Within the past few years, online backup has really gained a lot of popularity. And there are very good reasons for this: It’s convenient, safe and completely automated. When it comes to maintaining a consistent backup habit and ensuring that your files are safe from corruption or accidental deletion, it’s simply the best way to protect yourself.
One of the most common questions that come up when evaluating the possibility of switching to online backup is: “Will this take up a lot of bandwidth or slow down my computer?”If you follow the advice we’ve laid out in this article, you’ll hopefully get a better idea of how a fully-automated backup service can help simplify your life and protect your most important files… without over-burdening your computer or your online connection.
As a means of making their online backup products more efficient, data protection companies have a wide range of clever tools at their disposal. 2 of the most effective examples are:
Incremental Uploads (Block-Level)
Too often, people will assume that online backup programs need to upload all of the files on a daily basis. But this is thankfully not the case.
Most backup service providers offer what’s commonly referred to as “block-level incremental upload” functionality. In other words, the software will analyze your files to see if they’ve changed since the last backup. If so, the software is smart enough to isolate the parts of the file that have changed, and only upload those tiny fragments.
Performing backups in this manner can often improve upload efficiency by over 90%, meaning that it will only take about 1/10 of the bandwidth that would normally be required.
Once these pieces arrive at your backup provider’s remote storage server, they will be combined with your previous backup versions in order to create an up-to-date recovery copy.
CDP (Continuous Data Protection)
When most people talk about backups slowing down their internet connection, they’re usually referring to the daily “backup window” where they must wait for large batches of data to get transferred. If your daily backup uploads are scheduled for 5:00pm, you can reasonably anticipate a slower Internet connection for the duration of this process.
One way around this would be to limit the upload speed. But in doing this, you would also extend the length of your backup window. Essentially, you’d only be trading in one problem for another.
Interestingly, backup providers have discovered an innovative solution to this problem.
Instead of performing the daily backups in a single batch, they can be broken up into many tiny uploads – which are spread throughout the day. These chunks would ideally be so tiny that they could happen seamlessly in the background without any noticeable performance problems.
Probably the best example of this principle in action would be through the use of Continuous Data Protection. (Often called CDP)
With Continuous Data Protection, your block-level incremental uploads are performed immediately after you save a file. This way, you won’t need to wait for your batch uploads at the end of the day. All of this happens subtly in the background while you work.
Because it’s so efficient, you won’t even notice that it’s happening.
Extra Tip:
Although CDP is a great technology, some files may be better suited than others. For example, you won’t want to back up your MS Outlook every time a spam email hits your Junk Mail folder.
That’s why you’ll want to pick a CDP solution whose backup policies also allows you to set certain files aside for scheduled daily backups while keeping the rest on the CDP schedule.
If you’re a laptop user who’s on the road a lot, or if you live in an area with limited Internet connectivity, these 2 features we’ve just mentioned will be key to picking a solution that offers robust protection while also being very light on your IT resources.
About The Author: Storagepipe Solutions is a provider of efficient backup software for home desktop systems and laptops.
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