We live in a world today where cybersecurity is one of the most important factors a company must consider when making decisions about their data and network. Part of this discussion must be data backups as they are extremely important.
You absolutely must have backups of your data. With the types of viruses, such as Cryptolocker, that are released these days, backups are often your only recourse to restore or recover your data. When deciding on a backup strategy, whether it is cloud-based or on-site, it is important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each carefully.
Let’s talk about what we mean when we say cloud backups. The cloud is simply a collection of servers located at a data center or multiple data centers where your data can be stored and accessed. On-site backups are where your data is backed up at the same location at which you use it. Keep in mind, even if you do on-site backups you should still move that backup, or a copy of it, off-site or else you could still lose that data in the event of a hurricane, fire, flood, etc.
Now, let’s breakdown the differences between the two different backup types:
Cloud Backups
Advantages
- Accessibility – Cloud backups are literally accessible anytime and anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
- Data Assurance – Your data is backed up in the event of a local event such as a fire or theft.
- Multiple copies – When you have your backup in the cloud, it appears like you just have one copy on their server. Most of the time time, the servers themselves have backups and are possibly spread across multiple servers giving you even more redundancy in the event of a failure.
- Security – Most of these services will encrypt the data before it is sent to their servers and most of these data centers have very strict security protocols.
- Maintenance – SandStorm IT manages and monitors our client’s backups. In most cases we can address any problem remotely.
Disadvantages
- Speed – The speed at which you can retrieve/recover your data is dependent upon your internet connection.
On-Site Backups
Advantages
- Control – You have full control on how your backups are backed up and stored.
- Speed – Both backing up your data and retrieving your data from on-site storage will be faster.
Disadvantages
- Accessibility – You must be in physical control of the media which stores your data. If you store your data at a facility off-site or with another company that stores it off-site you have limited access to your data when you need it.
- Maintenance – You must monitor your own backup jobs for failures, rotate drives, maintain those drive and secure the media.
- Setup – Often times when using an on-site backup solution it will require more hands-on attention than a cloud based solution.
Overall, deciding which type of backup you need can be daunting. It’s actually a big decision that can greatly impact the future of your business if your important data were to be in danger, but you don’t have to make the decision alone. SandStorm IT can provide assistance and expertise on the best option to meet your needs. Just call the experts at SandStorm IT at 901-475-0275.