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