f you’re anything like me, you value you work and data, and there’s no other way to protect your data than to use an online backups service. With the increasing implementation of cloud computing; comes greater storage options for online backup for home and business use, and there are endless amount of online backup services out there promising to safeguard your data for you.

In this article I’ll discuss some essential points that you need to ask your online backups provider to help you with your choice of backup solution for your personal files or business.

How long will it take to make my initial backup?

The first backup takes the longest, and most home DSL users have their upload rates capped at a certain level, this means that it may take weeks or months to upload all your files. Thankfully after you’ve made the initial backup the subsequent backups take next to no time as only the modified files are uploaded. A few online backups providers send you an external hard drive to make the initial back and then post it to their addresses. Other allow you to prioritize the order of the backup so you can save your most important files first. Finally the speed of the initial backup really depends on your connection speed, and the location of the server, an offshore server will take significantly more time.

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Where is my data kept?

If the company responds with a SAS70 certified data center, Rack space cloud, Amazon S3 cloud or an encrypted server inside a walk in vault/cage then these are good answers.

No no answers would be on a reseller web space, home server, unencrypted company server or any other vague answer then look elsewhere.

How will my bill be calculated?

Most home or single user plans are priced transparently, and usually come with more than enough storage space; the offer either unlimited storage or just a huge amount of storage space in general, the truth is most home users would never need that much space or be able to get to these levels if they wanted to; because home DSL speeds are inevitably capped at a certain speed which would mean uploaded 100GB could take years!

However for business users the story is slightly different as businesses DO have super fast internet speeds, storage space is price per GB, and often have a tiered pricing policy which you will need to investigate to find out your true cost. You must factor in how much data you are likely to back up now and in future as well.

Who has access/keys to my data?

It is imperative for users to have a secure environment to backup their data on, and part of that entails encryption so that no prying eyes have access to your user data. Each client/user on the backup plan must have his/her unique and randomly generated 20 character key that is used to unlock the data. Obviously this key must be kept securely so that it is not lost be the und user, a good way to ensure this is to keep a print out as well as saved electronically in a completely unrelated location to the backup files.

What is not acceptable is for the key to be kept by the backup provider or even withheld from the end user, as is the case with many online backup services.

Conclusion:

With these four points in mind, you’re well on your way in ensuring your online backups service meets your needs and fit to use to safeguard your data, visit the online backup reviews page for a list of reliable and affordable online backup services.