Choosing backup storage media and location

Early in the process of determining your backup strategy, you're likely to choose the location of your data backups and the media to store the backups on, because these choices are the primary factors that affect the hardware and media costs associated with the system.

To make the best choice, first take a close look at what you need to back up, and how often you need to do it. This information determines the storage capacity, transfer bandwidth, and the degree to which multiple users can share the resource.

Your choices of backup media vary, depending on whether you create backup copies of your data on a local machine or on a remote machine by transferring the data via a network:

• Local backups offer the advantage of speed and potentially greater control by the end user, but are limited to backup technologies and media types that QNX OS supports directly.
• Remote backups often allow use of company-wide backup facilities and open up additional storage options, but are limited by the need to transfer data across a network and by the fact that the facilities are often shared, restricting your access for storing or retrieving your backups.