1. What are the most important things to consider when choosing a backup solution?
There are two really important questions you need to ask when assessing whether you have the right backup solution. How much data loss will you experience if you lost all your data and had to go back to your most recent backup (known as the Recovery Point Objective or RPO)? And how long will it take to restore your data (known as the Recovery Time objective or RTO)? If one of these answers makes you break out in a cold sweat, it is probably time to reassess your options!
2. Why choose cloud backup?
How many times have you “forgotten” to swap your backup device? Do you take your backup media off site? Fireproof safes are only rated for a certain heat and time. So even putting your backup media in your safe doesn’t guarantee protection from data loss. Imagine what would happen if you got to work and found that you’d lost all your company data with no chance of recovery. Could your business survive that? Cloud backup takes away the responsibility of having to change backup tapes or drives on a daily basis and gives you peace of mind that your data is secure.
3. What about file recovery?
The most frequent use of backup is to recover individual files that have been lost, overwritten or corrupted. Once you’ve called your IT support helpdesk to restore a file, you’ll have to hunt around for the media that contains that version of the file (hopefully you’ve been home to fetch it, see the point above!) Then you can start restoring the file. With cloud backup the helpdesk can simply log in, find the file and restore it faster and with less demands on your time. This improves the RTO over traditional backup solutions considerably.
4. How fast does my internet need to be?
For the most part when looking at the “speed” of your internet connection you will have been quoted the download speed. Browsing websites, streaming music or videos and connecting to remote networks all rely on transferring information from the internet to your computer. With cloud backup you will be transferring data from your computer or server to the internet and so your upload speed is critical. Older ADSL connections have very slow upload speeds and probably aren’t suitable for cloud backup. Newer FTTC (BT Infinity) connections may be fast enough. Leased lines or “Synchronous” broadband connections are recommended. If you have any doubts about the suitability of your connection, you can give us a call and we can check it out and also examine what else is available in your area.
5. Does the amount of data effect the cost?
The more data you are backing up the longer it will take and the more important your upload speed is in determining if it is even feasible. So in short: yes, the amount of data will affect the cost.
6. Where will my data be?
The products we recommend all store your data in UK based data centres. An especially important consideration when your data is subject to compliance regulations and/or data protection laws. If your backup is saved in an overseas data centre, then it may be subject to data protection and compliance laws in the country in which it is stored including risks to confidentiality.
7. How secure is my data?
Your data has to be encrypted to ensure that it is never accessible to anyone outside your organisation. Both in transit (so the connection between your server and the data centre) and at rest (when it is stored in the data centre).
8. How fast can you recover your data in the event of a major incident?
It’s all very well having all your data backed up, but if it takes a month to get it back in the event of a disaster (RTO) then you are going to struggle. Make sure the provider can courier a physical copy of the data to you should you suffer a disaster. If your data is sitting in a data centre on the other side of the world, this isn’t going to happen in a hurry! Products like Microsoft Azure can recover systems incredibly quickly.
9. What happens if my internet stops working for any length of time?
With any cloud backup solution, it is imperative that you still maintain an on premise backup. Whilst internet connections don’t often stop working for days on end, it does occasionally happen. You still need to protect your data against corruption or accidental deletion during this time and as long as your internet is offline, your cloud backup will not be protecting your data.
10. Which product should you use?
There are literally hundreds of cloud backup products out there, all with different functions and features, so the product you choose should reflect the infrastructure you are backing up. At Resolve, we always recommend the cloud solution that best suits a business’s needs. With all our clients, we get to understand how the business works before making any recommendations.
