Offsite data storage is a computer data backup method which involves offsite location usage as a medium of securing when a disaster comes. In the old times, this involved the use of magnetic tapes and any other removable storage media. Recently, disk drives replace them and become more popular as they are more efficient.
It works by first encrypting the data, then compressing and transmitting it to an offsite security center. This data can be accessed in emergency moment using the internet or another data restore line.
Many offsite data storage providers will offer additional features such as account management, over the phone support, centralized multiple data locations management for both database and email backup.
There are several advantages offered by the providers such as Recall :
1. The data stored and protected safely during a disaster.
2. Automatically performs backup operations efficiently
3. Cross platform technology which means the storage do not depend on the user operating system application.
4. Additional data-encrypted network connections security.
In the past time, the computer backup standard uses magnetic tapes as they were in fact portable and could be stored away from the computer. However, this begins to change to disk drives in the present.
One reason of this changing is that the cost of disk drives has been reduced significantly and it is more competitive than tapes. In addition, disk drives are faster than tapes.
Nevertheless, the decision to choose which ones is the best for the offsite data storage will depend on the invidual or corporate necessity. Using tapes is better when deep archiving is needed, such as memory data of important financial documents for tax and other purpose. This storage data method become cheaper and safe if stored offsite.
On the other side, disk drives for offsite data storage offers preferable solution when the corporate or individual user need to access the data quickly in the event of disaster. Differently from tapes, the disk data storage will be functioning as a mirror of your current system.