New research published by Connect Support Services reveals that 22 percent of companies are already using remote backup services in some form or other, with a further 28 percent saying that they will switch over from traditional tapes within the next three years. A key finding I found interesting was the fact that small businesses are actually less likely to switch to online backup than larger enterprises, which I feel is unfortunate.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the need to actually test the data that has been backed up. Another important aspect of backup that I did not delve into at that time was the need to ensure that at least one copy of all the archived data is kept at a separate and secured location.

Ideally, this separate location should be some geographical distance away from the actual site. The rationale behind this is simple; the storing of critical business data is the only way to guarantee the ability to recover it should disaster strike. Disasters can come in the form of natural disaster - think about the recent Australian bush fires, or acts of terrorism, or a hurricane, as Susan Hall wrote about recently.

Unfortunately, it is not always convenient or affordable to maintain backups at a different site. For SMBs that demand the assurance that their business will not fail or go bankrupt due to the lack of proper backups, performing an online mirror of your local backup gives the same advantage as maintaining a remote copy.

So if you haven't done so yet, do consider using online backup services.