Online back up is the process of uploading one's personal data (documents, pictures, videos, etc) to an online back up service. Online back ups are a very important step to securing one's data. Online back ups are less prone to fire, floods, and other natural disasters. Keeping a back up in one's own home or office is useful, but not immune to natural disasters or other incidents.

The main advantage of online back up is that the files can be restored easily form any place where you have an internet broadband connection. The whole data can be protected using passwords and encryptions as a result you tend to get absolute security for your data. Data recovery may become slow depending upon the connection bandwidth this is one of the disadvantage seen in this type of online storage system.

The online backup service providers provide you with free trail client software to enable you to store and access your data for a limited period. You can subscribe with these service providers to get unlimited access and storage facilities. On downloading the client software you can store, recover and manage your data online.

A useful online back up solution for the PC is called Carbonite. Carbonite is an easy-to-use online back up solution that offers unlimited storage for only $49.95 a year. For Mac users there is Mozy. Mozy also offers unlimited storage of data for only $4.95 a month. Read more about them in our comparison on this page.