What is the cloud? The cloud is a term used for any computing resources software or otherwise purchased and accessed through web access. Software or even hardware resources can be accessed and used as needed using cloud computing. Next question - when is the last time your company actually tested its’ backup solution?
Often times backups are treated as a set it and forget it service, then when the time comes to actually use that backup in a disaster recovery scenario the backup disk hasn't been rotated or maintained properly and your last line of defense is now useless or too old to contain relevant data. Other than eliminating the need to rotate disks on and off site, online backup services have become a valuable tool for disaster recovery projects of all sizes and provide your IT team with the resources needed to practice recovery operations without a large interruption in service for the entire business.
With virtualization many online backup services allow your team to spin up a live server off your backups for testing and training purposes. Not only that but most of these resources can be accessed 24/7 by IT team members with an internet connection. Allowing for fast reactions decreasing business down-time by up to hours.
With traditional disk backups the IT team would need to be notified and possibly stop by a safety deposit box to pick up the off-site backup before even making it to the hardware that needs to be recovered. In this time a cold virtual server could have already been spun up allowing your employees to continue working while hardware recovery takes place.
Are you concerned with your data being hosted in the cloud? This is a valid concern; but,
precautions can be taken to protect your data in transit and at rest in the data center. This data should be encrypted during the upload process and encrypted within the data center. All accounts related to your cloud backup solution should have strong complex passwords, should only be provided to necessary personnel, and should be protected as well with multi-factor authentication.
The versatility and convenience of cloud backup solutions alone proves they are a useful tool for any business. The abilities it gives your IT team to test your backup solutions and verify the data being stored should help provide peace of mind that even in the worst of circumstances you will be able to operate.
What is the cloud?
The cloud is a term used for any computing resources software or otherwise purchased and accessed through web access. Software or even hardware resources can be accessed and used as needed using cloud computing.