Online storage services

Online Storage options for Dummies

There is no dearth of online storage options for dummies today that I am sure it is causing some of you to become trichotillomaniacs. Online storage is one of the easiest ways to store information at a safe place. Whether you want to store everyday documents, emails, photographs, music files, large video files, or confidential financial documents, you can rely on online storage services. In the past few years, online storage offerings have been streamlined for all sorts of users. Individuals and businesses can make use of some fantastic online backup options nowadays.

Nearly half of all computer users usually lose irreplaceable information every year. Recent survey reports suggest that school going students and young professionals are highly vulnerable to such risks. Power outages, accidental file mishandling, hard drive crashes, and thefts are majorly responsible for data loss incidents. Many companies have come up with special backup options for dummies. These storage offerings involve safe and easy uploads, as well as the retrieval of data. A person can (more…)

How to ensure secure file sharing

Sharing files over a peer to peer (P2P) network is easy and risky at the same time. The best thing would be to avoid P2P networks or file sharing. However, that is not really the option when you must share documents over a network.

In the last few years, online storage services have been a hit among businesses, freelancers, and students. Sharing files through an online storage service provider’s website is extremely easy.

Rely on online storage services and avoid risks of security in P2P networks

All data and information transferred from your computer to the distant server of an online backup service provider is encrypted, so there is no chance of someone succeeding in intercepting your data on the way to its destination. As long as you protect your personal identification password, no one can access files shared by you. In the past few years, several organizations have started to use online backup storage services to share files among employees, suppliers, and partners.

Sort out a ‘practical’ data management policy and make sure everyone follows it

It is important for any organization to have a well planned and validated data management policy in place. Ensuring secure file sharing is an essential ingredient of this data management policy. It is advisable to brainstorm all possible ways to hack files shared over a network. Whether a company is allowing file sharing over a private or public network, it is important to consider all possible risks.

Here are the most important questions that you should ask:

Are your files safe on the route to a destination? Hackers can easily manage to intercept confidential files and documents sent over public networks that are not protected, so it is important to make sure that all data transfers between the source and destination are encrypted. Even a simple encryption algorithm is big enough to confuse supercomputers in the world.

Are your files protected against unauthorized access? Several hacking utilities and manually crafted attacks can break through firewalls and take over the security system of a workstation. If you are sharing files directly over a P2P network, your computer may very well be fooled by a worm that attacks an insecure port.

As soon as a virus or hacker gains access to a port on your computer, manipulating security or shared files becomes very easy. An online storage company transfers all your files over an SSL (Secure Socket Layer).

Photo via Auntie P

Ways to Prevent Data Loss

Have you ever wondered about the strange possibility of losing all your computer data all of a sudden? For many people, losing all data stored on a personal computer or laptop is a terrible experience. This can be even more horrible if you are a businessman or a student.

If it is frightening to even think of complete data loss, you must protect your data now. You may end up losing all your data if your hard drive fails due to some reason or a thief takes away your external hard drive. The possibility of a virus or spyware attack, manual errors, hard disk errors resulting in complete hard drive crashes, and data theft are actually high if you do not rely on modern storage options such as online storage services.

The loss of business critical data can be highly devastating for any organization. The overall benefits of using information technology are huge. However, these benefits also accompany certain risks and failures. Speedy and efficient back end data management processes do not ensure the safety of all your business critical data. That is the reason why a large number of businesses are now relying on online storage services to prevent data loss. Online storage companies provide flexible, secure and low cost services. Given below is a useful compilation of tips to prevent data loss:

Install antivirus software on all workstations

All workstations operated by employees of an organization are likely to invite viruses and worms if they are not protected by an updated antivirus. Corruption of one single computer may lead to cascading data loss or corruption on many other systems on the network. Make sure all computers operated by employees are protected by good antivirus software.

Execute a good filing system.

An organization generates hundreds or thousands of new records on a daily basis. All these records or files have to be stored at a secure online location. Manual failures are often responsible for the loss of critical customer records, billing information, etc. Accidental deletion of data may occur on a networked workstation, MIS, or stand-alone desktop computer. When a well planned filing and management system is in place, such occurrences are easily avoided.

Ways to Backup your Hard Drive

Your hard drive is the ultimate device to store your favorite music, videos, films, text, and hundreds of other files. It comes to your rescue when you need more space on your PC. But what happens if your hard drive goes for a toss and crashes without a warning? Well, you would end up losing precious data that you have been protecting so far.

