As small businesses feel the pressure to survive in the current state of the
economy, relief is emerging in the form of software-as-a-service (SaaS). For
small businesses in particular, the introduction of a growing range of SaaS
solutions could not have arrived at a better time. SaaS is delivered through
an online service that offers a low maintenance, cost-effective alternative
to on-premises solutions. What's more, SaaS solutions are now more secure and
easier than ever to integrate into an existing infrastructure.

With an expanding range of viable SaaS solutions now available, small businesses
need to evaluate the most appropriate service for their environment by considering
the cost, complexity, flexibility, and integration issues associated with today's
online services.

Where to Begin?

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of SaaS implementation is simply
deciding which application is most appropriate to outsource. In the past, SaaS
offerings were limited to applications such as enterprise resource planning,
customer relationship management, and the like. Now, however, companies are
also looking at online infrastructure services-applications such as backup and
storage that protect and store mission critical data.

Online backup is one such service. It can help small businesses deal with a
challenge shared by their large enterprise counterparts: exponentially growing
data volumes. Never before have businesses had so much electronic information
to store, manage, and protect. In fact, a March 2007 report by IDC Research
found that external disk storage capacity will increase by 50 percent annually
on average through 2011 and will require a corresponding data protection capacity.

Regardless of their size, businesses must be able to store, protect, manage,
and if necessary, recover their important business information. If not, they
risk exposing their business to downtime, and damage to reputation. While large
enterprises tend to have greater IT resources and personnel to address these
issues in-house, small businesses often do not have these luxuries.

However, online backup presents a new opportunity for small businesses by giving
them all the benefits of enterprise-class backup without the associated management
complexity and cost. Better yet, as more mature backup vendors offer their software
through an online delivery model, small businesses can be sure their data is
safely in the hands of proven experts.

Getting Started

So, just how does online backup work? How much data can be stored? How often
is it backed up? Is it secure? And can it be easily recovered?

Start by looking for a solution that makes it easy for you to get started and
allows you to customize your service to your business needs. Transitioning to
an online backup service, for example, can be done via a browser and a simple
online interface

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