| Nowadays, the concept of online backup became | | | | known as archiving) where the system keeps the old |
| common and many people started using it due to the | | | | files versions that have been overwritten or deleted |
| many advantages it offers like automatic backup, no | | | | and timestamp them for future archive in case user |
| need to buy flash or external drives, data is | | | | needs to get them. This allows users to access an |
| accessible from anywhere, and many other features. | | | | old file version that has been deleted or overwritten |
| Online backup solutions are not all alike. In general, all | | | | which can save a lot of user time in case he |
| online backup solutions backup the data online | | | | accidently deleted or overwrote a critical file or data. |
| allowing users to restore it when needed using some | | | | Data Privacy Options |
| mechanism. However, some solutions offer advanced | | | | Generally Speaking, most online backup solutions |
| features set that makes the user's job a lot easier | | | | perform data encryption on data while it is getting |
| when it gets to restoring or finding lost data. Here is | | | | backed up (or uploaded) to the online backup store. |
| a list of some main features a buyer should look for: | | | | This is called session encryption. Solutions use a |
| Continuous Backup vs. Manual Upload | | | | variety of encryption options for backup session such |
| Many solutions offer continuous backup by replicating | | | | as SSL, AES and Blowfish. This protects the privacy |
| folders/file additions, changes, and deletion to the | | | | for data while being transmitted from user's PC to |
| online backup site in a continuous fashion seamlessly. | | | | online backup store. On the other hand, some |
| In this case, a user does not have to worry about | | | | solutions offer additional layer of protection to data |
| remembering to backup files; it is done behind the | | | | privacy by giving the user the choice to store files |
| scene seamlessly. Some solutions allow user to | | | | encrypted using user's own selected password. This |
| control the frequency and time of data backup like | | | | means no one can open the file but the user since he |
| setting a schedule or update period length. Other | | | | will be the only one to know the password. |
| solutions do not backup data continuously; instead | | | | Compression Support |
| they offer the user the storage space and leave it | | | | Some solutions offer data compression before or |
| up to the user to upload his data files each time he | | | | after the backup process. Compressing backed up |
| needs. This requires the user to upload his data files | | | | data can achieve two main good things for us: Makes |
| folders manually each time he wants the new copy | | | | backup consume less space, and performs backup |
| online. This makes it inconvenient to the user as he | | | | quicker. Depending on user files types (documents, |
| has to do this manually each time there is a change in | | | | images, databases, etc), compression might not be |
| the data. | | | | helpful if user decides to backup files that are already |
| Files/Folder versioning or archiving | | | | in a sort of compressed format like (JPG images, |
| Some solutions offer the so called file versioning (also | | | | some EXE files). |