Backing up your computer's data online is becoming increasingly mainstream and popular. Even in a struggling economy, backup companies are popping up everywhere, offering a variety of service options. Where is the industry going? Will all of us be backing up this way one day? In this article, I will list the trends that are positive for the online backup industry and explain where the industry is headed.
There are a lot of free online backup services out there now -- well, sort of. In the last 5 years though, this industry has grown by leaps and bounds, due to the simplicity and automatic nature of the service.
Even in a weak economy, where many are putting off hardware purchases and everything elese that is non-essential, more and more people are switching to backing up their data online...even when it comes with a cost.
Will someone come out with a totally free version of online backup? Should I wait until Google offers the inevitable game changer that allows me to backup everything for free?
That'd be nice, but I don't think so.
A number of services are offering "free" storage for a small amount of data (like 2 GB), but memory costs money and unlimited is a big word. The online backup industry is extremely competitive though and it wouldn't surprise me if Google extrapolated their "free-to-the-masses" model to a small amount of data storage.
One caveat...It is one thing though to trust Google with your emails, it is another thing to trust them with your critical files - for free, that is.
For critical things, we may have a psychological need to pay so we feel justified in getting irate when problems arise.
Like insurance, we may feel we NEED to be paying a service some hard-earned money in order to trust them to protect and secure our data.
Where is the online backup industry headed? Are more and more people going to sign up or are we one service screw up away from the whole system crashing down?
As the economy improves more people will be choosing online backup. The companies poised to take advantage of that new demand are the larger services like Mozy and Carbonite that offer services to the most people and offer a fixed monthly fee for unlimited data storage.
What additional services are likely to be offered?
Already, services like SugarSync offer a more robust version of the data storage package. SugarSync will allow you to not only store your data but also file-share with others which makes it like a combination of an online file-sharing program and online backup.
With everything available out there in the online storage world, it is certain to get more competitive and as more and more services are offered, the winner will be us, the consumer.
Roger G. Brown is data backup and security expert. He has significant experience in helping individuals and small businesses make cost-effective decisions about data backup and storage. If you want to learn how to avoid losing your data, check out Roger's website at http://www.onlinebackupstoragereviews.com.
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