Difference between Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery

If recent history has taught us anything, it is, that technology is ever-changing.  The span from one generation to the next becomes shorter each time.  Each plateau marks an increase in performance, productivity, and greater affordability.  Unfortunately, as is always the case, there will be entities that will do almost anything conceivable to exploit and attack any weaknesses, whether for the mere challenge or for monetary gain. 

The result of these invasions could be minor, but for any business, it could be disastrous.  Any cyberattack, irrespective of its magnitude, can hinder the daily operation of any business.  The effects, in some cases, could be impossible to recover from. Fortunately, the advent of cloud computing has spawned affordable security options that are accessible to businesses of every size. Among this security, options are Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery.

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Before considering whether cloud backup or disaster recovery as viable options, one must first understand the concept of the cloud. A simple explanation of the cloud is an off-site data storage facility. Public cloud storage is currently accessible to almost everyone, often referred to as drives, with unique and appealing prefixes. 

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While public cloud storage might be ideal for personal home use, to store photos and such, a business would require a more robust option.  All the data generated by any business, on a daily, if not hourly basis is crucial and essential to the continuous and fluid operations of that business. To fully appreciate the advantages of cloud backup, and services such as disaster recovery, one should first examine what each entails.  Let’s look into both of them.   

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Advantages of Cloud Backup

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If we were to expand upon that, the private cloud is a series of secure servers, upon which a business may pay to store its data. Data is not simply stored but constantly backed up. With cloud backup, multiple copies of an establishment's data are transferred with regular frequency to different servers. Each backup is equipped with the most stringent security applications and protocols.  Several constant scheduled backups ensure that retrievable data is secure but current.  As a result, downtime is minimized.

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Top 5 Advantages of Cloud Backup

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1. Employees don't need to back up their work
2. A series of off-site servers dedicated to storing data results in multiple, uniquely secured copies of all critical data.
3. Backups are scheduled, automated, and frequent. Thus, ensuring that data relating to the most recent and crucial activities are easily accessible.
4. Downtime and expenses are greatly reduced with multiple secure and up-to-date backups
5. Service providers,  who are certified in safeguarding sensitive digital information, manage backups and data.

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Of all the benefits of cloud backup, the latter two points are crucial when considering disaster recovery.  Computing disasters range from a simple human error to cyber attacks.  Common events such as power outages and even equipment failure could equally affect any business. 

Disaster Recovery

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The most common and expensive data related disasters for any organization are cyberattacks.  This is usually when data is compromised. Consequently, it risks a business’ reputation. Worse yet, would be an incident involving ransomware, whereby businesses not only suffer losses due to downtime but also incurs costs to free their data.  In some instances, businesses that have surrendered to ransomware were unsuccessful in retrieving their data. Other businesses were subsequently forced to pay more than initially expected. In some cases, businesses that experienced a cyberattack, without any disaster recovery plan, ultimately went bankrupt.

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Consider these disaster recovery statistics.

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• 39% of small and medium-sized businesses do not have a recovery plan
• 28% of data breaches are a result of malware
• Ransomware attacks result in an average of 16 downtime days
• According to a 2019 Logic Monitor Study, 96% of businesses experienced at least 1 power outage in a 3-year period
• 55% of those have had 5 or more
• Frequent outages result in 16 times higher costs

Be Assured

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By frequently backing up your data to multiple, offsite, independently secured servers, you will ensure that your vulnerability is dramatically reduced.  Concurrently, in the event of a disaster, you will be preventing your business’ downtime.  Establishments that practice this routine not only avoid excessive downtime, they also succeed in recovering 97% of their data following a ransomware attack.

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Find out more about how Assurance IT addresses your storage needs and protects your business data.

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Sources: naviko.com, rackspace.com, arbonite.com, barracuda.com, itispivotal.com, techtarget.com, comparitech.com

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