Local Vs. Cloud Data Backup
Every business, regardless of size, is a potential target of cybercrime. Cybercriminals put businesses at risk of both financial loss and reputational damage. One of the most basic ways you can protect your organization’s critical data is with regular data backups. When you make a data backup plan, you have choices to make about how, when, and how often you back up your company’s data. Among these is whether to store backed up data in the cloud or on on-site servers. In this article, we’ll explore the advantage of each type of backup storage and provide tips for creating your data backup plan.
Local Backup
When you perform a local backup, you copy data to a local device such as an external hard drive or standby server. Having a local backup of all data from all devices, including operating systems, applications, and other software your business uses, can provide quick and convenient recovery in some data loss scenarios. You can restore systems using a local backup even if your internet connection is down, and you can maintain complete physical control over your organization’s backed up data. While these are important benefits, local backup doesn’t provide complete protection. In the event of a local disaster such as a fire or flood, for example, a local backup can easily be destroyed along with your primary files.
Cloud Backup
Backing up files to either a public or private cloud overcomes the physical limitations of local backups. No matter what happens on the ground at your place of business, your data can remain secure on remote servers. Public cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and various private cloud services, which offer data storage for multiple clients, can provide reliable, secure, and complete data backup that’s affordable for even the smallest businesses. Additionally, cloud services are inherently scalable and provide long-term retention at cost-effective prices.
While storing critical data “in the cloud” might sound precarious, it is generally much more secure than local backup methods. That’s because the large companies that provide cloud storage have the resources to employ teams of cybersecurity experts who are dedicated to keeping their clients’ data safe. For small and mid-sized businesses that don’t have the budgets to support on-site IT experts, the cloud is often the most secure place for data backup storage.
Creating Your Backup Plan
Your company’s data backup plan should be part of a larger incident response plan, which serves as a guide for staff to minimize data loss and reduce the time it takes to recover from a cybersecurity incident. To accomplish this, you will need readily accessible backups of all business data. No matter the size of your company, the best way to support a quick and complete recovery is by using a combined local and cloud backup strategy. This provides the convenience of on-site data recovery with the reliability of the cloud.
The details of your plan should be crafted to suit your individual business needs. While it’s important to have a complete backup of all data, how frequently you should perform backups and what data should be included in each backup depends on how your business uses its data, including how quickly data is added or changed, what data is essential for operations, and how long it would take your business to recover in the event of data loss.
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