Backup Anytime

Online storage costs explained.

A common reaction to online storage costs is the rush to compare them with the purchase of a device offering the equivalent amount of space. The logic here is the perceived difficulty in explaining how the rental of space online over a short period of time is far greater than the ownership of the same quantity of space off line.

The basic comparison here is the cost of say 100 Gigs of remote online backup versus the purchase of a drive of that size. The purchase you say is much cheaper per gig. You are absolutely correct.  This comparison, common opinion and correct statement is not just common on Irish blogs but ubiquitous throughout the Internet.

So, why is online backup so expensive? Why would it be the preferred option?
First off, an online backup data centre does not wish to sell you a hard drive. If they did,

they would operate once off sale prices with no service and not subscription based service accounts. You are responsible for any drive you purchase. More importantly you are responsible for the data you store on it. By default therefore you have outsourced zero data backup functionality through your purchase of a device. This coupled with encryption, compression, archive and management features explain very clearly why online backup is superior to the point of demonstrating that the purchase of a device is not actually a backup at all.

Explaining and even getting agreement about the superiority of remote online data backup versus device purchase does not however explain the often vast cost differential.

Lets have a look and see if we can explain it clearly here.
Just to recap. We are not asking which is better. The online v offline argument has been trashed our here and all over the Internet many times before. Here we are asking specifically the often asked and rarely answered question, “Why is online backup so expensive?”.

The most commonly used variable when comparing online storage with offline storage is storage space. It is assumed, often with a great degree of confidence that storage device space is the main factor. In fact, device space carries little weight as an online cost variable.

Here are the most important costs regarding online backup. Please understand here that we are not looking at important features of online backup. This is about costs. They are presented in a possible order of importance but this order shifts over time with power being a notable contender in third place at present whereas it was less of a consideration in time past.

Support.
You may not use your online backup support often. When you do however you will need prompt attention and you will need it to be sustained until a satisfactory conclusion is reached.

Human costs being the highest in any knowledge based service this earns first place as an essential and worthy cost factor.

Management.
The intervening periods between your support requirements also come with labour costs. The service needs to be managed from the viewpoint of monitoring, upgrading, servicing and enhancing the online backup system at every level.

Power.
Power costs have increases significantly and required power level are not always available. The management and purchase of power for remote data storage is of great and growing significance. This has become even more a factor in recent times. The awareness of this is growing also and has done so to the extent that end users increasingly accept this as a consequence of understanding through their own power cost increases at even domestic level.

Bandwidth.
Regardless of the upload and download deals, limits and bands applied by your provider, at some level all of this needs to be paid for. Even so called “unlimited” transfer accounts commonly come with an applied “fair usage policy” which reduces service of overly active transfer clients.

Software.
The core of the system is the software used and the development of this is an ongoing process which requires continued investment. Don’t have any doubt about it, regardless of any “free upgrade policy” you pay for the software development at some level. This however is both fair and essential.

Now you can see why online backup is so much more expensive than local device purchase cost.  You can also see the differences which are stark. Despite this, people will continue to compare online backup subscription with storage device purchase price. The decision is still yours. You know the difference.

Broadband providers of all types are upgrading clients both home and commercial at present. The focus here is download speeds which are being improved (at limited or no cost) to far greater rates than before. This is welcome and will have a very positive effect on not just downloading but end user browsing experience.

The focus of broadband providers is to tell you they have “great news”. The will explain that download speeds are increasing by or to such a level. Some will flippantly just say your broadband speed in increasing without mentioning that this generally relates to download only.

If you are considering moving to a new provider (or getting broadband for the first time) it is important that you focus on upload. Good download speeds are important but they are easily got. Good upload speeds are somewhat less ubiquitous.

Other important terms relating to broadband service are:

Contention ratio : In its simplest format, the contention ratio pertains to the max number of simultaneous users you need share with. This figure can run from a low of 1 to a high of 24.

Limit : The limit as to the amount of transfer you can use.

Fair usage policy : A data transfer figure beyond which your usability (generally speed) is reduced to allow other users their share. Fair usage policies can be implemented on “no limit” accounts!

Back to upload.

Upload speeds are becoming more important for everyone because of critical apps such as cloud data, online backup, web diaries, email and games.

So, word up - “upload”, ensure your provider doesn’t hold you back. Your upload speeds will generally be far less than your download speeds. This is normal (at present) but ensure your chosen provider compares favourably overall. The trick is not to be lead in to judging the suitability if a service based on download only.

We are aware of competitive new offers currently being offered by UPC (NTL) and Magnet business. If you know of an offer we should mention here, please advise.

One common misconception regarding online backup is the assumption that cost per gig (cpg) is the single deciding cost factor. This is far from correct and we will highlight and explain as follows.

Online backup cost is affected by a multitude of factors. Here we will address the most important cost variables.