So what are the ways to create a backup for your hard drive? One of the most reliable ways of making a backup for the data stored on your PC hard drive is to get an external hard drive, which performs the same action as that of a hard drive installed within the PC. More often than not, external hard drives have software that need to be used during the backup process. All you need to do is plug the external hard drive in and use the software while giving it commands to create a backup just the way you want.

Though external hard drives have recently gained importance for data storage, they are definitely not the only means to create a backup when your PC hard drive is down. Another reliable option you could fall back upon for your data backup needs is attached storage. This variety of storage is usually in the form of a network where a single hard drive is shared by a number of computers. Attached backup is a great alternative data storage option, especially for offices and businesses. Like any other hard drive, the amount of data you can store in an attached drive is largely decided by the scale of operations.

While external drives are preferred by most people when it comes to creating a data storage backup, online storage is increasingly becoming popular. Like in case of an external hard drive, you store the necessary data offline, online storage requires you to save your files on a site hosted by an online business. The procedure is easy, and all that you have to do is to find a site that can safely store your files. Once you have determined that the site is right for you, upload the files for which you want to create backup. One of the biggest benefits of online storage is that you can share the stored files with online friends, whereas in the other case, this is not possible.

An organization should always have a PC maintenance routine in place. You can use a disk cleanup utility or some other software to check the health of the operating system and other installed software. For all repairs and evaluations, you should rely on expert advice. Never allow anyone other than an expert professional to work with hard drives.

Photo via Moise-Creativo Galattico

Offsite Storage Solutions that work for your business

One of the best ways to backup your business critical data is to opt for a remote offsite storage solution. An offsite storage solution or online storage service provider can meet all your business needs. Whether you are concerned about the ever expanding volumes of information or are looking for a viable storage solution that is safe and cheap, online storage solutions can meet your varied business needs. Given below is a compilation of various benefits and features associated with an offsite storage solution offered on an online network –

• Data loss can cripple any organization in today’s digital world. Your organization is dependent on digital records for all its operations including billing, purchasing, operations, and sales. An organization cannot afford to lose these business critical records. Offsite storage solutions guarantee 100% backup. Even if a natural calamity hits the area where your business is established, your essential business data will be safe on distant servers.
• It is advisable to follow the best practices for mitigating hardware and software failure. However, no amount of preparation can guarantee 100% security for your precious business data. Therefore, an online backup storage is a must for your business.
• Technically, an offsite storage solution is just about backing up your data on an online server located away from your original business establishment. These backups are usually automated by advanced software utilities. Data retrieval from a distant online server is very easy. You or any other executive authorized to access the business storage volume can retrieve data through a web browser.
• The only issue with an online storage service is that you require a broadband connection at all times. Whether you want to upload a document to the offsite storage server or are willing to download a file, you will need an internet connection to do so. However, availability of an internet connection is hardly a problem now. Internet penetration and broadband services have improved significantly in the last one decade. Therefore, the chances of an internet downtime are very rare.
• An offsite storage solution provider will allow you to use backup software for free. This software can be used to synchronize all backups according to specific configurations. You will need to dedicate fewer resources to data management tasks after you sign up for an online storage service.

You will require little or no external support to use these backup solutions. All you need is a computer with an operating system, a web browser, and an internet connection.

Other Data Storage Options

Unlike in the personal space, the exchange of data in the professional space is far more frequent. Thus, if you have a business, it is a given that your storage needs will change from time to time. This is particularly the case with small businesses that are looking to diversify.

If you have a small business, then there are a number of data storage options you could explore over a period of time. Be it the more traditional modes or the more recent online storage option, you can access a whole gamut of ideas to store important data and other information for your small business.

Before exploring data storage options for your small business, it is important to know why storage is important for the future of your business. A growing concern of many businesses is legal matters and the need to reproduce precise information as collected over a period of time.

For example, your business faces a lawsuit for some reason, and as part of the process you are asked to search through files as old as four or five- perhaps even ten years old. What would you do if you did not have all the important data saved somewhere? What if there was an incident where the hard copies of all the saved information got destroyed?

A data storage option used most frequently by small business owners is a flash drive. A device as small as a thumb, a flash drive is an excellent option when it comes to opting for an easy storage option. The reason why a lot of people prefer flash drives is because they have no intricate parts to be taken care of and can be used even while traveling.

