Many of us who make use of computers may have experienced loss of data loss at some point of time and so will be able to appreciate the significance of online backup. Just a power cut or a surge while we are running the computer may cause some loss of data, and depending on the type of work we were doing, it may be a matter of some annoyance or something more extensive like loss of one day's work and thereby loss of income.

The data that we have accumulated over months or years can become a very important asset. This data can include personal contact information, accounting and financial records, photographs, business contracts and records, and many other kinds of data that can be very important to your work or your personal life.

The purchase price of your computer is really just a small percent of the value compared to the information contained inside. This value grows even larger when the data includes information about a person's work or their business. In these cases, remote backup is a necessity.

As you may know, some things are beyond our control. These unexpected happenings can destroy data or, sometimes, even your computer itself. Examples of these sorts of calamities include: a collapsed hard drive, data corruption, natural disaster, sabotage and mistakes by users. These are all real dangers and can very easily result in the loss of years of hard work and could even lead to a business collapsing entirely.

In such circumstances it becomes important for an individual or a business to have an online backup plan to safeguard their important data against the numerous risks like hard drive crash, data corruption, natural disasters like earthquake and floods etc. The reality is that every computer and its user are vulnerable to these threats and a disaster recovery is necessary. The advantage of an online backup is that in case of any disaster, recovering your records is as simple as a few clicks on your mouse.

The typical process of data backup involves backing up large amounts of data to tapes. DVDs, CDs, and external drives can also be used. These methods are very time consuming and erratic, however. Studies have shown that more than 50% of the tape restores usually fail. To provide additional safeguard against flood, robbery, fire, etc. the backup files should be stored at a secure location. This is often times ignored.