It took me a great deal of effort in research and trialling before coming up with the backup service provider which I currently use. I had come up with a number of criteria which I was looking to be met in order to be comfortable. I outline my criteria below. This was for me personally and it may be different for you. For this reason you may arrive at a decision than me.
I have chosen to use Remote Data Backups to back up my data (If you download through this link, then email me from my about me page, I will then also send you a link to a very useful and free application, that will make organising your files for backup even easier). This decision was not made lightly and I have been very happy with my choice. To sum up at a high level what I was looking for it was
1. very secure storage facilities,
2. excellent support and service,
3. easy to use software (instillation and backups),
4. an excellent reputation, and
5. a great track record.
Of course I wanted all this at a reasonable price. I will note here that I was not looking for the cheapest service, I was looking for the best service but wanted the price to be reasonable.
1. Very secure data storage facilities
Where my data is stored is of great concern to me. If I need to get my data from the data storage centre I do not want any surprises. I absolutely want it to be there. This helps me to be able to sleep easily at night. If I was not sure about the security and reliability of the facility then I would not be able to rest so easily.
The data storage facilities at Remote Data Backups are very secure. When I say very secure I mean very secure. This is for the following reasons.
a. The data centres are mirrored over 1200 miles apart
There are actually two data centres over 1200 miles apart. Your data is actually backed up in both of them. This means that if something was to happen to one data centre then all of your data would still exist in the other data centre.
b. Each data centre is buried over 200 feet into a mountain
This makes them highly secure from all sorts of threats. It is much harder to break in or attack. It is also much safer from extreme weather events such as tornadoes or hurricanes. It is even supposed to be able to withstand a nuclear attack.
c. Each data centre has high level security measures in place to prevent unauthorised access
Being inside a mountain makes it a lot easier to guard but even so they still have finger print scanning access, as well as motion sensors and security cameras.
The data is transferred from your computer to the data centre at the same level Banks, and Governments use
This is very important as you want your data to be very secure during transit.
2. Excellent Support and Service
Despite being quite technically capable I absolutely wanted to have good service and support from my data backup service. I wanted to know that I could get a technical expert which was highly familiar and experienced with the backup system at anytime that I had a problem. That means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
I was also looking for quality testimonials relating directly with experiences which people have had.
Remote Data Backups did very well in both of these areas. Their phone support was excellent and was always open. They have a huge amount of testimonials with people who have been very happy with their service, especially when they have needed to rely on Remote Data Backups to get a copy of their data after there had been a failure.
3. Easy to use software (instillation and backups)
As mentioned earlier. I wanted a solution that was easy to install as well as easy to operate on an ongoing basis. Remote Data Backups certainly did very well in this area.
Within less than 20 minutes I had the software installed and had selected all the files for backup. I chose the system backup as well so it was really only a matter of selecting any files that I felt really were not necessary to backup.
As far a scheduling backups goes that is done automatically so I did not need to to do anything there. It automatically backs up at the end of each day back to the data centre. You can also backup at anytime by pressing just one button. It will still do the nightly backup.
This really is a piece of software that anyone can use. This makes it very relaxing and enjoyable.
4. An Excellent Reputation
Data backup is as much as making sure that the technical specifications are there as they are about trust. To sleep easily at night you need to be able to trust your provider. For me it was about making sure that they had good corporate clients, had won some awards and had been in business for a number of years.
Remote Data Backups have many excellent clients and is regarded as an industry leader. It has clients such as McDonalds, Remax, Radison, and Hallmark just to name a few. This gives me a lot of confidence. If companies like these trust Remote Data Backups with their data then this helps me a lot to trust them to.
They have won a number of awards from places like PC Magazine, CNET, PC Computing, and Info World. Again this inspires more trust and confidence.
As far as being in business for a while, they have been in business for over 10 years. This shows that they are serious and are likely be around for years to come.
5. A Great Track Record
This really goes hand in hand with having an excellent reputation. It really looks at how they have actually done. One of the big ones here is uptime. How much of the time are their data centres available. I want to know I will be able to backup and retrieve my data when I need to.
They have an incredible track record with this. Over the past 10 years they have been available 99.99 % of the time. This is not some 3 month number, this is a 10 year number. Getting a number like this is rare.
Another testimony to their track record is their very happy customers. Just take a time to read some of the testimonials on the website (Link at bottom of article). They really are quite remarkable. They have hundreds!
6. If you want to give them a try here is what to do.
You can get a free 30 day trial here (If you download through this link, then email me from my about me page, I will then also send you a link to a very useful and free application, that will make organising your files for backup even easier).
I found that the best thing to do was to initially choose a plan that covers your whole computer so you won’t be limited in what you can backup. Over the next 30 days you can look at in more detail what you want backed up and what you don’t. You will then be able to choose the exact quota you need before the end of the trial period.
If you currently have no offsite backup system in place then I would highly encourage you to get your data very safe right now. Best of all you will not have to pay anything for the first 30 days, even though your data will be backed up in one of the most secure facilities on the planet.
Happy backing up.
Jerry Thomas
