Online backup services bring with them a whole vocabulary of their own, which may make them look more complex than they actually are. To make researching cloud backup solutions and their features as easy as using the service itself, we’ve created this glossary that explains various terms. Simply click on the name of the term you want to learn more about, and the explanation will roll out.
Automated Backups
Automated backups allow you to have your data backed up automatically on a regular basis without requiring any action from your part. You can choose to have the software take backups daily, weekly, monthly, or create a backup schedule yourself that the service will follow. Every one of the best online backup services highlighted on our site has this indispensable feature.
Bandwidth Throttle Control
Bandwidth throttle control allows you to set a maximum on the amount of data the online backup service can upload or download per second or minute. This option can be of great use if you want more control over how much of your bandwidth the backup service is consuming.
Catastrophic Recovery
When your computer has crashed, was stolen or you simply want to set up a new system with all the data from your previous computer, then you’ll be happy your online backup service features catastrophic recovery. This technology, which is included in all top-rated online backup services, will easily let you restore a full system backup on a new computer.
File Sharing
Many cloud backup services provide a functionality through which you can select one or multiple files, and let other people access those files as well. Typically an email will be sent to the person you want to share the file with that contains a link through which a friend, family or colleague can download the file. This person doesn’t need to be using the same online backup service either, and doesn’t need to register an account to access the file. File sharing is the perfect way to share a heavy file from your online storage space with another person.
File Syncing
File syncing means that all of the changes you make to a file will automatically and instantly be uploaded to your online backup storage. That way you can never risk losing any of your edits, no matter what goes wrong at any given time. This functionality is especially helpful when you’re working on an important document of which you don’t want to lose any edits.
File Versioning
Also known as file archiving, this feature means you can restore older versions of a specific file. You can go through the previously backed up versions of the file, and choose to start using a previous version of it. This feature is particularly handy for situations where you’ve accidentally overwritten a file on your computer and want to restore it in its original form for instance.
Incremental Backups
Incremental backups ensure that only files that have been changed or newly created since the last backup are being backed up. This feature helps reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred to your online backup storage, which means your Internet connection will continue to perform well while taking backups.
Locked File Support
Certain types of files can be locked for security reasons, files from Microsoft Outlook and QuickBooks for instance are often being locked. When an online backup service supports locked files, it means that these types of files can be securely backed up regardless of their lock status.
Remote Access
Remote access means that you are able to get ahold of your data from wherever you are, whenever you want to. All quality online backup services provide this functionality, as they let you login securely to your online backup account from any type of computer or device that’s connected to the Internet.
Redundant Storage
Redundant storage means that the online backup service stores your data on more than one server. If something would go wrong with one of the servers it’s stored on, your data would still be safely stored and available for you on the other server.
Some providers even go as far as offering geo-redundant storage, which means that the different versions of your backups are stored on servers in different locations in case of a natural disaster for instance would disable one entire data center. One version of your data will be stored on a server on the west coast while the other is stored on the east coast for instance.
Selective Backups
The feature selective backups lets you choose which folders and files you want to have backed up using your online backup service. This is especially handy if you only want a specific folder with work-related files to be backed up for instance, or if you want to limit the amount of storage space you need.
Single File Recovery
You can choose to recover one specific file that you select instead of having to restore your entire online backup. This single file recovery feature can come in handy if you’ve permanently removed a file from your computer by accident, and have it back on your computer with a few clicks.
Many of these terms and features as well as others are also being described in our backup comparison where you can easily compare the different companies supporting these features.