Businesses use their data for thriving in the modern world. According to a report from Gartner, companies are spending more than $80 billion on their data security.
The backup services have evolved with time. Customers are also slowly moving towards new backup services. It was already clear that the cloud is going to be the future of data backup. Every cloud-based backup service has the same meaning.
Most companies were not ready to move their applications to the cloud in the starting. However, cloud backup was still accepted by most of the companies. There was skepticism for a very short period of time. Due to the rise of the cloud, the traditional backup services are considered to be dead.
Many companies liked traditional services due to security concerns. Most people think that cloud platforms are not secure. Thus, many companies were not moving to the cloud platform. However, still, almost every company accepted cloud-based backup services. This was mainly due to the challenges faced in maintaining traditional backup services. In this article, we are going to talk about why companies are moving from traditional to cloud-based backup.
Challenges of maintaining Traditional Backup Services:
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Data Theft
Data theft is the most common problem with traditional backups. If you are using poor security measures, then insider attackers can steal your backup tapes. Most companies will only rely on their employees for protecting their backup tapes. However, data theft generally occurs when your tapes are stored or moved to a new location.
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Disasters
Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and fires can be devastating for your business. A large scale disaster will probably destroy all the in-house backup tapes. If your data center was in the range of disaster, then all your backup tapes will get destroyed. You can’t solve this problem by storing your backup tapes in a remote location.
If your backup tapes are stored in a remote location away from the disaster, then you need to move them back to the original source. Also, these backup tapes can become useless if all your systems are already down. This will result in a longer downtime due to which you will lose a lot of clients. Also, it will lead to a poor business reputation. You will lose a lot of money due to the downtime.
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Restore time
If your backup tapes are destroyed, then it will take weeks before you can restore your data. You need to first procure the backup units. After that, you can start the restoration process but it will still take a lot of time to recover your data.
It is very difficult to calculate the length of time it will take to restore your data completely. The size of your data can affect this time frame. If you are storing a lot of data, then it will take more time to recover your data. You also need to restore all your systems and applications. There is no benefit to restoring your data until your applications are running properly.
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Cost
This is the biggest challenge of traditional backup systems. You need to invest a lot of money into building your own data center. Also, you need to buy backup tapes for your data center. After that, you need to invest your money into maintaining and managing your backup tapes. Thus, traditional backup systems are very expensive when compared to the cloud-based backup service.
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Corrupt backup tapes
Most companies use magnetic backup tapes for storing their data. However, these tapes can easily become corrupted due to exposure to a magnetic field. The main problem is that you can’t check if your backup tape is corrupted. Thus, it is difficult to replace these corrupted tapes.
Advantages of Cloud-based backups:
- Affordable: Most businesses don’t have access to a large IT budget. Thus, cloud-based backups are perfect for them. You can save a lot of money by using cloud-based services as you will only pay for the services that you are using.
- Off-site: You should ensure that your backup is stored in a remote location. Most cloud providers will store their data in different remote locations. Thus, you will never lose access to your data.
- Automatic backups: Time is the most important thing for SBMs. Computer files will automatically get backed up by the cloud tools. Thus, you don’t need to worry about manually backing up your data. Also, you don’t need to hire any backup professional for handling your backups. Your data backups will be managed by the cloud vendor team.
- Simple: Cloud backups are simple when compared to traditional backups. They have simplified the restoration and management process. You can backup all your data in a few seconds. Also, it is very simple to restore your data. You don’t need to worry about manually restoring your data. All you need to do is start the restoration process and all your data will be restored.
- Remote access: Cloud will ensure that you can access your data remotely. All you need is an active internet connection for accessing your data. Also, you can even use your smartphones for accessing your data. Thus, the cloud can help you in improving your employee’s productivity.
Conclusion
Cloud-based backups are better when compared to traditional backup services. Thus, most companies are using cloud-based backups for protecting their data. There are various 3rd-party vendors available in the market. You should check their SLA before working with them. Cloud-based backups will give you more control over the disaster recovery process. If you don’t have a good IT team, then you should consider working with an MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in finding the best cloud vendor for your business. They will help you in moving your data and applications to the cloud. Also, they will help you in creating a perfect disaster recovery plan which will help you in maintaining business continuity. If you need more information regarding cloud-based backups, then you can contact Bleuwire.
Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.