It depends on what you’re backing up. In general, it’s unlikely to be enough.
Online backup services can be a useful component of a broader backup strategy, but there are several factors to consider, including security, completeness, speed, and cost, before deciding if online backup is the right thing for you.
Online backup
Online backups are convenient but not enough. They can be slow, incomplete, and vulnerable to security risks. Use them as part of a broader backup strategy, including local full-image backups, to ensure comprehensive protection of your data. Of course, the best backup strategy is the one you’ll consistently use.
“The cloud”
“Moving to the cloud” is a popular buzz phrase, and online backup is one of the poster children for the concept. In a nutshell, with ubiquitous connectivity, why not store important data on servers on the internet — in the cloud?
By using third-party internet services and servers, you can keep all your email online (nothing new here; these services have been around for decades), your documents online (Google Docs and Microsoft OneDrive are two examples), and more. The advantage is that with a computer and a browser, not only can you access your documents from just about anywhere, but you can be less concerned about system and software crashes on your machine.
So if “the cloud” is such a good place for your data (a debatable subject for another day), is it also a good place for the backups of your data?
It’s an option if used properly, but there are definitely concerns to consider.
An online backup isn’t practical for everything
It’s just not practical to back up everything online.
For example, it would take days, if not weeks, to upload a complete image backup of your machine. This is because of the limited upload speed of your internet connection compared to the size of the image.
Most online backup services ignore your system and back up only your data. Even then, you need to be careful to ensure they’re backing up what you think they are. For example, if you keep data outside of the default Documents folder, you may have to take extra steps to tell the service to back that up as well.
The implication is simple: if you have a major system failure and lose everything, your online backup won’t help restore your machine. It’ll restore your data after you’ve rebuilt your machine and reinstalled the operating system and applications.
That’s a valid choice, but it’s a choice you need to be aware of.
An online backup requires being online
This might sound obvious, but many times it’s not: you must be online for an online backup to work.
If you add a lot of data — say a day’s worth of active photography — that data will take time to upload and be backed up. If you turn your computer off at the end of the day and those photos have not yet been uploaded, they aren’t backed up. They may automatically resume uploading when the machine is next turned on, but until then, if anything happens to that machine or hard disk, you risk losing them.
This is a common scenario when traveling, where connectivity is limited and slow. It’s easy, particularly with photos, to accumulate data faster than you can back it up.
An online backup is… online
Your backup is in the cloud. That’s kinda the point, right? Accessible from anywhere? From any computer?
The risk is the same risk you run when using any online service: if someone steals your account information, they have access to whatever you’ve stored in the cloud. If you’ve been backing things up online and your backup account is compromised, the attacker could have access to everything.
The good news here is that this is something within your control; it goes back to the basics of online account management and safety. Use good, strong passwords, don’t write them down, don’t use the same password for multiple purposes, use a password vault, use two-factor authentication, don’t share with people you don’t absolutely trust, stay safe in open Wi-Fi hotspots, avoid malware, and so on.
The steps to keeping your online information safe are relatively easy, but the cost of failure can be fairly high.
An online backup is on someone else’s computer
Many people complain about the security of their data apart from the security of their account. Those concerns typically fall into three categories:
- Your data will be exposed should the online backup service be hacked, as I mentioned above.
- Your data will be exposed should the online backup service receive a warrant or other demand from a law enforcement agency or other government entity.
- Your data will be exposed to the online service itself, who then might use it for purposes unknown.
Depending on where you live, where the online backup service is located, and the sensitivity of your data, these can be valid concerns.
As long as you stick with reputable online backup services, the technology typically encrypts your backups in such a way that no one but you can see it. If you’re still concerned, you can take the extra step of encrypting the data yourself.
Do this
So is an online backup a good idea?
In my opinion, yes, but only as part of a larger backup strategy.
Start with a periodic full image backup of your computer. This way, you know everything is backed up. Should your hard drive ever die completely, you won’t be faced with reinstalling the operating system and all your applications from scratch; you just restore the backup.
Then consider adding an online backup of your data. Depending on your approach, this could result in nearly real-time continuous backup of your data, or it could be an alternative to running your local backup program every day. When something goes wrong — from an accidentally deleted file to a destroyed computer (or even home) — you know that your data, at least, is safe.
I strongly recommend against using only an online backup service. And, to quote one of my earlier articles, “the best backup strategy is whatever you’ll actually use” — so if online is the technique you’ll actually use, use it.
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I keep all my personal files in my OneDrive folder. My OneDrive folder is my Documents folder. My Music, Pictures, Videos, and Downloads are all in my OneDrive folder.
I used to keep my home computer on full-time when I traveled and used TeamViewer to access my files. I use OneDrive as my file server and I can access all of my files anywhere in the world, either on my laptop in the OneDrive folder or via the OneDrive website on another computer.
I perform system image backups when I’m home. OneDrive is my backup when I travel.
Dropbox or any other cloud sync service are good for that.