Many people shy away from the concept of allowing their precious data live in a place they can’t see. That’s understandable, but it’s time to make a change.
What if your systems were hit by a virus?
What if your physical backups were stolen?
What if your office building went up in flames?
Would you be able to recover your critical business data in these situations? Are the “what ifs” worth using a more convenient, yet extremely vulnerable, backup method? Any business that relies on their data will probably answer “no”. These organizations need to look beyond traditional backup to the new way of protecting data: backing it up in the cloud.
Cloud backup refers to the method of backing up data that involves sending a copy of data over a network to an off-site server. This is an essential piece of any business continuity strategy. Backup in the cloud is the best way to get off-site backup for your most important business files, though for some, this can be a scary transition.
Cloud backup is actually an extremely secure method for data backup because data is stored in the cloud, or the Internet, though it’s ultimately located on secure infrastructure owned, managed, and maintained by a cloud provider like RapidScale. And when data is stored in the cloud, it’s accessible to authorized users whenever they need it, on any device, from any location. If disaster strikes, businesses maintain up-to-date, clean data in the safe cloud environment.
With this method, backup is isolated and off-site, and customers don’t use it as their primary way to access data. Cloud backup extracts data out from the primary systems it’s mounted on, so if a server gets compromised, the data isn’t compromised. It’s very important to have data abstracted from these primary systems and running in a different data center than the one the business is in to ensure the information isn’t vulnerable.
Backup in the cloud is relatively straightforward. Businesses can choose real-time, continuous backup, or schedule automated backups. And after that initial backup, the system will only back up new files or files that have been edited. When it comes time to retrieve files, businesses simply access an easy-to-use Web portal. File-level data backup is recommended as part of any business continuity plan, in addition to disaster recovery, as it can help protect businesses from situations like human error, ransomware, logical failure, hardware failure, disasters, and more.
There are other backup options, but these include circulating multiple hard drives and keeping them “safe” in your office (which is vulnerable and tough to remember) or running a remote server (which is technically challenging). These options may seem more convenient, but convenience isn’t worth lax security. Cloud backup providers take security extremely seriously, and ones like RapidScale ensure that data is encrypted during transfer. This means we don’t even see your files, let alone hackers or viruses.
Cloud computing offers a secure, affordable and simple way to back up data off-site and is becoming the go-to choice for many businesses today. The global cloud backup and recovery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.95% through 2020, according to research firm Technavio.
So what does cloud backup offer a business?
- Added agility
- Fast implementation
- Managed off-site backup infrastructure
- Data encryption
- Pay-as-you-go pricing
- Reduction in internal resources
- Secure accessibility
- Restore backups anytime, any place
- Scheduled backups or real-time backup
And what does cloud backup eliminate?
- Secondary sites
- Backup servers
- Added storage
- Off-site backup tapes
- IT headaches
RapidScale’s CloudBackup
CloudBackup is RapidScale’s cloud-based backup solution that automates data backup to secure cloud storage. It’s an easy-to-use solution, yet it’s also extremely secure, reliable, and affordable. With CloudBackup, businesses can experience automated, granular file backup for their data. Learn more on our CloudBackup solution page.
