Small Businesses Are at the Front Lines in an Almost Constant Attack of Hackers.
These Companies Cannot Afford Downtime.
As we move into the information era, data becomes a foundational element of business. Data is collected, stored, and analyzed allowing businesses to gain a new depth of insight into their customers and their habits with an endless amount of possibilities to grow their business in a smarter, more agile way. This data needs to be available around the clock to ensure the operational success of the business. Data that once lived in basements and backrooms is being moved to cloud-based servers and SaaS applications. Historically, data backup has always been a key component of any IT strategy – whether it was stored on floppy disks, duplicate servers, or in custom built applications. With this shift to the cloud, backup shouldn't be taken out of the strategy; rather, it should be re-thought to be more adaptable and cost-effective – the same reason you moved to the cloud in the first place.
But Isn't the Cloud Already Backed Up?
There is a common misconception that the cloud is backed up. However, while Amazon, Google, and Salesforce all have disaster recovery plans for the data they store on their servers, is that the only way you think you'll be affected by data loss? It's more likely that an employee is going to delete something they end up needing two weeks later than the possibility of all of Google's servers being destroyed by a tornado. Google and Salesforce both have limited functionality when it comes to getting your data back if it is lost for reasons other than hardware failure or disasters.
How Do I Prevent Data Loss From Causing Business Disruption?
We suggest a layered approach to protecting your company's data, which involves all or a combination of the following measures:
- Good Data Management Processes
- SaaS Application Training
- Robust Password Policies
- Automated Backup with Easy Recover and Restore
Good data management processes means putting procedures, policies and checklists in place specific to SaaS applications. They could be focused on instances such as times of high-volume data or when users join and leave a company. Users should be thoroughly trained in order to understand the purpose of the application and the role the data plays in the success of the organization. Passwords should always be robust and changed frequently.
Curious about the knowing more? Read more of this in:
Making a Case for Cloud-to-Cloud Backups
Here is a good resource explaining the "New Ear of in Cloud Computing."