Amongst other data storage options, external hard drives also serve effectively to save up critical information. Though they are bulkier than thumb drives, external hard drives usually come with a lot of space. This lets you create backups for all major files that are often required for your small business.

Final Thoughts on How to Manage a Small Business with Big Data Requirements

Small business owners are apt in making the best use of resources like local hard drives and online storage. As a small business owner, you cannot even survive the competition if you fail to squeeze everything out of a resource. Optimizing data storage resources is necessary under all circumstances. If you are a small company with huge data requirements, you need to be careful about a number of things, including:

1. Selection of a data storage medium according to total business volumes and budget.

2. Suitability of a data storage medium for data generated or accumulated by your company.

3. Level of security associated with a given storage medium and possible risks of data loss in the near future.

Start prioritizing your data according to access frequency and criticality.

Not everything accumulated and generated by your small business is important. You need to prioritize your data so as to choose appropriate data storage mediums. Less important data can be stored on external hard drives or normal servers. You can use cheap and less secure data storage options for less important data. However, if data security and integrity is critical, you need to choose a reliable data storage option.

You can pay for an online storage service in such cases. These services are ideal for small, as well as large businesses. This is mostly due to the fact that online storage is mostly an on-demand service. You can rent as much server space as you require. As your data storage demands continue to grow, you can ask for additional data volumes on a distant server of the online data storage company.

Formulate a data storage plan, create data storage policies, and stick to them.

Call all your senior management officials and discuss data storage issues with them. Brainstorming data risks, criticality of information, and parameters such as access frequency is very important. People assuming different positions within an organization can sit together and sort out a working data storage strategy.

Even a small business should have well defined data storage policies in place. Each employee within the organization should know about these policies. For example, an organization should clearly define the treatment that a customer record or invoice is given. Whether these records are directly uploaded to an online server or replicated at a local workstation, an employee should know what to do with them. Execute well defined policies, and your organization will never lose precious business data.

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Devising a Data Storage Plan for your Startup business

A startup business owner should be particular about optimizing resource usage under all circumstances. Devising an effective online or offline data storage plan for your startup business is very important. Improper planning can cost you in terms of time, effort, and money in the next few months. While many new entrepreneurs are trusting online storage services for their data storage needs, it is always a good idea to take a closer look at all possible storage needs.

Given below are the most common benefits and techniques of devising a data storage plan for a growing business like yours –

• You need to prioritize your data according to criticality, access frequency, etc. Not all data gathered and produced by your startup organization is important. Similarly, you don’t have to access all customer records all the time. You need to prioritize your data according to the number of times you need to access something on a particular day or month. Also, it is important to classify data according to its importance. This will help you choose a suitable plan for storing and monitoring data.
• You need varying levels of security for the different data your startup business accumulates on a daily basis. Some of your business data demands highest care, and you need to devise appropriate methods and techniques to protect it. You must assign the task of taking regular backups to someone in your company to ensure the safety of such data. Several online storage companies allow automated backup features. Your troubles of creating regular backups of business data are addressed a great deal through such features.
• Over the next few years, data accumulated by your startup business will grow a great deal. No matter what the current situation is, you must think about your future data storage needs. If you are planning a business expansion or modification in the near future, you should take that into account when formulating a data storage plan. For example, it makes no sense to purchase expensive external hard drives if they will run out of space in the next six months. You need to think of something more reliable in terms of cost and service.

Consider the total cost of service or purchase. As a startup company, you need to minimize your operational costs. Paying a small fee for a large server space is a good idea. Most startup business owners prefer to rent server space through online storage services for the same reason.

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Which is the Safest Data Storage Option?

Information and data for many people consist of music and huge video files they filmed years ago. If all these files are lost, it would hurt, but not so much. However, if you own a business or are currently handling data management operations of an organization, you must think of ways to protect this business data in the best possible manner. Online storage services have emerged as a very safe data storage option. Online storage services are a huge plus over traditional data storage media that require you to purchase hardware. Over a period of time, this hardware is outdated and you need to make fresh investments, unlike an online server.

Considering the importance and critical nature of your business databases, records and files, it is important to choose a suitable online storage service provider over a traditional data storage media that is incapable of mitigating basic data loss risks. You must analyze various data loss risks before you choose a particular data storage option. Every vendor and storage service provider will claim to provide certain services. However, you must judge the security level of a storage media based on its capability to keep off viruses, data corruption errors, data thefts, and natural calamities.

