Thursday, August 15, 2013

What is a Backup | Local vs Online Backup


What is a backup



Which magnetic media do you use to back up very important data? Diskette, tape, CD-ROM, pen-drive, removable disk? Do you make your backups in one or in several media at once? When was the last time you made a backup? Have you lost data because it could not be retrieved from the magnetic media? Are you confident in your backup? Have you imagine what you would do if a backup media fails at the time of recovery? In this article you will find answers to all these concerns. We invite you to continue reading.

  • What is a Backup


    When we talk about backup all of us have a very clear understanding. Some because it is considered a normal process that regularly and repeatedly has to be done to protect our information and others because, in addition to the above, have experienced the terrible situation of losing in one or more occasions, important data that they would have given what they didn’t have to be able to recover.

    Whatever your personal experience have been, the fact is that we all are well aware the importance of having a backup of our important data, to be used when a contingency occurs beyond our control that have resulted in a total or partial loss of data.

  • Recover Lost Data


    But I tell you that there are experiences worse than losing some data and not have a backup to recover. Much worse than this is to have the backup, ie we have been disciplined in our routines and we are the blessed backup. Relax, you tell everyone, I have a backup from yesterday.

    And when it comes time to retrieve the data from the backup what happens? Oh, my God, it can not be, this media is damaged, it can not be read, what do we do!

    As you can see this is an even more unfortunate situation. The copy was made but now the media where we did it is not working well. How awful!

  • Can we have confidence in our backup?


    When we left the office with our pen-drive or flash-drive in our pocket we felt so safe and happy that we assume that the world may collapse because we are really protected.

    Neither we think through the possibility of even more random facts. I have a client that makes its backup dutifully. First sunrise stopped that he forget about leaving the office without making backup. And he made in two media: first CD and then pen-drive or flash-drive. But inspite of the above he was committing an unforgivable mistake. Well, not so unforgivable because what he makes is also made for many of us. Or have you never done?

    He simply made copies and then kept them on his desk or in a safe. Once happened what had to happen and the sky is witness that more than once I warned. Joseph, leads the backup to home. And he answered, but it’s safer in my office than in my briefcase. On the street I may lose the briefcase, it could be stolen, etc. It's safer that backup stay in office.

    Well, a weekend some guys visited him and stole everything: the server, stations, cables, broadband router, the two switches and the safe with all backups which had in it. They left him in the street, naked. Materially speaking. When I found out I was sorry to call it, was to think that I was the jinx of all his misfortunes.

  • What is the best backup?


    If you ask me I think the best backup you can have is one that is not on earth but it is in the cloud. And you will ask, What is the cloud? Cloud is a way to call the virtual space that is on the Internet. When you place your backup in the cloud it is standing in the safest place in the world. For the following reasons:

    1. It is in a data-center maintained and supervised by highly qualified people that will make copies (several) of your backup and guarantee you that always can dispose of one of these copies to moment that you need it. Below you can see a video of one of these technological marvels.
    2. Because the backup is not up to you or your staff agreed to do it. The backup is performed daily automatically by specialized software that is responsible for verifying which data has changed and upload it through your Internet connection to the data-center in the cloud. Once there, the people of the data-center is responsible for backup and will make copies of your backup in a daily routine to make sure safety of your data.
    3. Because nothing can be damaged, nothing can be took away, nothing can be stolen, nothing can happen that jeopardize the security of your data. When you leave your office you can be really quiet because the data is already in the cloud and it is very difficult, if not impossible, that something unexpected might happen.

    This way you guarantee the reliability of your backup. Continues to perform backups on land using traditional methods through magnetic media, but increases system reliability by creating a second level of protection with backups in the cloud.

  • What is a data-center?


    In this video about Google you can have an inside look to a data-center:









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