Back up Your Data

Your hard drive may fail. Your laptop could be lost. Your smart phone stolen. Maybe you erased the original version of an important document. Having a backup may prevent the loss of irreplaceable data, such as family photos. To back up data properly, you will need an additional storage location for the data and you must copy the data to that location regularly and automatically.

The additional location for your backed up files can be on your home network, secondary location, or in the cloud. By storing the backup of the data locally, you have total control of the data. You can decide to copy all of your data to a network attached storage device (NAS), a simple external hard drive, or maybe select only a few important folders for backup on thumb drives, CDs/DVDs, or even tapes. In that scenario, you are the owner and you are totally responsible for the cost and maintenance of the storage device equipment. If you subscribe to a cloud storage service, the cost depends on the amount storage space needed. With a cloud storage service like Amazon Web Services (AWS), you have access to your backup data as long as you have access to your account. When you subscribe to online storage services, you may need to be more selective about the data being backed up due to the cost of the storage and the constant online data transfers. One of the benefits of storing a backup at an alternate location is that it is safe in the event of fire, theft or other catastrophes other than storage device failure.