People are always ready to pay more when they are searching for a safe place to store their critical business data. No one would want to lose customer records, invoices, and billing information just because of a poor storage media or hardware error. There are a number of risks associated with local storage options including flash drives and external hard drives. These storage options are alright for housewives and students who need to store regular data on these media. However, businesses need to make sure that all information and data is protected against all sorts of risks.

Online storage services provide the safest data storage option because your data is stored on remote servers with multiple software and hardware layers of security. All your data is transferred and stored in encrypted form, so there is no risk of data theft. Also, copies of all your data are stored on multiple servers of the company. Even if there is a major calamity, your data will be safe on another server located in a different place.

Online storage companies deploy some of the finest data safety mechanisms that no individual business organization can afford or manage on its own.

Safeguarding Data Loss

Alternatively, if you haven’t yet chosen one of the top online storage companies to host your data, there are some means to safeguarding your data from loss.

In order to safeguard your personal or business data against loss, you must first know about the root causes of . Information about all possible causes of data loss should help you take adequate measures against them.

Online storage is a great solution to protect your valuable data against all types of losses. Here is a discussion on how online storage should help you safeguard your data against loss that may happen due to various reasons:

A hard disk crash is one of the most common causes of data loss. The first way to safeguard data against loss due to hard disk failure is to be prepared with some recovery tools. You must learn the right use of these tools to recover the lost data.

However, a better solution is to use online storage to backup your data regularly. For this, you must follow an automatic approach to let the data get updated on its own.

Natural disasters are other causes of data loss. However, there are no other tools except online backup mediums that can protect your data against loss due to earthquakes, cyclones, and floods. Similar protection is required to prevent data loss caused by fire. For even better protection, go a step further and choose an internet data storage center which is located in a region that is less prone to natural disasters.

Loss of data may also occur due to power and electric failures caused due to lightning. Safeguarding data in such situations can be undertaken with the help of external storage devices. You can create data backups using external hard disks and flash drives. However, there is no match for the convenience offered by online mediums for robust data backup.

Data can be safeguarded against losses caused due to many other reasons like virus attacks and software malfunctions. Employee fraud and unauthorized access may also lead to loss of data if you don’t have the security tools to safeguard it. To fight all these threats, you can rely on online storage and data backup services.

The next step to safeguard data against loss is to choose a suitable online backup facility. For this, you must assess how much data you wish to protect against loss and choose the storage capacity accordingly.

Also, compare the quotes of different storage service providers and choose one that meets your budget limits. Make sure you learn about the management of online storage and data stored in such centers.

Photo via Valley Library

The 85 Best Online Storage Articles and Blogs

1.     TechMaish -  How can your business benefit by using online storage applications? Find out here!

2.      Mt-soft.com – Learn about the benefits of Diino’s free online tools with 2 GB of free data storage.

3.      Hacknmod – The top 10 online storage solutions are here at Hacknmod.com. Discover what fits your data needs best.

4.      Living Onlines – FileQube offers free online storage where you can secure and share files.

5.      Freewaria.com – If you don’t do your research when using your free online storage mediums, you may be subject to losing your data! Check out this story to find out more!

6.      Onsoftware –  Elena Santos describes the top free online storage tools here. Discover what there is to offer.

7.      Techlivez – Read the review of Microsoft’s SkyDive for 5 GB of free online storage space.

8.      Opengiga – Want to know about Opengiga’s favorite 60 free online storage services? Come check it out.

9.      Movie and Gadget Review – Another review of Microsoft’s new service SkyDrive.

10.  Linux and Friends – Here they have collected a few popular free online storage services which provide value to the home user. All these online storage services offer a free package with some storage space restrictions and charge a small amount for a premium package which does not have any restrictions.  Usually most home owners can do using the free package.

11.  Virturoff – 2 GB of online picture storage for free!

12.  I Love Free Software – This site evaluates 3 free unlimited online free photo storage and photo sharing websites. I Love Free Software outlines the differences between the sharing capabilities and highlights benefits of using all of them.

13.  Netbook Freeware – is a free application by which you can turn your online email accounts to online file storage. This online file storage is very helpful for sharing all your files and folders with multiple PC’s that too very easily.

14.  Tricks-Collections -  Get 50 GB of online storage with this new software. Read about the benefits of online storage here!