Software costs.

Some companies will provide the software for free. Your function as a buyer here is not necessarily to ensure your software comes free but that any free offering you accept is at least as good as a competing paid or conversely that any paid for software option you purchase is superior to free offerings.

Installation

installation may also be free. Ensure however that this does not compromise on the area of data selection and that your intended gives you adequate time, advice and assistance. Free software and installation can attract large numbers of short term clients so make sure your supplier takes your business very seriously. Remind yourself that this is your data, not anyone else’s. If you have a complicated network you would be well advised to actively seek a paid installation solution so you can call the shots in the absence of an free gratis.

Broadband (Speed)

Your broadband upload speed will have to be fast enough to transfer your data in the period you allow. If for example you intend backing up overnight you will need the backup variables data quantity and backup window to be compatible with your upload speed and this may require a broadband upgrade.

Broadband (Limits & fair usage policy)

Given that your broadband speed is satisfactory, you will need to ensure that any upload limits exceed the quantity of dat you will be transferring per session. Also, in the case of so called “unlimited broadband” you will need to ensure that any fair usage policy does not slow down your transfer or general browsing.

Cost per gig

This is the most commonly used (and possibly the most commonly misunderstood) variable with regard to online backup cost. Cost per gig is actually a more complicated area than most people realise. Here is why.

There are a number of contradictory interpretations of the term “cost per gig”. It can be used to relate to the amount of native data you backup of it could be used to relate to the amount of compressed data you backup. Add to this the confusion around varying degrees of compression. For example, office documents will compress very well while a zip file (which is already compressed) will in most cases not compress at all.

Also, different online backup software options offer varying levels of compression. In addition, some software options allow the compression rate to be changed by the user. Be aware however that the higher the level of compression, the longer it will take for the data to be processed which in turn reduces your effective backup window. Low rates of compression will reduce the backup window but increase the amount of space required.

Retention

This is the quantity of versions of data you wish to retain over a period of time. The greater the number of versions the more restore options you have and the more space you will use. This is a very important area of online backup and is the reason that intelligent users will require commercial space offering significantly more than their estimated post compression requirement. You do not know how far you need to go back until you go back.

Mirrors

The number of mirrors available to you is the number of actual data stores which your online backup provider has retained should an outage occur at provider level. In brief, the number of mirrors multiplies the quantity of space used. This greatly increases the cost to the provider. If a provider seems particularly cheap and does not mention mirrors, ask and seek evidence. Commonly a provider will offer their main data store and one mirror as standard with the option to add additional mirrors at a cost.

A very rough formulae for working out a bench mark for the cost and overall suitability of online backup can be presented as follows;

((((Q/C)*(P)*(M)*(1.S))/L)*MA)

Where Q=quantity of data, C=compression factor, P=price per gig, M=number of mirrors, S=supplier quality rating from 0 to 9, L=local infrastructure quality from 1 to 3, MA=months archive from 1 upwards

Try the mathematics yourself using real and comparative data. This exercise will give you a basic grounding in comparing offerings relative to your requirements.

The economics of online backup may be simple. This simple analogy can only be used effectively when you establish the following.

How much data do you have? How much compression do you want to use? How long a backup window do you have? What broadband speeds and limits do you need? How many months archive do I want? How many mirrors do I want my provider to employ?

And critically: What level of support do I require. Remember that this product may be your only safeguard should a disaster strike. Free support means your total data outage will queue up behind the day to day queries and chat of other businesses. Ensure an SLA or critical incident payment option is available.

If you have any questions about this article please contact backupanytime as per our online backup contact page.

The backupanytime team.

The next time you hear an online backup provicer use the term “Unlimited backup” dont be afraid to ask questions about the limitations which apply to their version of unlimited. Everything is limited. Your online backup provider has a set limit of space which is available for usage (not just by you) by all clients. Your broadband provider will have upload and fair usage policy limitations. However, the real story here is the limitations your “no limits” backup provider puts not on your backup space but on the upload speed to it!

Yes thats correct, your online backup provider may (not all do) use throttling to limit the amount of data which can be sent to your online backup account thus allowing them to boast about umlimited space given they know this can not be used.

In the vast majority of cases, there will be no need for this space anyway. In most of the circumstances in which large volume is required, there will be genuine upload limitations (speed or limit) from the broadband provider but in a small percentage of cases where a client has a quality broadband account and intends using the space boasted about, the online backup provider may use bandwidth throttling to protect the actual limitations of their infrastructure.

So, if you need significant online backup, get broadband to match and buy the quantity of space you need from the online backup provider rather than taking an account which is unlimited for marketing purposes and very much limited for practical purposes.

How is this allowed under trading standards? Well, it isn’t but low reporting and percieved technical confusion will likely allow this to continue. Also, online backup providers using this cheap marketing trick will not be entertained by corporate clients.