Have you been treating your data backup as an afterthought? It’s pretty easy to think of a backup system as something you set up and forget about until you need it. Unfortunately, that’s far from the case. It’s also critical to consider what would happen if your backup fails.
Backups Aren’t Infallible
Even if you spent a lot on a backup solution for your business (we’re not talking about the old-school method of tape backup, or the consumer-friendly method of external hard drives), your backup isn’t absolutely bulletproof. If the device your data is stored on were to fail, and in the same event, your backup device fails too, then you are still losing your data.
The obvious culprits of this are the big ones; fire, flood, a water main breaking, a roof leaking, things of that nature. The stuff you hope to never deal with, and fingers crossed, never have to.
There are also more common disasters that could take out multiple devices at once. Lightning or brownouts, infrastructure damage, or even user error could cause data loss. Depending on how secure your network is, and how well maintained everything is, cyberthreats could easily affect both your servers and your backup at once too.
Onsite Backup Isn’t Enough
An integral part of your data backup, and something that is a must-have for a proper business continuity plan, is storing a copy of your data securely in the cloud. This isn’t the same as simply using the cloud to access your data, but having a totally separate backup stored in the cloud for the singular purpose of redundancy.
It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t when set up properly.
Here’s how it works—your onsite backup solution should be backing up your data regularly throughout the day. In most cases, we configure it to back up your data several times an hour.
It packages all of the backups together and encrypts everything. This means that if, for whatever reason, the data gets intercepted while it is being transmitted, it can’t be read. During off hours (typically to prevent bandwidth issues), we push the day’s backed up data to a secure cloud-hosted server, where it remains encrypted and archived.
Again, this is different than cloud storage. Services like Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox are all decent options for collaborating and sharing documents in the cloud, but they don’t really function as a cloud backup solution in quite the same way.
How The Cloud Protects Your Data
Several features differentiate remote or cloud backup:
- It’s not as vulnerable to disasters (natural or man-made) as physical devices are.
Accidents happen and despite your best attempts, things go wrong… whether it’s a winter storm, broken water pipe, cyberattack, or simply a team member deleting the wrong files. The best way to plan for a disaster is to prepare for a disaster, and your backup is the best plan your business can have. - The cloud allows for file versioning.
Of all the features remote backup brings to the table, versioning is one of the most important to protecting your data. Remote backup’s file versioning keeps different versions of your files separate and intact. In the case of a ransomware attack, for example, file versioning will allow you to recover a clean (uninfected) version of your data from an earlier point before the ransomware took root in your system. If you had backed it up by saving it to cloud storage, chances are you would have overwritten your files and spread the infection. - Encryption ensures your data is safe.
Professional-level cloud backup providers also offer encrypted data transfers both ways, reducing the chance that a bad actor will be able to intercept your data.
Detroit Businesses Need to Take Their Data Seriously
Your backup is an essential procedure that your business needs to have and maintain. It’s important to have your backup audited and monitored to make sure that it is performing its job, and that all the right data is always being backed up.
If you aren’t 100% positive that your data could survive any disaster, call Fuse Technology Group today at 248.545.0800 to schedule an appointment. You can’t afford to take a chance with your data, and you can be sure your competitors aren’t risking theirs.