15.  Itstechsense – Looking for the Mecca of free software sites? This collaboration of information combines a plethora of different types of free software.

16.  What On My PC – This set of articles describe the benefits of Google storage, Linoit and Google Chrome. This site also features hundreds of articles for the technology lover!

17.  Carol’s Vault – Come to Carol’s Vault to find over 30 file share and drop bookmarks including a variety of other useful information regarding data storage.

18.  Aksgeek – read all about how to back up your data using your email address!

19.  Ghacks – Wuala takes a unique approach to secure online storage. Read about the free storage opportunities and more at Ghacks!

20.  Dottech – Dot Tech shares a link to a free online backup trial. Find out more freebie software information here!

21.  JTBworld – Protect your photos using online storage.

22.  Tech Bliss Online – Here they review some of the best free cloud storage solution providers that include Google Docs, Windows Live Sky drive, Box.net, Dropbox, and ADrive to store, access, manage, view and edit files of all types!

23.  Tech Hail – Read about Tech Hail’s 15 best online backup services with many opportunities for free cloud computing.

24.  Techknowl – Check out this review of the best free online backup services out there.

25.  Techmixer – Read all about free file synchronization software on TechMixer!

26.  Techiequest – Read all about free cloud hosting services for desktop applications here at Techiequest.

27.  Crashtestchix – Read all about how the early bird catches the cloud!

28.  Ask A Tech Teacher – Want to learn all about cloud computing? Come here to browse the articles and links compiled by a tech teacher in her virtual classroom.

29.  Ask Bill First – Bill asks “how valuable is your data”? Read this article to help you determine this for yourself.

30.  Bill Mullins – Come here to read all about free data recovery tools and much more. The plethora of innovative and technology savvy articles will astound you!

31.  The Crazy World of G – Read all about cloud computing services here at the Crazy World of G!

32.  Gizmodo – Read about 32 ways to secure your digital life here at Gizmodo!

33.  Arstechnica – Here is a review of online backup solutions at your disposal.

34.  Tech Teach Too – Not sure what “cloud computing” actually means? Come here and read this short and sweet article.

35.  TTCshelbyville – Learn all about cloud computing, online storage options and virtual appliances in this list of articles provided by TTCShelbyville.

36.  Big Geek Daddy – This site hosts links of free software for data recovery, online storage and much more. Come here and browse what the internet has to offer… for free!

37.  Billpstudios – Read about the advantages of backing your data up using the cloud and a home server.

38.  Tech Dirt – Do you know about your legal rights regarding privacy for information stored online? If not, come here to join and discuss the ongoing debate.

39.  Walt Mossberg – Wall Street Journal writer, Mossberg, discusses everything under the cloud.

40.  The PC Informant – The PC Informant offers a variety articles regarding technology. This link introduces a video regarding the new and improved Good Docs application.

41.  Technologizer – Microsoft has just recently brought OneNote to the iPhone. Read about the new applications and online storage capabilities here.

42.  Free Software Lists – Read about free data recovery and backup options including Smart Data Recovery.

43.  Tech Jaws – Discover how incremental forever backups work here at TechJaws!

44.  Scoroncocolo – Learn about online backup strategies, cloud desktops and alternatives for free!

45.  HD Doctor – Go to HD Doctor to find a list of free remote file sharing and storage along with backup capabilities.

46.  Renesys – Earl Zmijewski addresses some burning questions regarding cloud computing.

47.  How to Geek – Learn all about AOL’s Xdrive in the Online Storage Series on How to Geek.

48.  Evil Fantasy – Come here to learn about data loss, recovery and prevention and use the links to find free tools for doing so.

49.  404techsupport – Here, Jason Hamilton will teach you all about music distribution while using cloud computing!

50.  Technize – It’s always important to choose the safest method of backing up the important data. Read this article to discover the top 3 best online backup services… for free!

51.  Channel 9 – Want to backup your mobile phone for free? Learn how at Channel 9!

52.  40Tech – Why should you backup your online accounts? Why backup to another online service? How secure is it? Is it really free? Find the answers to your questions and more.

53.  Tech Goes Strong – Read about the best sites that allow you to share your photos online for free (with unlimited storage!) Avid digital photographers should take full advantage!

54.  4sysops – Read about the 4 golden backup rules, free storage services, recent cloud computing features and much more.

