What is Online Backup?

Originally an online backup meant backing up files, usually on a server, without taking the server off line. That is the server and what ever it was serving, like a web server, or email server, remained available during the backup process. The real need or desire for an online backup (aka open file backup), evolved with our amassing of data, the Internet and an insane work ethic.

• more data = longer backups
• insane work ethic (longer hours) =  less time to backup
• internet = even less time to backup and more vulnerable to data loss.

Online backup was born, or at least the open file version of online backup was born, and server administrators could sleep, (or play computer games), at night knowing that even though their favourite server was busy all the data was/would/could be backed up.

The second version of online backup can also be blamed on the Internet. Some genius realized that they could backup their data from one computer to another over the Internet using a modem. Not only that but they could dump their data on someone else’s computer, in some cases without them even knowing it. In this case online backup meant backing up on the Internet.

This online or Internet backup was restricted to small amounts of data, (remember how slow dial-up was?), or to those with dedicated ISDN connections, like universities, and governments. Then along came high-speed Internet, and 9/11 and things changed again.

One thing that computer geeks learned from 9/11 was that having a remote backup (aka offsite backup) was a really good idea. The easiest way to get an offsite backup, or remote backup, was to use online backup. Using the Internet or intranet over the Internet they could move their valuable data offsite for safe storage. This is when the current version of online backup came of age.

Prior to 9/11, if you had searched for online backup services, you would have come up with only a dozen or so such services. The main ones being Connected Corp., Compaq Computers, and Back-It-Up Dot Com. Today, if you searched for the phrase “online backup services” at Google you would get a mediocre 100,000 hits give or take a few. Online backup services (Internet backup) have come of age.