound a little scary, but giving your vendor access to your data requires a level of trust that may not be warranted and also leaves it open to government searches.

Don't count on backup services to make heroic stands for your rights, because they won't. What's the best way to protect your unique encryption key? Write it down and lock it in a safe place. I don't know what keeps the persistent myth alive that writing down passwords is bad, because it is bad advice.

Some nice features to look for are cross-platform client software, support for multiple filesystem types, and sharing and file sync across multiple devices and users. Most backup services use deduplication to reduce the size of your backups; that is, they copy identical files only once. Another trick for reducing backup size is recording only the changes to that file rather than making multiple complete copies.

Backups should be automatic, and restoring data should be easy. Reliability, of course, is a must, because nobody should pay for unreliability. We already get that for free in everyday life.

Many services offer 2GB - 5GB accounts for free. You'll find personal, family and business plans with different features and pricing. You can ignore the labels -- if a personal or family plan meets your small business needs then use it.
Memopal

Memopal is based in Italy and supports customers in Europe, the USA and Asia -- in 15 languages. It supports more platforms than most online backup services: Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, a Web interface, and a Web-based, mobile-friendly interface.

Licensing is simple with Memopal Personal: a single license covers as many computers as you like, up to your total storage limit. An annual fee of €48.00, which is about $68 USD, buys 200GB of storage.

Memopal Business costs more and comes with a license that permits commercial use, central account administration, scheduled backups and support. If you buy 300GB or more you get a free external backup drive for a fast initial backup. Business licensing is a little more complex, so use the company's online calculator to quickly figure out pricing.

Memopal guarantees your confidentiality, and the anonymity of the data stored on its servers, though it does not implement true zero knowledge encryption. If you lose your login you can request a reset and get back into your account.
SpiderOak

SpiderOak is the online backup service with the funny name. SpiderOak gets my 1 recommendation for SMBs with fairly simple needs. You get good, reliable, secure online backups, and real zero-knowledge protection.

Every account gets a unique encryption key that encrypts customer data for the entire end-to-end process -- uploading, storage, and downloading -- and nobody can access your data without this key. If you lose it, you lose access to your account, and Spideroak cannot restore it or create a new one.

Source : smallbusinesscomputing

Activate a Free Online Backup Service Account

Intuit QuickBooks offers you a choice between monthly or annual service protection plans, which provide numerous benefits such as a data recovery service, free software and daily computer backups. If you purchase a plan, you receive access to a free online backup service, where you're able to store files and folders online. Subscribers to the monthly service receive 1GB of storage space and annual subscribers get 10GB. Before using this space, though, visit the QuickBooks website to activate it.


Instructions

1: Click the "Internet Explorer" button on your task bar, and then navigate to the QuickBooks website.

2: Hover your mouse cursor over the "Support" tab. Click "Find Answers Online." In the search bar at the top of the page, type "online backup activation." Click "Search."

3: Click the first link, labeled "Activate a free QuickBooks online backup service with your plan." In the Activation Steps section, click "Online Backup activation Website."

4: Type your support plan order number, which may be found in your QuickBooks welcome email or on the order status page. To see your order status from the current page, click on the word "here" in the line "Order Status Webpage - Accessible by clicking here." Enter your zip code. Click on "Continue."

5: Enter your information, including an email address and the desired password you'll use to sign into the backup service. Add a password hint in case the password is forgotten. Click "Continue."

6: Write down your new account ID so you don't lose it, and then click the link on the page to go to the online backup area.


Source : ehow.com

Data Migration Adapting to the Cloud

The cloud has been invariably called an expanded data tier, an extension of the virtual environment and an entirely new, infinitely scalable data center infrastructure.

But no matter how you describe it, the fact is that the cloud represents a wealth of newly provisioned resources waiting to be filled with all the data and applications currently housed in your bricks-and-mortar data center. And in that sense, the cloud requires a lot in the way of plain old data migration − the same task that already gives you fits when it involves a new server deployment or storage array, except more of it.

