Storage comes generally in two flavors: Active storage and backup storage. Active storage, i.e. storage of files that we work with does not lend itself to offsite storage. Backup storage can be located onsite or offsite or both. In this article I'll write about backup storage.
Let's look at some of the good and the bad points of onsite and offsite data storage. The key parameters are security, cost, speed and reliability.
Security: This is perhaps the first thing that comes to the mind. For one thing, online data is highly encrypted both ways; consequently the service provider has no access to the data. Onsite storage on the other hand involves hardware storage such as tapes, hard disks or CD/DVD. This has several drawbacks. For instance, you may lose data due to hardware crashes or natural disasters. Backup media can be stolen or simply be corrupted which is a frequent occurrence with tape.
Cost: Onsite storage carries an edge as compared with offsite or online storage. The magnitude of the advantage depends in large part on the volume of data. There are many file storage sites that you can even use for free on the internet, especially if you need to store little data. Although free, the risk with these sites is that if they go out of business, your data will be gone. The larger the data volume the higher will be your online storage cost. In this case, onsite storage can turn out to be more cost effective. The trade-off is security, safety and reliability.
Speed and reliability: Online or offsite storage has much better reliability. The vendor maintains the data infrastructure and even stores your data in two or more geographically separated data centers. The tradeoff here is speed. Uploading your initial data is often spread across several days. Downloading your data is very much dependent on the speed of your internet connection and the speed that the vendor allocates to your data stream.
In summary, onsite and offsite storage cannot be easily compared because of the important trade-offs for each. Onsite storage has the benefit of speed but lacks reliability and security in case of local disaster. Offsite storage has the benefit of high reliability and security but lacks recovery speed.
In many situations it is best to opt for both onsite and online storage options. Computer Systems Support has extensive experience to guide you in this important decision.
Please e-mail or call (203) 349-8047 Ext 211 with further questions or to schedule your review of your data storage investment.
