When is the right time to assess the way you backup your company’s data and information? The answer is now. Cyber attacks on businesses continue to increase in frequency and sophistication; the global work-from-home transformation that resulted from the pandemic has only raised this threat further.
Whether you have a backup solution in place or are exploring your options for the first time, a backup strategy is critical to protect your business, whether you suffer a cyberattack, a natural disaster, fire or flood, or even another world-changing pandemic. Data loss can also occur from something as simple as a hard drive crash or a stolen device; data can even be accidentally (or deliberately) deleted by your own employees. Your data is valuable (as you grow your business, you’re also likely increasing the amount of data you generate and use); protecting it will always be a smart investment.
The key to business resiliency in the face of disaster is a robust backup solution. The right solution will help your business recover more quickly and fully. However, the benefits of backing-up extend beyond disaster recovery; implementing the right backup solution can also help your business comply with legal or regulatory requirements, assuage concerned customers and stakeholders, save money, and reduce the strain on your busy technology team.
So how do you select from the many backup options available? In this post, we present four key considerations to help you choose the right solution, including flexibility, automation, cost, and ease of use.
The Importance of Backing-Up
Let’s set the scene a bit further. Last year, more than 40% of companies experienced downtime as a result of data loss. While the vast majority (90%) of businesses back up critical technology components, only a fraction (40%) does so daily. This leaves many businesses with a significant gap in the data that is actually available for full recovery.
At a minimum, your solution must backup data regularly and in a reliable, accessible location. While there are pros and cons to every backup solution, some common storage forms may include:
Cloud or online storage and backup (quickly becoming the go-to option for businesses)
Local data backups (such as a dedicated desktop folder or drive)
Storage in security boxes at banks (often for a fee)
USB or thumb drives (good for quick, unplanned backups)
Tape storage (often used for massive amounts of data)
Local Area Network (LAN) storage (backing up to another server or computer)
A cloud-based backup solution, for example, provides data accessibility and scalability; it also speeds disaster recovery and is often more affordable than other options. On-site storage is also cost-effective and provides for offline accessibility, however, your technology team may be responsible for ongoing maintenance. As such, many businesses adopt a hybrid approach of cloud-based backup in tandem with an on-premise system. There’s a lot to think about but we’re here to help! To begin, we suggest you consider the following four components as you explore your options.
4 Considerations for Choosing a Backup Solution
1) Flexibility
The first consideration in choosing a backup solution is all about you. Whatever solution you select must fit into your overall technology infrastructure. Because you intend to grow and scale your business, any solution you select should support a wide ecosystem, one that is broader than what you're using today. The last thing a backup solution should do is hinder your ability to scale or adopt new strategies (such as cloud-based backup) down the line. Consider also the flexibility of what data you’ll be backing up. Data at rest, for example, is easier to protect than data in transit.
While you may select to implement your own backup solution, many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find it more affordable and efficient to partner with an expert third party. At N8 Solutions, we offer a range of flexible backup and recovery service levels to fit your needs, including:
Backup Basic: For organizations looking for a data safety net. Backup Basic offers everything you need to protect your data and get up and running quickly after an outage. We’ll provide incremental backups, deduplication, and encryption.
Backup Pro: For a fully-staged and tested virtual disaster recovery solution. Backup Pro features centralized management of protected systems.
Replication and Disaster Recovery: A cloud-based, high-availability solution is ideal for businesses who need instant recovery. Protected data is replicated near-synchronously to our cloud environment, so you can easily failover to the cloud, and then failback to your own system within minutes.
2) Automation
Look for solutions that eliminate manual processes and instead leverage automation; this will reduce the mundane tasks associated with backing up and ensure that at-least-daily backups happen. Your chosen backup solution may even include artificial intelligence, or AI. In automating tasks, you'll free up your team's time to focus on other projects or critical developments.
Automation also solves the common challenge of human error. One survey suggests that human error accounts for a whopping 70% of data center issues! Further, backups do fail from time to time; another survey suggests the failure rate is as high as one-third (37%). As a cautionary tale, we can look at GitLab.com, a “multi-million dollar startup” that lost 300GB of data after a failed backup process. In this case, a system administrator at GitLab attempted a website fix by clearing out the backup database and restarting the copying process. However in doing so, the unlucky administrator accidentally deleted the primary database instead, resulting in the loss of 300GB of data.
3) Budget
Cost is another key consideration, especially for SMBs. However, investing in the right backup solution is a smart—and increasingly necessary—part of doing business today. Here’s a good rule of thumb: don't select a solution for its low cost if there’s a chance it will run low or out of storage. While a lower ticket price is appealing, you’ll end up spending more time and money in the long run to deduplicate the backup solution in the future or as you grow. The key is to aim for a solution that's cost-effective, not cheap.
If you partner with a third party on your solution, inquire about any upfront or long-term maintenance fees for data storage and retention. Generally, the right solution will save you time and money though greater efficiencies, not to mention the avoided (and sometimes astronomical) costs of recovering from a cyberattack or other disaster.
4) Consolidation
The last consideration is all about ease of use. Avoid a solution that requires a lot of different products, which can create silos, wasted space, and unwelcome complexity. Instead, seek a solution that consolidates the data backup into a single platform, rather than across multiple products. This can lead to infrastructure savings and reduced complexity, for your technology team and the entire organization. A streamlined backup solution will also improve your ability to restore data quickly should you lose it. While you should explore all options, we suggest you ultimately seek a simple yet effective backup solution.
In addition to backing up, another key component of your overall security posture is a robust and up-to-date disaster recovery plan. For more, please see this previous post with four steps to build an effective strategy for your business.
Remember, now is the time to build a robust backup and recovery plan. While we can’t predict when or how disaster strikes, we can take steps to prepare. And we can help you get there. Please get in touch with us today.