Data is incredibly valuable. Old photos, vhs cassettes or the contract you bought you house with are just examples of documents that nobody wants to lose. Important data of the business like balance sheets, receipts, customer data or presentations are more usable if they can be accessed by every employee that is responsible for the specific document.
Nowadays this data is probably saved on a computer. And if this is a single personal computer, the data wouldn’t be very safe there. Every hard disk only has a limited life span and can end its life anytime.
What happens to the hard disk in case of a fire or a flood? If the home- or company-computer gets stolen, there is an additional risk besides the loss of data. Data can be dangerously misused by the thief. Especially the home user is almost unable to ensure for all those hazards. It is a big task to ensure redundancy alongside security against fire, water and theft.
This is why more and more people are looking for storage in the internet. The private data will be transferred using a (mostly secured) connection to the hard disk of a computer in a data center. Such a data center is not just always monitored by a security staff, but also has strong protection against fire, flood and power failure. The data may also be saved to more than one hard disk, so that it won’t get lost in case of a failure of a single disk. All of this is generally speaking possible for less than one Euro per month.
It is also remarkable that more pre-defined users are able to access the same data. That way, two or more people would be able to work at the same project even if they are in totally different places of the world. Or just in the neighbor town.
This is why online storage is especially interesting for clubs and companies. It is possible that, for example, all the board members of a club can access the club’s members list.
The definition of more users to have access to the online storage usually leads to add-on fees.
The acquisition of online storage is also attractive in combination with converged devices. That way the private surveillance camera can regularly upload a picture of the house. The home owner will then be able to control the status of his house right from the beach at its holiday destination.
Especially when dealing with sensible data, the choice of the provider becomes very significant. There are big differences when it gets to the security of transfer and storage. The software offered by the provider might also be a big key point. Especially the big players force the customer to use their own software, which might not be compatible with the home envoirement or lead to significant limitations.
Not every provider is able to ensure that your own data is really kept secret. A unintentional publication of data can lead to ugly consequences. Pitiable destinies caused by this issue are all over the news.
It is also important, that data still belongs to its creator from a legal perspective even if it is stored at a computer far away.
Deleted data needs to be erased safely, so it won’t get into the wrong hands.
Limitations by the provider regarding data transfer, used protocols or the size of single files can lead to add-on fees or just limit the usability.
After all, it has to be considered, that the internet connection is always utilized when transferring data. Even if someone has a fast internet connection, this person could still notice delays. A lot of internet connections receive data faster then they send it to the internet. When in a volume-based pricing models (mostly used for mobile or satellite connections), transferring a lot of data could lead to additional fees. Generally all of this has to be taken into consideration, but it won’t lead to any big issues.
With all this things considered, a reasonable solution can be found with the German provider STRATO. They will fulfill almost all of the previously discussed criteria. Limitations with the usable protocols should be considered. For example the usage of FTP can lead to additional fees.
Kielburger IT-Consulting also offers its own solutions for online storage. Those will be individually planned and realized.
Go to STRATO (Please choose “STRATO” in the “Internet&Festnetz” menu)
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