How to Judge an Online Photo Backup Solution?

What do you do when you are just back from a trip or a family outing? Connect the digital camera to the computer and transfer all photos onto the computer. Isn’t it? Yes, it is the first thing we do when we are back from a family function, an outing, a gathering, a picnic etc. We have become so habitual of doing this task since we started using digital cameras. We often refer these pictures as digital memories. As a result, we have stored hundreds and thousands of such photos on our systems. Tagged and arranged date wise or even wise. These digital pictures are the most precious and priceless data on our computer. But, ever wondered what will happen to these digital memories if the system crashed?

To prepare for such a scenario you need a backup plan. there are mainly two ways to backup photos. One is an online backup and the other is an offline backup. Offline photo backup involves external storage devices like memory cards, external hard drives, DVDs, CDs etc. Whereas online backup involves, cloud storage and websites that help you store your photos online. Some of these services are paid and some are free to an extent.

The challenge is to select best out of hundreds of such online backup solution available these days. Below we have listed some parameters that will help you judge an online backup solution. Following these, you would be able to select the best online photo backup solution that suits your requirement.

Parameters to judge the online backup are listed below

Space:

If you need to choose an online backup solution, the first thing to consider is how much ‘FREE’ space they are offering. There are websites that offer up to 50 GB of free storage, and there are some who offer only 5 GB. In this case obviously, the one with 50GB space is better than the other.

File Synchronization:

Any changes made in the files should automatically be updated to online storage or the cloud storage as well.

Reliability:

Reliability of the website in another important thing to consider. Like in case of money, you will not deposit it in a bank that may shut down next year. You would probably want to deposit it in a bank who has a good reputation, is reliable and you are sure that it won’t shut down in next 5 years. Similarly while selecting a cloud storage keep this in your mind.

Security:

Look for the one that offers encrypted upload i.e the image files are encrypted before they are uploaded to the cloud. If the cloud storage provider doesn’t have encryption ability, there’s nothing to stop someone from looking at your files.

Location:

The files could be anywhere on your hard drive, However, many online backup solutions require special folders to be created. All Image files are then stored in this specific folder. They are first stored in this folder and then copied to online storage.

Ease of Use:

The whole of the process of uploading, downloading, editing should be an easy process. The user interface, menus, the button should be easy to operate and understood. A simple and precise function is better than the complicated ones.
There are two ways of doing it :
1. Manual – In this case, the image files and folders (to be backed up) inside the program are selected manually.
2 Automatic – Everything inside the program folder is backed up automatically. For e.g. Skydrive / Onedrive. It creates a Skydrive / Onedrive folder and everything in this folder is backed up.