Backing Up To The “Cloud:” What It Means And Why EVERY Business Should Have It In Place
One of the BEST ways to protect your data is to maintain an up-to-date copy in a
high-security data center somewhere other than your office. In fact, it should be in
another “safe” city at least 180 miles away from your office, and ideally one that is not
susceptible to natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, tornados or earthquakes. The
generic term people use to describe this type of backup is “backing up to the cloud” or
“cloud backups,” which simply means that your data is hosted in a remote data center
and accessed via the Internet.
This type of backup is set to run automatically either after hours, when most people are not using their computer systems (1:00 a.m. for example), or continuously throughout the day whenever a file is changed or added. The data on a particular machine is copied and sent over the Internet to a high-security facility where it is stored. Because these backups are automated, you don’t have to worry about someone forgetting to run the backup.
As with anything, you get what you pay for, and there are some key quality differences
in the type of backup service you choose. Pick the wrong one and you could end up
paying a lot of money only to discover that recovering your data – the very reason why
you set up remote backups in the first place – is not an easy, fast, or simple job.
There are hundreds of companies offering cloud based data backup services, but beware -- not all service providers are created equal. You don’t want to get burned by hidden fees, slow data retrieval, or improper data backup. Your business’ data is precious cargo, full of sensitive information regarding clients and finances that are core to your business. Without a reliable data storage service, you could lose a lot of time and money trying to retrieve valuable information.
Enter your email address in the field below and we’ll send you 12 Little-Known Facts Every Business Owner Must Know About Data Backup, Security and Disaster Recovery, an informative, free data backup guide detailing what to demand form your backup service.