Cloud Computing Eases Backup Pains
Nobody likes to back up their business data and applications. Even at its best, the process is slow, often balky, and generally annoying. Sort of like flossing your teeth.
But just like flossing, we do it because the alternative is much, much worse: Your teeth could fall out. Or you could lose irreplaceable business information, valuable applications, and -- worst case scenario -- even your entire business.
But while technology improvements haven’t really changed dental floss all that much (apart from using Teflon), the world of backups is undergoing a fundamental transformation from making copies of your company data and applications on local hard drives or tapes to storing it all online, often using cloud computing services to make the process faster, more convenient, more secure, and more affordable.
What is cloud computing?
Basically, cloud backup is a form of online backup where your data is stored on one or more remote computers. There are many advantages of putting your data in the cloud, but which ones matter most to your company can vary according to what data you’re backing up and how you’re doing it.
The biggest advantage to backing up your data far away from your own computers (and servers) is that your data is protected even if a disaster (whether a tornado or a terrorist attack) affects your business.
Second, backups in the cloud are accessible from anywhere -- from any device with an Internet connection. That can be a lot easier and faster than traveling to some remote storage facility to retrieve physical backups. It also means you can more easily restart your business even if you don’t have the original computers you were using (either because you can’t get to them or they no longer work).
Of course, a full download-and-restore can take a long time -- weeks if you have a lot of data and a less-than-sizzling connection! But with your data in the cloud, you may be able to access particular files in the meantime, helping to keep your business running.
Just as important, cloud backups are typically encrypted with state-of-the-art algorithms and stored in physical data centers protected with round-the-clock security teams. As some high-profile security breakdowns have shown, these measures are not foolproof. But they are far superior to the efforts most small businesses take to protect their data. (As AllBusiness recently pointed out, when a cloud computing service has an “incident,” you’ll most likely hear about it in the press. When individual small businesses lose data or suffer security breaches, you’ll probably never know about it.)
Cloud computing also makes for less hassles than doing on-site backups. You don’t have to decide how much storage you need, and then buy more disks when you run out of free space. Instead, the cloud backup service simply assigns you all the space you need and charges you by the month.
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How do I back up my data on the cloud?
You’ve got lots of choices in cloud backup services, including Carbonite and Backblaze, as well as companies that offer access to Amazon Web Services servers such as Jungle Disk. For Apple users, there’s the iCloud.
Pricing schemes vary by number of computers and the amount of storage space needed, but while large enterprises pay millions of dollars for these kinds of capabilities, cloud backups start at around $5 per month per computer. Sure, that can add up, but there’s no upfront cost and it’s much cheaper than losing your company’s data and having to shutter your business.
Finally, if you like the idea of cloud backups but also want to keep your data near at hand, there are a number of hybrid services like CrashPlan that mix cloud and local backups -- often using the cloud as a backup for the local backup.
But perhaps the most interesting option is synching services like the popular Dropbox, SugarSync, Box, Microsoft SkyDrive, and others that automatically synch files across multiple computers as well as store them on remote servers. These services are typically free for individual use with a limited amount of storage and offer more robust plans for business users.
Here at AllBusiness World HQ, we use Dropbox in addition to all the corporate-controlled backup options because it also makes it easy for us share key files and get access to them from anywhere without having to go behind the corporate firewall.
Try doing that with an external hard drive in the closet!
RELATED: 7 Reasons Cloud Storage Needs to be a Part of Your Business
