The Changing Nature of Backing Up

Backing up files is an integral part of the day of most system administrators. It might be an automated process and, in fact, keeping it as such makes the whole affair more reliable, but there have been serious changes that affect the nature of this process whether or not it’s an automated one. The availability of online backup systems has forever transformed the backup process in a way that has removed some of the most significant hazards that administrators formerly had to deal with.

The Media

If you were involved in securing backups for a business 10 years ago, it would have meant storing the media somewhere that it was safe. This wasn’t always easy. A safe is usually the best place to store such materials because of the fire resistance, but a safe requires that someone physically put the media inside of it and secure it every time a new backup is made. Of course, a safe will better protect digital media from fire and other disasters, but there are no guarantees. Securing backup media was once one of the most vital parts of maintaining a good backup strategy.

Compression

Storage space has been getting cheaper and cheaper over time, but it used to be very expensive. The system admins of the past sometimes had to wrestle with very difficult compression schemes to get all the data they needed backed up onto removable media. Today, online backup services take care of the compression and the process itself copies the files to the media that needs to be backed up.

Security

One of the real problems even a decade ago was the threat that removable media with backup files on it might be stolen. While these files may have been encrypted, someone from within the organization may well have known how to defeat this encryption, which created real concern. Everything from the aforementioned safes to off-site storage locations were used to minimize this risk.

Today’s backups are mostly done over the Internet. This allows for the removal of the backup from the site, ensuring that it survives in the even of a natural or manmade disaster. The data is also compressed and secured, so there isn’t the same risk of it being stolen and used for nefarious purposes. Today’s backup systems may be largely dependent on the Internet, but that’s only made them more reliable and not less so. Keeping important information in a safe and secure place can no longer be a problem now a days.