55.  Achugh’s Blog – Learn about free lifetime backup for Gmail, Facebook and Twitter in order to secure your online life.

56.  Addictive Tips – Do you know about Amazon S3? The idea behind is to let user create independent cloud and to address online cloud storage limitations by offering an intuitive mechanism in which files and folders can be safeguarded on different storage planes.

57.  Ask Bob Rankin Are you running out of storage space on your hard drive? Are you on a tight budget and considering using a free online storage tool to offload some files? Find out which sites Bob Rankin recommends.

58.  Barrys Best Blog – Barry recommends DocStoc for online storing. Discover why by reading his technology blog here.

59.  Beep The Geek – Figure out the best free online data storing websites recommended by Beep the Geek.

60.  Bloody Computer – Do you want to know more about Dropbox? Come to Bloody Computer to figure out if this may be the best option for you.

61.  BNET –When it comes to online file storage, the Internet is getting more robust and reliable all the time. Here are ways to take advantage of the cloud in your own business. Read about the top cloud storage picks of 2010.

62.  Life Hack – Life Hack provides a list to 90 online file storage services, many of which are free to the user. Come check out this extensive list and read about other relevant technology topics.

63.  Computelogy – Learn about what Dell has to offer when it comes to online storage.

64.  Techishare – Learn about Dreamhost’s reliable backup services that often offers free backup for a limited amount of GB.

65. Techno360 – Looking for a business edition for online storage? Come here for your free download that has a multitude of features.

66.  Cnet – With nearly 800 online storage services listed, there is no way you couldn’t find one to use! Check it out.

67.  Computer Hope – Where should you store your long term data? Here is a list of unique sites that allow online data storage.

68.  Crazzy Cool – Why worry about formatting your hard drive? Backup your digital life using these tips.

69.  The Freeware Junkie – Read about The Freeware Junkie’s favorite online storage device and other tips regarding cloud computing.

70.  Mister Reiner – Read Mister Reiner’s review of Microsoft Office Web Applications. You may be surprised!

71.  MrinTech – Learn about the best free portable applications for online storage along with a variety of other mediums for storing data.

72.  Right Celebrity – Learn how to use Dropbox online storage across different digital devices with this quick and easy video!

73.  Technize –  Want to know to set up a Network Attached Storage and protect your families data? Of course, if you have money to spend, you can go to any computer store and buy a pre-built NAS device. But if you’re short on cash, you can also build your own for free. Learn how!

74.  Tech Piper – Check out Tech Piper’s reviews of Dropbox and Gmail online storage.

75.  Teckline – Get 50 GB of free storage from ADrive. Read a review here!

76.  Crenk – Read this article for the best free online tools for converting files.

77.  Daily Cup of Tech – Come here to compare online storage services!

78.  Inside-the-system -  Learn about the differences between cloud-based storage and Network Attached Storage systems here at Inside the System.

79.  Tech Guru – Read about P2P cloud computing, encryption concerns and more, here at Tech Guru.

80.  TechLounge 4 U – Read about the pros and cons of local vs. cloud computing here at TechLounge!

81.  Tech-nikz – Backupify proved that Gmail CAN run out of space. Check out this article.

82.  Extreme Tech – Extreme Tech asks “should you bother with online storage?” Find out their answer.

83.  File Guru – File Guru has a plethora of online storage articles. Browse through the multitude of information to find the answer to any question you may have.

84.  Geeks to Go – Come here to find a review of different storage mediums. Figure out what the best medium is for you and your data!

85.  Help Desk Geek – Learn why you can use NAS at home and the benefits of doing so.

Why is Online Storage becoming so popular?

People who have suffered from data loss in the past understand the importance of online storage services very well. If you have suffered due to a crashed hard drive in the past, you know how painful it is to lose all your precious documents, songs, and pictures in a few seconds. Online storage media has been very popular with students, home PC users, and SMEs due to the kind of facilities it offers. Here are the top reasons as why online storage is becoming so popular –

a) Automated recovery of data to an online server – A number of online storage companies are now offering services that support automated recovery. With desktop utilities, people can easily schedule and plan their backup operations in various small and medium scale companies.

b) Cheaper solutions for businesses – Several companies are able to make huge cost cuts with the help of online data backup services. A traditional tape backup system enables several companies to save on licensing fees, hardware and software costs, tape purchase, and human resources. For a low fee, companies can now afford as much online storage as they require. There is no need to pay a single penny for extra GB of space, as most companies are now charging according to the total data space occupied and monthly bandwidth consumption.

c) Safe and secure option to store data –Most small and medium scale businesses worry about the security of their data. It is important to save important business critical data in the best possible manner. All business organizations are now handling digital records for all their operations, and it becomes extremely important to backup all this data at a suitable location. A company cannot afford to lose precious data due to a theft, fire, or some other calamity. It becomes an absolute necessity to safeguard organizational data at all costs.

d) Ease of working with online storage services – Several companies need to take regular backups of their databases. These databases change several times in a single day, and creating regular backups is a great task in itself. Online storage companies have simplified this task of creating backups for businesses.

