Backing up important data is too often neglected. I know that other things take priority, like getting out that important proposal, writing a review or whatever you do, they all seem to be rather more important than ensuring your data is properly backed up. Backing up on a spare disk, or CD, or whatever you have locally is not going to really ensure your data is safe. What about if your office was hit by fire, flood, or other catastrophe? Off-site backup is the best.

There are rather a large group of off-site, online, backup services. Homebizchat has redirected me to see a good article on five of these backup services.

One thing that is important is using an online backup service is its longevity and stability. You don't want to be changing backup services, and you need to be sure the service is going to be there when you need the backup most.

To find long serving and stable backup services I visited an article on backup services from 2005 "Online Backup Services Come of Age". The article recommended 15 services. What I wanted to prove to myself was that the backup service I want is one of these that were recommended two years ago.

My recommendation is Xdrive.com. It has been around since before I can remember, it allows for backup and storage and can backup from Windows operating systems as well as Linux. Xdrive also has a few nicities, like Xdrive Shows, a way to setup and display your photographs. Xdrive is a wholly owned service of AOL and is unlikely to be going anywhere. 5GB is free and 50GB comes at only $9.95 a month. Small amounts to pay considering the service provided.

In comparison to many of the others, Xdrive gives flexibility, coverage of different operating systems, and additional services dealing with photographs (I often give clients a presentation with a series of photographs and PowerPoint pages interspersed -- which is possible to run out of Xdrive with any corporate Internet connection).