Unfortunately, migrating data and applications to the cloud requires a different process from traditional hardware-to-hardware solutions. The cloud is a much more fluid environment − like a big bowl of soup on a wobbly bistro table. Once data hits the bowl, it's awfully hard to keep track of it.

That's one of the reasons the front office is still not entirely sold on the cloud even as IT salivates over all that additional capacity. According to a survey by Symantec, less than half of CEOS are willing to entrust mission-critical applications to the cloud, citing reliability, security and performance as their top concerns. The cloud represents significant improvements in both capital and operating costs, particularly as enterprises struggle to maintain control of increasingly large and complex data loads. However, the transition from traditional data center infrastructure to the cloud can be extremely disruptive if not handled properly.

One of the chief concerns is the fact that the cloud is built on virtual resources, as opposed to bare metal access. This means a fair amount of preparation is needed to ensure data availability.

"The enterprise administrator has limited options for migrating existing workloads to the cloud and must rebuild them package by package," says James Strayer, vice president of product management and marketing at system portability specialist Racemi. "This increases their costs and their risk by introducing manual effort and multiple failure points, creating a barrier to entry for enterprises. Some cloud providers are looking to help by providing support for importing virtual machines, but that assumes that, number one, you are virtualized and, number two, you are running the same virtual platform as the cloud provider."
Racemi addresses this problem through an image-based provisioning system on its DynaCenter automation platform. The idea is to migrate the entire server stack from the data center to the cloud while at the same time drawing out the necessary drivers, tools and other components needed to operate within the target resource. In this way, it makes no difference whether the data or application is being redeployed into a physical, virtual or cloud environment

Oddly, it seems that migration to the public cloud will emerge as the lesser of two evils compared to migration to a private cloud where the responsibility for ensuring compatible environments is borne completely by the enterprise.

"If you decide to go to an external provider and have done the diligence to justify the move, then you will relinquish the responsibility for the infrastructure, in which case you will not be concerned about data migrations," says Marie-Pierre Belanger, vice president of product management at SANpulse. "If you are moving it to a private cloud, the need to build, measure, report and break down on-demand infrastructures requires versatility and quick and easy configuration management with analytics that gauge utilization to be able to charge back the respective business units."

Naturally, this will require a fairly sophisticated level of automation, considering the very fluid nature of the cloud.

"Migrations are notorious for being a manually intensive and very complex process that is subject to errors as spreadsheets are created, maintained and changed," Belanger says. "Because organizations are not static, discovery and mapping of information takes place while it is active and subject to change. For this reason, migrations are perhaps one of the most risky operations a storage professional will experience."

Source : itbusinessedge

Get Back Up Data in XP

Data backup support is needed in every business. Whether you are running a small or large business, you should always keep a data backup. Well, this refers to the process of backing up your data by making additional copies that are used to restore the original data in case of its loss.

Instructions

1. Install the backup tool if you're using Windows XP Home; Windows XP Professional includes the backup tool.
Insert the Windows XP Home CD into your computer's CD drive and click "Start," then "My Computer." Double-click the CD icon, double-click "ValueAdd," then double-click "Msft." Double-click "Ntbackup," then double-click "Ntbackup.msi."

2 Open the backup tool by clicking "Start," then "All Programs." Click "Accessories," then "System Tools," then "Backup."

3 Click "Next" in the "Welcome to the Backup or Restore Wizard" window.

4 Click "Backup Files and Settings" under "What do You Want to Do?," then click "Next."

5 Select what to back up by clicking either "My Documents and Settings," "Everyone's Documents and Settings," "All Information on This Computer," or "Let me Choose What to Back Up" under "What do you Want to Back Up?" Then click "Next."
If you click "Let me Choose What to Back Up," click the check boxes next to any desired folders in the "Items to Back Up" list, then click "Next."

6 Select a location for the backed-up files by clicking the box beneath "Choose a Place to Save Your Backup," and click a drive from the list. The Windows XP backup tool supports removable media including USB drives, network drives and external hard drives. Windows XP's backup tool can't burn data to a CD or DVD, however.

