No matter how efficient a computer system appears to be, there is always the possibility of a malfunction wiping out valuable data. For this reason, many companies have set up backup systems, designed to recover lost data. It is very important that an organization have at least two backup. a backup in local (onsite backup) and another in a remote location (offsite backup).

Off-site backup is a method of computer data backup involving the use of an offsite location as a means of securing in the event of a disaster. It is similar to a standard backup process, but uses a facility or storage media that is not physically located within the organization’s core infrastructure and located in another geographically location. (Such as another city, another country and even on cloud). It’s true. Cloud backup is an example of offsite backup solutions but online. In fact, online backup is a subset of offsite backup that  back up data from hard drive to a remote server or computer using a network connection (such as internet).Online backup is typically part of a business disaster recovery plan.

Are you familiar with the “3-2-1 rule of backup”? This rule states that an organization should have three copies of data on two different media, with one copy of the media placed offsite.

This type of backup is primarily is used in data backup and disaster recovery measures.

Source: backupassist.com  and  spamlaws.com

 

 

Offsite Backup vs Onsite Backup 

Onsite backup means the storage of the backup data on local storage devices such as hard drives, DVDs, and more.

Onsite backup has some advantages over offsite storage, including:

  1. Immediate access to data
  2. Less expensive
  3. Internet access not needed

But Onsite backup has a very important and very critical disadvantage. For example, in a fire in the building, or a water main bursts, onsite data storage can be destroyed. Also, onsite storage units can be stolen, resulting in a loss of time, money, and data.

Off-site data backup may also be done via direct access, over Wide Area Network (WAN).

This type of backup has some advantages over onsite storage, including:

  1. Access to data from any location, via Internet or FTP.
  2. Backup data can be shared with a number of different remote locations. When this is done to different physical locations, the possibilities of data loss are minimized.
  3. Data will be preserved in the event of an event taking place within the business. This is crucial in discussing disaster recovery and business continuity.
  4. Advanced security of data-encrypted network connections.
  5. Backup operations can be performed automatically.
  6. Facilities for handling archiving: We also can consider offsite as a archive location for our data and files.
  7. Cross-platform technology (backup can be performed regardless of the operating system).

It is no exaggeration to say that offsite backup is one of the pillars of business continuity and disaster recovery in an organization.

Source: 4ucomputersolutions.co.nz  and  backupassist.com

 

 

How Does Offsite Backup Work? 

Offsite data backup works by first encrypting the data, then compressing and transmitting it to an offsite security center.

Many offsite backup service providers will offer additional features, including account management, over-the-phone support, and central management for multiple data locations.

There’s two main ways of doing offsite backup:

  • Traditional: In this way, first you must create a data backup, then you must this backup copy on devices such as External hard disk, DVD or Tape and finally transfer these devices to the remote site (offsite). This method is not effective because creating a copy of data once a week, moving this copy to an external drive and storing this drive in offsite, is difficult and time-consuming. In fact, Traditional way limits the frequency of offsite backups, which might cost you weeks of progress.
  • Modern: In this way, data backup create in local and then transfer to offsite via the internet or WAN link. This way is simple, although, the organization’s Internet bandwidth or WAN link bandwidth may be used extensively. There are many number of different internet backup services and also many number of the third-party backup solutions that you can set up and they will be automatically copying your backup to the remote location.

A Golden Rule: As far as you can, make sure the contents of onsite backup and offsite backup are exactly the same.

You can more learn about offsite backup in here.

 

 

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Sources:

backupassist.com

4ucomputersolutions.co.nz

spamlaws.com