What to Look For in a Backup Provider

First ask yourself the question "Am I looking for the cheapest backup solution or am I looking for the best backup solution?" If you're looking for the cheapest, there are many companies willing to take your money.

Depending on the size of your organization or type of organization, some of these providers may do the job. When looking for an online backup provider, determine how much things like security, reliability, and usability, matter in your backup solution. The more these things matter to you, the more money you can expect to pay for a backup solution.

If things like security, reliability, and usability are not crucial to your business, then a cheaper backup solution may suit you well.

Don't be fooled by the some of the low prices out there. Many of the low price leaders in the marketplace today are only equipped to handle small amounts of data for personal use and not necessarily for business use.

Data Backup Compliance

Because of many recent events, more and more businesses and industries are now regulated in order to ensure that personal information is kept in a secure location, encrypted, and a backup kept offsite.

If your business is in the financial, legal, healthcare, or insurance industry you are probably regulated in some way and have certain compliance issues that you need to comply with in regards to your backup.

Depending on what industry you are in make sure that the online backup provider you go with is compliant with HIPAA, SEC and FDIC regulations, as well as Sarbanes-Oxley. A 256-bit AES Encryption should be expected if you go with a more established online backup provider.

Some online backup providers have even received their SAS 70 certification which helps them comply with privacy and security to the fullest extent. If security and privacy is of utmost importance, ask the backup provider if they are SAS 70 certified.

Online Backup Evaluation Criteria

Most importantly, if you want to make sure you are choosing the right online backup provider, find out how long they have been in business and what else they do.

There are many online backup providers now in the market and some are small companies with pretty good looking websites that fool you into choosing them and then don't deliver on the services they promised before you signed the contract.

Other online backup providers may be a larger company that has been around longer but don't really specialize in the backup business so you may not get the same level of support and reliability that you may get from a company that solely specializes in backup.

Online Backup Musts:

• Security
• Reliability
• Automation
• Ease of Use
• Stable Company
• 24x7 Customer Support

Top 10 Areas to Evaluate Online Backup Providers On

Review of Online Data Backup Companies