Done with the cloud? Alternatives for online backups.

The need to back up your data is indisputable, but how you do it is a matter of choice.Cloud backup services are the most hassle-free option, but they can be costly, and they require a stable, high-speed broadband connection that isn’t available for everyone. And NSA surveillance has certainly made it difficult to trust sensitive data to a third-party provider.

Alternatives exist. With a combination of hardware, apps, and services, you can create secure, easily accessible data backups without relying on the cloud.

External drives

Long before cloud backup services sprang up, businesses and individuals made do by using external USB hard drives. Backing up data locally to an external USB hard drive is faster than uploading it to the cloud—especially via a USB 3.0 connection—and external drives are a relatively cheap, one-time investment rather than an ongoing subscription. Still, two potential concerns with backing up to an external hard drive remain.

One concern: What happens when the external drive malfunctions or crashes? Consumer-grade drives are pretty reliable, but they will inevitably fail—usually about the same time your PC crashes, if Murphy has anything to say about it. Second, if a fire or flood destroys your home or office, your external drive will succumb right along with your PC.

You can resolve both of these issues, however, with a couple of simple steps. First, perform backups to two external USB hard drives. Then store one of the drives in a fireproof safe (preferably on a shelf to avoid water damage from a flood) or offsite in a safety deposit box.

For even more security, use a disaster-proof drive like an ioSafe Solo as one of your two backup drives. They’ve been designed and tested to survive man’s and Mother Nature’s destructive worst.

Peer-to-peer backup

One of the biggest benefits of using a cloud backup service is that the data is stored safely offsite.

As an alternative to locking away a hard drive in a fireproof box, you could instead use a peer-to-peer backup system such as the one offered by CrashPlan…

Read the full article at PCWorld: Done with the cloud? Alternatives for online backups.