At N8 Solutions, we know that data is the backbone of your business. We also know that data can be lost in seemingly countless ways, from ransomware to accidental deletion. And that’s not all—climate change, fire or flood, or even another global pandemic can all result in data loss. A study from the University of Texas found that 94% of companies that experienced catastrophic data loss do not survive.
The best safeguard for your data is a robust and secure backup strategy. Cloud backups, especially, will provide your business with a safe, seamless, and scalable way to protect your data (no matter how much you generate). Best yet, a cloud backup service is also surprisingly cost-effective. As you consider your own data backup strategy, please read on for some of the top benefits of cloud backups.
What are cloud backups?
We hear a lot about “the cloud” these days, so let’s start with the basics. In this scenario, the cloud is a collection of servers that will store your backed-up data. These servers can be located at an offsite data center or even at multiple data centers. Your information is stored in a secure manner that also allows for easy access by your technology team, when and how you need it. The key differentiator with cloud backup (versus, for example, on-premise data backup or disk storage) is that your files are no longer dependent on any single computer or server.
But that’s far from the only benefit of cloud backup—read on for more!
Zero Infrastructure Investment: Cloud Backups are Cost-Effective
We mentioned above that a cloud backup service is surprisingly affordable, allowing you to allocate more tech spending toward other, business-critical investments. This is because there's no need to purchase costly additional hardware with cloud backups. A cloud backup service seamlessly integrates with your existing infrastructure, so you don’t have to purchase new equipment or even update your current technology environment. Bottom line: A key benefit of cloud technology is that your critical data resides everywhere at once, with no additional hardware expenses.
Automated Backups: Cloud Backups Solve for Human Error
If your team is manually backing up your data, you are keenly aware of how time-consuming and mundane these tasks can be. Manually backing up your data also introduces the possibility of human error, in which a task is done incorrectly or—even more common—if someone simply forgets to do the data backup altogether. One survey suggests that human error accounts for a whopping 70% of data center issues. With cloud backup, you can configure the backup to be completed automatically at specific intervals that make sense for your unique business. This way, you’re ensured that data is always securely backed up, be it every hour, day, or week.
Rapid Recovery: Get Back to Business as Usual with Cloud Backups
When disaster strikes, speed is everything. Following a data loss, it’s critical to get back up and running as quickly as possible. Another benefit of a cloud backup service is that it offers an extremely fast recovery time. In addition to your backup solution (cloud or otherwise), you’ll also want to consider your disaster recovery plan. Connecting your cloud backup service to a robust disaster recovery solution is a straightforward process that ensures a speedy and complete recovery.
This is especially true when you partner with a third party expert to select, implement, and manage a best-in-class cloud backup plus disaster recovery service. For example, at N8 Solutions, we offer a cloud-based, high-availability replication and disaster recovery solution that is ideal for businesses who need instant recovery. Protected data is replicated near-synchronously to our cloud environment, so you can easily failover to the cloud, and then failback to your own system within minutes, not days.
Enhanced Security: Look for Cloud Backups with Enhanced Features
In a previous post, we highlighted five common mistakes businesses make when it comes to data backup and disaster recovery. One notable error is not backing up your backups. Today, we see sophisticated malware attacks specifically target backed-up data to maximize damage on organizations of all sizes. The best way to protect your backed-up data is through a process known as immutable backups, which means that once your backup data is written, it can never be changed or deleted. With immutable backups, your data can’t be read, modified, or deleted by clients on your network. In general, look for a cloud backup service with built-in data security features, such as encryption while data is in transit, immutable backups, and strict security protocols at all physical server locations.
Do it for your Technology Team: Cloud Backups Free up Precious Time
As we mentioned above, many cloud backup services are automated, which reduces time-consuming manual tasks and frees up your team's time to focus on other business-critical projects. Once again, if you partner with a trusted third party, you’ll not only be better protected from damaging cyberattacks—you’ll also save significantly more time, enabling your already-busy tech team to focus on other pressing tasks.
Cost and time savings, automation, rapid recovery, enhanced security—these are just a few of the many benefits of a cloud backup service for your business. In today’s world of work, we know two things: damaging cyberattacks will continue apace, and the amount of critical data we generate, store, and access will continue to soar (soon, we may all be talking about data in petabytes). Now is the time to shift to the cloud, in partnership with a trusted expert, to ensure your business has the tools, technology, and team to not only survive, but thrive.
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