7 Type a name for your backup into the box beneath "Type a Name for this Backup," then click "Next."

8 Begin the backup by clicking "Finish" in the "Completing the Backup or Restore Wizard" window.

Data Backup Tips

Practically everyone should practice a regular backup and data protection maintenance routine from network managers in large companies to home PC users, we all need to know how to back up our precious data and protect it from being lost in the ether forever.

What would happen if one day your computer was infected with a virus or your hard drive can stop working? Are you prepared? If you are then that is when you will thank yourself that your computer information has been securely stored on a backup.

Take steps to protect your data before a disaster happens, don't wait until your hard drive gets corrupted or infected. Don't get caught short act now!

Sourcing the right data backup and protection solution that is right for you can be confusing.

The right solution will depend on your needs, ie what you need to backup and how do you want it stored? You may want to store it online or on a dedicated external hard drive, or you may have a network of computers that you need to backup daily.

Today it can be difficult to choose the right backup solution that you need. Not because they are difficult to find, but because there are too many of them.

How should you backup?
Are you looking for an online data backup solution?
What should you backup?

Here are some suggestions for personal use scenarios:

Personal use PC user Backup
Your data is vital and you don't want to lose it,.you are dependent on it for your work or for your personal record keeping. Presuming you have a broadband connection, as most people today do, then an online backup service might be right for you. This has become an easy solution which is both cheap and convenient.

If you need to have your data easily accessible and you can't afford to have it down for long periods of time should the worst happen, a hard disk image backup solution might be right for you. You can make a backup of your hard disk. Store the backup on to another external hard drive

If the disk happens to crash, you replace it with a new hard disk, use the boot disk and restore the whole hard disk back from the backup media. No need to restore Window from scratch saving you time and keeping your saved Windows configuration unchanged.

Article Source: http://goo.gl/6Kr04

Benefits of Using Data Backup Software

Owning a computer is a wonderful thing. It allows you to instantly and easily become connected to the entire world from just a small device. It allows you to do many things that will make your life easier and more enjoyable. You can save photos, write documents, save files, and keep a lot of important information on your computer. Unfortunately, computers are not perfect and can quite often crash if you don't take care of them correctly. Even if you do take care of your computer, the unthinkable could still happen and if you aren't running any form of data backup software, you could be left in the dust with lost data that cannot be brought back. Below are some of the main benefits of using data backup software on your home or work computer.

Avoid Data Loss

The biggest reason to use data backup software is the ability to avoid losing the data you have been storing on your computer. If you have ever made the mistake of not backing up your computer before, then you know how quickly everything can go from good to bad. You could instantly lose years' worth of files and will not be able to get them back unless you created a backup. This happened to me once. Three years of files, documents, photos, music, and anything else you could think of was gone in an instant when my computer was infected with a bad virus that it couldn't recover from. If I had been using data backup software, I could have recovered everything.

Easy Recovery

Compared to the old-fashioned method of saving all of your data to a disk, using data backup software is just a whole lot easier. It used to take hours and you would have to do everything manually. This could eat up a whole day without much effort. When you use software, everything is done for you instantly and thoroughly. No more having to worry about whether or not you forgot to save a specific file or folder to your external drive, because everything is saved automatically.

It Can Save You Money

How can using software save you money? Well, the cost of the software is usually not much at all. But it can easily save you money by preventing profit loss if you use your computer for business. If you are unable to get onto your computer to retrieve a file or a document, then you could lose money. The longer your computer isn't working, the more you could potentially lose.

You Need to Backup Your Computer

Let's face it, backing up your computer is a necessary thing that must be done for every computer owner. Failing to use some form of data backup software, and not backing up your computer, could lead to ruin. Losing everything on your computer is not fun, and many of the things saved on your computer cannot be replaced. You might have photos, creative writing, graphics, reports, essays, work files, and many other things that you don't want to lose, so protect them!

Article Source: http://goo.gl/xRgwR