If you are already backing up files to an external disk (or less likely a tape drive) and are sitting comfortably thinking all my data is safe then you may want to think again. Have you considered what would happen in the event of a disaster? A burglary, a fire, flooding. All these things could render your computers, backup devices and most importantly your data inaccessible – forever!
Backing up your data to an external device and storing it in a safe “off-site” location, is one solution. But what if you forget to take the drive off-site or you haven’t made a recent backup? All your latest data will be lost.
A cloud backup service is where the on premise computer is backed up over the internet to a data centre. The data centre may also be “mirrored” so that your data is not held in one place.
Automatic scheduled (or real-time) backups of your data run in the background so your up-to-date files will be stored for recovery in the event of a disaster.
If Business Continuity is an issue for you (how long can you afford your server to be offline?) there are cloud services that can restore your server to a Virtual Machine which can be accessed from an internet enabled device.