Yes, sometimes it can. If you have not started doing backups or if you do not do them regularly I suggest that you take a moment and think about what it would cost you if you lost all of your data. Or even if you lost a big part of it.

Scary yes. And maybe you want to find a way to run backups that is not such a pain that you stop doing it after a few weeks. Maybe you want to do your backups online. Lots of services trying to do that for you and I often get asked about how to do it and what is the best way or best online service.

But this is not about who “is the best” or how to do it This is about thinking about the hidden consequences.

Hidden consequences? Yes.

I worked with a business that faithfully did online backups but had not considered what would happen if they had to recover their data. They eventually did have to recover and it was a lot of data too and it presented several problems they never planned for.

The hidden bug in the process is – what if you have to recover so much data from backups that go way over your allowed bandwidth for the month? What if your Internet Service Provider suspends your Internet access when you have been running full speed downloads for days trying to recover everything?

If you cross the line will it cost you down time? How much? Do you know what your monthly download limits are? If you blow through those limits in 3 days what will your ISP do?

I am not saying don’t do online backups but I am saying consider the recovery process before you do anything.

Everyone talks about backups, but they seldom mention recovery. Just make sure you can get your data back with out an even bigger hassle.