Chances are you rely on your computers daily. Whether you are working, relaxing, learning, scrolling, or streaming, your computer is critical. Luckily a computer can be replaced. What can’t be replaced is your critical data.

So, what would you do if your hard drive suddenly failed? If you have cloud backup, chances are you might swear under your breath for a moment, and then restore your data. But what if you have no backup? Well you’re likely SOL. You can try working with a recovery service, but they are generally expensive, and depending on the nature of the failure it might be impossible.

Anyone can experience data loss. That’s why its critical to have a formalized backup strategy. With an effective backup and some planning, you can minimize the damage you might experience if your computer or server crashes, or files are deleted.

Don’t gamble with your data! Implement a solid cloud backup solution to ensure that your business is protected:

Here are 3 reasons you need a cloud backup solution:

  1. Hackers and Viruses
    Cybercriminals are everywhere. They work day and night trying to get into your computer network. Hackers will attempt to infect your systems with viruses, phishing attacks, and malicious pop-ups to help them gain access to your data. More concerning, once they have access, they might hold your data hostage until you pay up – something known as a Ransomware attack. Once a hacker enters your network, it’s often quite difficult to remove them without damaging your data or network. That’s why having a backup solution for your business is vital. Instead of paying the ransom, you can restore data from your backup. This does two things: 1) It saves you the cost of the Ransom, and 2) It tells the hacking community that you aren’t willing to pay up.
  2. Hardware Failure
    All things come to an end – including the life spans of your computers, servers, and external hard drives. Water and drop damage, viruses, and drive failures can all prevent you from accessing data on your internal or external hard drive. Drive failures are the biggest culprit of data loss. Without data backup, you might be forced to recreate all your data manually. But what if you lost 3 months worth of work? Your chances of recreating all that information are minimal at best.
  3. Improves Productivity and Reduces Downtime
    Computers crash, files are accidentally or even intentionally deleted by your staff, and hackers are regularly trying to infect your network with Ransomware attacks. Shit happens, and often there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it. That said, if you are infected with Ransomware, your business could suffer major downtime, lost opportunities, and reduced productivity. If your data is held hostage long enough, or you refuse to pay the ransom, it has the potential to put you out of business. Having an effective backup and recovery plan mitigates these problems and could save your business in an emergency.

Now that you know the importance of cloud backup, its vital that you choose a backup strategy that fits your business.

There is lots of choice out there, but you want to make sure you choose a solution that fits your business. If your company is in manufacturing, distribution, or retail, you likely need a robust solution that can be restored and get you back up and running quickly. Conversely, if you don’t require immediate recoverability, you can probably get away with something less premium.

Here are three of the most common types of cloud backup:

  1. Data backups:this is the simplest, and least robust cloud backup solution of the three. It does exactly what the name suggests: it backs up your data exclusively. So, for example, let’s say your server fails on a Tuesday afternoon. You notify your IT provider, and they order a new piece of equipment immediately. If you are lucky the equipment arrives mid-day on Wednesday and configuration begins. By the time the new server is deployed it’s Thursday, at the earliest, and your data isn’t even uploaded. We recommend this solution only to businesses who can operate for a minimum of 3 days without their data.
  2. Image-based backups:an image-based backup is a step up from Data only. It effectively takes an “image” of your ENTIRE server or computer. That includes your operating system, your system state, your applications and configurations. This reduces the recovery time significantly since your configuration doesn’t need to be rebuilt from scratch, but the “image” still needs to be uploaded to a new piece of hardware. This solution is more appropriate for businesses that can’t afford more than 1-2 days of downtime.
  3. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR):this is the quickest and most effective backup solution, but it’s also the most expensive. Most BCDR solutions include two components: 1) A physical piece of hardware, and 2) Cloud Backup. It works like this: a device is installed on your network and connected to your server(s). That device then backs up directly to the cloud. This gives you two levels of redundancy. If your server fails, the device can act as a temporary server and you can access your data in a few minutes. If, on the other hand, your office is flooded, burned to a crisp, or you experience a natural disaster, you can boot your server from the cloud. In either case you can be back up and running in minutes!

A backup can save your business. That’s why its so important to have a cloud backup solution, and a recovery plan. If you’re not sure which method best suits your business, we can help! Please give us a call at (647) 697-6773, or email [email protected] and someone from our office will be happy to assist.