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Every business and person who deals with a significant amount of data should have data backups in place. This also applies to businesses or persons who routinely deal with sensitive documents they cannot afford to lose. Having multiple backups in different physical locations and different formats is a fundamental piece of advice you will hear from any IT expert. Apart from on-site data backups, businesses should consider off-site backups. Cloud backups are an excellent off-site backup option. Here’s why cloud backups are a superior option.
Why Cloud Backups Are the Best Solution for Businesses of All Sizes?
1. Unlimited Availability
It is impossible to know when you will need a file that is backed up on a server somewhere. You might need to check something on a document from the past or want to show a client an older contract you drew up while you are away from the office.
If that data or those documents are stored in your computer at the office or on a USB drive that your employee has, there will be delays in getting the information and documents you need.
These problems are eliminated when you upload your file to the cloud. As long as you have an internet connection and the right credentials, you can access your saved files and documents no matter where you are in the world.
An added advantage is the ability to access these files at the same time as a colleague.
2. It Eliminates Risk of Hardware Failure
Hard drives and other storage solutions break all the time. Hardware failure is one of the major reasons businesses call IT support. This failure can be so sudden that you lose your data without preparation or slow, such that you have corrupted data and slower access speeds as the storage medium fails.
Companies that provide IT services are very diligent about monitoring the health of their storage medium. If they detect that a hard drive’s health is deteriorating, they will swap it out quickly and without an interruption to your business.
This means you do not have to worry about losing your data or interruptions, as the IT company does the maintenance. Additionally, businesses can get all the capacity and flexibility they need when they work with companies like Texaport, which provides IT support as well as managed IT services. They can then help you to make the most use of the latest IT trending technologies available.
3. Avoid Catastrophes
With legacy backup solutions like tapes or USB, companies relied on backups stored somewhere away from your office. If your primary data is destroyed in a catastrophe such as a fire or flooding, you only have one backup to rely on. These types of legacy mediums can degrade and when that happens, you do not have a reliable backup anymore.
With cloud backups, your off-site backup is typically stored in multiple locations. This is for redundancy and for ensuring faster access speeds especially for employees who work remotely. Because these backups are in different locations, the probability of all of them getting destroyed at the same time is negligible.
4. Increased Data Retention
In IT, retention can refer to the number of backups you have and how far back they go. If you take a backup every day, you might have seven days of retention, or 30 days of retention if you decide to go that far back.
The problem with on-site backups is that many of them typically have a month or two of retention. If you want to go further back, you can’t.
With cloud backups, you can get months or even years of retention depending on the amount of data you need backed up. Some even let you keep your data as long as you want and can pay for it.
5. You Don’t Need to Think About Storage and Disk Formats
There are numerous file format options available when installing an operating system on a device or server. Windows typically uses NTFS. Macs use APFS or Mac OS extended and there are numerous options for Linux.
When building a server, you need to think about the disk format as that will dictate things like the software you can install, performance, and other metrics. With a cloud backup solution, the company will decide for you and choose a format that allows the best performance.
6. Always Updated
The backup software you use should remain updated, so you get the latest features and know all security vulnerabilities are patched. When you use cloud backups, you do not have to think about any of this.
The cloud backup provider will update all software and install the latest patches for you.
Backups are an important part of data management for organisations that deal with sizable amounts of data or sensitive data. Even small Businesses have to choose a reliable and affordable backup solution that ensures total data redundancy. Cloud backups tick all these boxes, and this is why they have exploded in popularity in recent years.