Backup Devices

A backup device is a device that is used to store backup copies in a secure way. Backup devices range from old fashioned tape recorders (like those seen in 1960’s and 1970’s sci-fi movies) to small solid state data containers.

The most commonly used backup devices in home computers and small offices are external hard disk drives which are connected to the computer via high speed USB or removable media devices, such as DVD-R burners, which aren’t a backup device per-se but will assist you in the process of creating backup copies. There’s also a wide use of pen drives or USB flash drives to back up small files, since they are cheap and can easily be stored due to their small size.

In enterprise grade environments, there are some more advanced backup devices, like NAS (network attached storage) servers, SAN devices and other massive file storage solutions. These devices allow greater backup speeds, can hold virtually unlimited amounts of data (as they can be clustered so that several devices operate as a single device) and are multi-user, which means that more than one computer can be backed up and still protect the privacy of each user’s backup.

As online backup services become more popular, the need of a local backup device starts losing importance, mainly because with an online backup service you’re not only backing up to an external device, but are also backing up to a remote location, which can be useful if you ever need to access your files or to restore a system from another location.

Some backup devices come with specific software that will interact with the device, which will allow some special functions, like one touch backup, which is a button placed on top of the backup device and that when pressed will launch the backup software and start copying files without any further user interaction.

Nevertheless, it’s quite safe to say that there aren’t any standards when it comes to backup devices, as each user’s needs might be completely different from another user’s therefore the right device will be the one that you can use and that will hold all the information you need to back up without too much hassle.