A lot of things have been said about cloud backup, a strategy, and process that is constantly evolving. This blog post looks at some of the common misconceptions and misunderstandings about cloud backup to shed light on what's true.
Cloud technologies aren't going away. In fact, a majority of corporate data (over 60%) is already being stored in the cloud. Organizations of all sizes and industries are now finding ways in which they can leverage the cloud to make access to their organization's data more flexible and reliable. Particularly when it comes to the secure storage of critical data, cloud technologies raise many questions.
While cloud backup helps to insure against local disasters, creating local backup copies is still a vital part of the hybrid backup strategy. Restoring from local devices can offer clear speed advantages, especially when it comes to large sets of data. Organizations can exercise greater control over local data for specific compliance and access requirements.
Cloud costs are often immediately less expensive than self-hosting, which requires upfront hardware, software, and maintenance investment. However, it is important to consider cloud partners carefully as storage grows over several years. Some providers may have storage fees which increase suddenly in the event that you go over your allocated storage amount, transfer your data, or require specific security features.
The speed of a backup or recovery through the cloud is dependent on a number of factors, including internet bandwidth, the infrastructure of your provider, and the size of your data set. There is a common belief that cloud backup is slow, however, modern solutions can take advantage of incremental changes to the original seeded backup, leading to surprisingly fast backup speeds. While administrators may often prefer to initiate a large restore from local storage, local devices may become damaged or otherwise inaccessible in a disaster scenario.
| A one-year-old server has a 5% failure rate, increasing annually and reaching a failure rate of 15% for a six-year-old server. - Statistica 2023 |
As they should, organizations have questions and concerns about the security of their data being hosted in the cloud. They must verify that their could storage providers are taking necessary measures such as encryption (data at rest or in transit), multi-factor authentication, and putting systems in place that manage access to data. Most cloud storage providers are extremely concerned with meeting legal requirements for private data and place a high priority on compliance. Furthermore, physical security measures are generally put into place for data centers (storage redundancy, security checkpoints, surveillance, temperature control, fire suppression) at a far greater level than an individual might be able to accomplish.
Are you curious how cloud backup functionality might be able to improve your organization's data security? Download our recent eBook entitled Leverage Cloud Backup for Maximum Data Protection and learn how to level-up your resistance to modern security threats and improved access to critical data.
NovaBACKUP’s team of backup engineers work side-by-side with businesses, IT providers, and MSPs to enable the use and delivery of highly flexible backup solutions. Request a call with a backup expert and get your questions answered.