We all know we should be backing up our work constantly, but it generally takes a catastrophic data loss to drive behaviour change. What happens though, when it’s not just a single laptop losing data but an entire organisation losing data or access to it?
What is needed is a Backup as a Service (BaaS) solution, provider takes the responsibility out of the hands of the individual (or IT department) and ensures that any data loss suffered is only temporary in nature.
In fact, with the very best BaaS, the replacement of any lost data can be virtually instantaneous, while even data originally stored several years ago and now needs to be revisited for unforeseen reasons can be accessed quickly and simply.
It’s easy for any organisation to assume a data loss will be caused by a breach engineered from outside by hackers or cyber criminals acting with malicious intent. But this thinking leads only to the adoption of stricter security measures, which will not address the real problem.
According to statistics gathered by business2community, 50% of data loss incidents are actually caused by hardware or system malfunctions, with 22% being attributable to human error.
Even with the best cyber security safeguards in place, the only way to fully protect your business from the massive risks posed by a potential data loss is to have a thorough backup process in place.
When considering issues relating to data loss, think ‘3-2-1’. You need to keep 3 copies of each piece of data, stored on 2 different types of media, with at least 1 copy stored off-site.
Before BaaS, following this rule would involve the creation or utilisation of a secure data storage facility off-site, a decision around which media to use for the backup and the sizeable capital outlay needed to make it all this happen and keep it available 24/7.
Businesses would also need to try and future-proof the process to ensure the comprehensive record of organisation’s work, involving potentially millions of documents and other pieces of data, is available at any point in time.
It has to be possible to trace the development of any given project through all iterations, as well as preserving vital data to replicate it in the event of a disaster striking the business and causing data loss.
Over time this would mean upgrading and expanding the amount of storage required on a regular basis, or else the business picking and choosing which items to save or which saved items to delete to free up space.
A comprehensive BaaS solution also addresses your archiving needs, storing those infrequently used files, that nobody needs, but compliance dictates they must be kept for a set period, or indeed forever, which ensures they just take up valuable space in your live working environment.
A business might opt only to backup new and updated files, therefor saving time, reducing the storage costs and delaying the date on which more storage will have to be purchased. But again, this would lead to a less than comprehensive backup solution.
A BaaS solution from CCE leverages the agility and resilience of cloud computing to store files, folders or even the entire contents hard drives, backed up regularly over an internet connection to ensure your business benefits from the kind of secure, off-site storage demanded by the 3-2-1- rule.
Once we have tailored a solution to your unique needs, you and your IT team, can concentrate on more valuable activities, safe in the knowledge BaaS is providing a safety net to mitigate the loss of data.
Typically, a corrupted, deleted or lost file that needs to be referred to, will undoubtedly need to be retrieved in a hurry and again, this is the strength of BaaS.
The single file or document can be retrieved from the backup on its own, quickly and easily, without having to trigger a full recovery. Importantly, you maintain complete and immediate access to your data, with full control over how that data is used.
Each new backup saves changes to the existing data and adds any new data, with everything happening automatically, without users giving it any thought. The backup occurs at regular intervals, at a convenient time; every hour, every day, close of business or middle of the night, whatever suits.
The question is how much data are you prepared to risk losing to a breach, theft or system failure, an hour’s worth, an afternoon, a day? This decision could affect the cost of the BaaS service tailored for you and how quickly you’re back in business.
Much more effective than legacy data backup solutions, which typically do not save only new or changed data, but everything, every time and require continual upkeep and troubleshooting, BaaS offers far greater value for money.
A tailored BaaS solution from CCE removes the need for a large initial capital outlay and instead switches to a ‘pay as you go’ model, only having to pay for the storage space needed for the amount of data you want to back up – which will affect the cost.
Importantly, BaaS is infinitely and simply scalable. As your data requirements grow and change the storage available for them expands in exact and immediate proportion.
We use Veeam software to deliver our BaaS solutions, which combines security with seamless delivery to provide physical and virtual backups, stored in highly secure off-site locations.
While the data is encrypted for security purposes, you can access and retrieve it at any time, either removing the risk of business-damaging downtime altogether or reducing disruption to an absolute minimum.
Remember, Backup as a Service is simple to manage with CCE by your side and instead of stressing about rotating and managing tapes or hard disks, while remembering to remove some offsite, you can easily switch maintenance and management of your back-ups to us.