Microsoft offers the Windows Azure Backup service, which lets you back up data from servers in the cloud. This removes the need for your own infrastructure, and the service alleviates privacy concerns by using continuous encryption.

Although commercial Linux backup tools are available, many people prefer open source to better understand and control the backup process. One open source tool that can do both full and incremental backups is rsync.

Available on almost all platforms, the open source backup software Bacula is popular with many administrators – now the Bareos fork is poised to expand its leading role.

ownCloud is an alternative to the many online storage services whose data protection promises could turn out to be as nebulous as their offerings.