Online data storage services are becoming popular because people love the benefits that come along with them. Everyone likes the idea of accessing crucial data at any time from any place in the world. Moreover, these services are constantly evolving because of ongoing competition between several internet giants.

Why online storage is a great idea for students and home PC users

Students and home PC users are often spotted complaining about data loss. Several students and home PC users are irritated by the occurrences of data corruption due to viruses, Trojans and worms. Online backup storage offers great advantages in this respect, and that is the reason why students and home PC users from all over the world have now started using these services.

Here are the top reasons as to why students and home PC users are now making a shift toward online backup storage services –

a)      Online storage services provide uninterrupted supply from all places – Students and home PC users can access their documents, songs, pictures, and videos from anywhere in the world this way. Their data is stored in the servers of the data backup service provider, and accessing it through browsers over an IP connection is easy.

b)      Online backup storage is safe from all sorts of virus attacks – Data on various online servers is protected round the clock. Since companies offer data storage services as their main offering, they employ the highest level of physical and logical protection to save a customer’s data from thefts, natural calamities, and viruses.

The customer’s data is always given special treatment via the servers of online backup storage service providers. A number of companies maintain parallel copies of the same data on different servers to increase an additional layer of security against natural calamities.

c)       Online storage companies are now offering large volumes of storage for a small price -
Renting disk space on an online server is now very cheap. There is no need to spend hundreds of dollars to get GBs of secure online storage for precious documents and lifelong collection of data. Students find it very useful to store their documents online. For a few dollars, they get to enjoy a large volume of secure storage space online.

d)      Automated backup services – A number of companies are now offering automated data backup services with the help of additional desktop software. Once installed, this software simplifies the task of creating regular backups of a database or a folder a fixed number of times on a particular day. The idea of having software doing all the necessary backups to a highly secure location is great.

Internet speeds are increasing in all parts of the globe, and that is the reason why people are relying more on online backup storage services now.

Photo via flyscan

Understanding different storage media

The whole world is dependent on digital information, and all this data is stored on various storage media. Over the years, storage options have evolved from mechanical disks to volumetric spheres of data. Now you can store your data at online storage locations for a very small fee.

Your data at an online storage location is completely safe against virus intrusions, thefts, earthquakes, etc. Without the knowledge of all popular storage media, it is foolish to make a decision regarding the choice of storage options. Here are a few popular storage media –

• Hard drives (external and internal) – These are the most popular data storage media that consist of a boot sector. It is this boot sector, which is first read by the Operating System of a computer when it is turned on. Hard drives can be internal or external. Servers and mainframe computers also depend on hard drives for storing large amounts of data. Their size and performance may vary. Data from these hard drives can be accessed with the help of a serial cable or USB port.
• Tape drives – These drives are also used to create backup copies of data. Tape drives are usually configured to utilize various media types such as cassette tapes, tape reels, and reel-to-reel tapes. These drives are usually deployed to backup system programs and apps. Tape reels are used to read each one of all previously performed transactions in the event of a crash or system error. Tape drives are used for a number of purposes today. To this day, mainframe computer systems use tape drives for backing up data on a regular basis. Dealing with tape drives is not easy, and not everyone can do that.
• Online storage – A number of businesses are now relying on online storage options to store their business data. It is better than having tape drives and hard drives in one’s own premises. Online storage service providers may use hard drives and other similar media to store data, but they deploy additional layers of security. Client data is usually replicated on more than one server for maximum protection. A number of online companies also provide superb data encryption to protect confidential data.

Other than these major storage options, one can also make use of flash drives and CD ROMS. Storage mediums continue to evolve, and researchers come up with something new every month. It is the security, integrity, and organization of data which is more important than the amount of space.

Photo via Rex Maximilian