Q1: Who are the primary adopters of Online Backup Services?
Individuals and small businesses.
Entities with fewer than a dozen workstations .
Few with a centralized server.
Q2: What was the primary backup method before adopting online backup?
None.
A USB key or USB attached disk drive.
Few with a share on another workstation.
Q3: What was the offsite backup strategy before adopting online backup?
None.
A Floppy, USB key or CD with important files.
Few with a mobile HD.
Q4: What is the subscription and retention rates for online backup service?
High subscription rate.
Very low retention rate.
Most abandoned service within few weeks.
Q5: What are the primary reasons provided for discontinuing use of online backup service?
Excessive use of Internet connection.
Backup takes too long.
Poor experience during primary use of workstation.
Q6: What was the backup method after discontinuing online backup?
A USB attached disk drive.
A NAS device on network.
Few with no backup method.
Summary
Overall, online backup services seems to be a great way to introduce backups to people with no prior backup methods as only few reverted back to no backups after discontinuing use of online backup service. Tape is non-existent in environments that are finding online backups attractive. Despite heightened awareness of online backup service, the low bandwidth connection to Internet continues to be main hurdle in retaining subscribers, a focus on spending limited resources on sales improving or cost reducing services over a fear-based buying decision. A comment I heard was,
I prefer to allocate 50% of Internet bandwidth to VoIP services that reduce my telecommunication cost instead of to offsite backup.
