Opinion
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Efficiency and reliability: Providers use state of the art technology such as disk- based backup, encryption, compression, data de-duplication and server and storage virtualisation to reduce storage and transfer requirements and make backup as efficient and as secure as possible.
Scalability: Businesses can leverage unlimited scalability from a third party cloud provider and backup services can be configured to backup as much or as little data as needed, meeting the changing needs of the business.
Improved recovery time: As mentioned previously for a recovery from tape, an operator would need to recall the tape, load it, locate the data and recover the data. File recovery from online storage is faster; it doesn’t require physical transport from the offsite location, tape handling or seek time. Files to be recovered are located and streamed over the Internet connection, saving time.
Accessibility: Offsite data copies are accessible from any Internet-connected device or location, this provides an added measure of insurance in the event of a regional disaster.
Automated backup: With cloud backup, administrators can set the schedule for how often backups should run throughout the day. This eliminates the risks associated with manual backup.
Reduced infrastructure management: When using a cloud service there is no need to worry about upgrades, migrations or technology becoming obsolete. The burden of the backup infrastructure lies with the service provider.
The right choice Most good cloud backup providers do offer the above mentioned functionalities and benefits, but what else should be considered when choosing a cloud service and provider that’s right for you? Security, reliability and cost are most likely the top three factors a business will take into
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consideration when choosing any service. So when it comes to data backup look for a solution that offers you more in these key areas. With your data being stored offsite how can you ensure it is as secure as it possibly can be? We have already mentioned that cloud backup solutions offer data encryption facilities so that your data is compressed and encrypted, meaning it is secure in storage offsite and inaccessible by others.
However, to further ensure the security and integrity of an organisation’s offsite data, certain cloud backup providers equip their data centres with on-premises security teams and have restricted visitor access. They also install alarm systems to enhance the overall level of security. While it’s necessary to ensure data is secure in its offsite location, what about ensuring its security while it’s in transit? This means that the traffic between your business and the cloud backup provider is encrypted. This is equally important and is something businesses need to consider when choosing a service provider. Look for a provider that offers a solution which also protects the integrity of data being transferred offsite. Solutions which apply multiple layers of encryption and highly redundant disk-based hardware in a fully encrypted and secure format, will ensure your data is impenetrable no matter at which stage the backup process is.
Some providers also offer greater reassurance when it comes to the reliability of your data, with some
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making up to three copies of an organisation’s primary data; one local backup and two offsite data backups to geographically-separate data centres. This gives added assurance that in the event of a disaster recovery situation, your data will be available and can be quickly restored. In addition, a provider that uses efficient replication techniques designed to conserve bandwidth will minimise the cost of disaster recovery, helping you keep your costs down. Some also provide 24/7 monitoring, management and reporting features and capabilities that many companies may not be able to otherwise afford.
Peace of mind No one can predict when data loss will happen, but when disaster strikes, such as a virus or an outage, having the right data backup solution in place will be a much appreciated precaution made.
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