One of the biggest concerns that anyone can have these days is about the security of their computer data. With the rapid increase in the use of computers at workplaces and at homes, data security is more crucial than ever.

These days, it is not uncommon for the entire data of a company to be on its computer systems.

With hardcopies of important documents fading and society steadily moving towards the “Paperless Office” it has become imperative that individual people and companies begin thinking about and applying various means to safeguard their precious data.

Complete Data Protection Includes Backup

Merely making access to data difficult and protecting it from malware and other online threats is not safeguarding it completely.

It is important to have an efficient backup solution in place so that if and when the aforementioned tactics of protection fail, you can still restore your precious data without a serious hit to performance.

This is perhaps most important for big companies with huge data centers housing all their critical data, often times including sensitive information like contract details, customer directories and files pertaining to internal administration like employee files, accounts information, assets information etc.

For such situations, it is crucial to have regular backups that you can fall back on should the unthinkable happen.

Online Backup Solutions

Since the advent of the internet, the idea of remote backups has existed but was prohibitively expensive and time consuming thanks to the abysmal speeds of the old modems.

A remote or online backup solution is a backup procedure where data from your computers and other electronic devices like smart phones, tablet PCs etc, is backed up on a remote server in a periodic and timely fashion.

This makes it possible for you to immediately have access to your most recent backup should something run afoul on your system or device and render its data useless.

SugarSync – A Promising Online Backup Solution

One online backup solution that provides such a convenient backup service is SugarSync. With sugarsync, a user can choose to backup the contents of their computers in a convenient and easy to access format.

Sugarsync, previously known as Sharpcast has had their service reviewed by many online reviewers and technology portals and has even been named the best cloud service by none other than Gizmodo.

With this service, a user can choose to backup the contents of not just their PCs and laptops but also their iphones, ipod touches, ipads, ipads, tablets and blackberry devices.

This presents a very appealing opportunity for users who consider their data to be very important and refuse to compromise on data security and backups.

Advanatages of Using SugarSync

What SugarSync does is that as soon as you sign up, it assigns a cloud entirely to you and also gives you 5GB of free space. Once this is done, you can just select the folders on your device that you want to backup, like folders on your Mac or Windows computer or iPhone or iPad and have them backed up whenever you want.

If for some unfortunate reason, you happen to lose your data, you can easily restore it with the latest backup that you made. This gives the average user the advantage of some of the best and most advanced backup technology for free, or at a fraction of the price of the equipment if you decide to go for the paid version.

SugarSync also makes it easy for you to backup mobile devices directly thanks to its apps that can be installed on virtually any mobile device. Plus, the security of your data is assured with 128 bit AES encryption so you won’t have to worry about your data being accessed by unauthorized people.

Mozy – Yet Another Great Online Back Solution

Another great solution for online backup is Mozy. Mozy is an online backup solution that also offers several enticing features and comes with the added advantage that it has no setup or monthly fees and does not require a credit card to set up.

There are 2 versions that you can find, called, Mozy Home Free and Mozy Home.

As the name describes these 2 services, the first one is free and gives you up to 2GB of space to backup your data from your Windows or Mac.

Added advantages include the ability to fine tune your backups like choosing exactly which files to backup, the schedule according to which they are backed up and also the capacity to create special rules that define the backing up of particular files.

Mozy can be used to backup literally any kind of data from photos & music to spreadsheets & various documents, making it a great tool for both casual home users and companies alike.

Synopsis

The main appeal of online backup solutions lies in the number and type of facilities that these solutions can provide.

In order to avail these services for yourself, all you need to do is to sign up for free, or if you need some advanced features or extra space, pay a small fee that is negligible compared to the cost that you would incur if you were to invest in the same hardware and infrastructure for your own company.

A good example to illustrate this fact would be this: Consider your car, would it be cheaper to drill your own oil rig and set up your own refinery for the gas or just buy it by driving to the local gas station? I think the answer is loud and clear. What has been your experience with online backup solutions?