My wife's machine, which she used to track her small business, I have backed up via a web based service. One time, I set it up to know which files and directories to back up - certain accounting, tax and document stuff. Now everyday, without her even knowing, her files are backed up, offsite (far away offsite). Perhaps $20 is deducted from her business account each month. And when the day comes, the files will be there.
It's much like my machines at work. I used to back them up to tape, myself. Now my MIS department backs up thousands of machines to a big monster rig, and when a file is lost, it's there. Once you're working off a high speed connection (a couple hundred kbits at least, most any cable or SDL) always on connection, the entire economics of it change.