Why You Should Consider Cloud Backup
Backing up data should be an essential part of a school’s IT strategy. The old adage is that data is already lost – hard drives will always fail at some point, and all it takes is an accidental tap of the delete key to cause disaster. With ransomware and other viruses also a consideration – as well as natural disaster – there is risks from all angles.
You may think that local backup covers the bases, but there are a number of reasons to seriously consider utilising cloud backup services.
Safe From Disaster
The biggest positive about cloud backup over local solutions is the added peace of mind you are protected from any local form of data risk. Should the worst ever happen – such as fire or flood damage, off site backups are unaffected. Whilst the recovery from a scenario such as this is by no means plain sailing, you are at least in a position where data can be restored.
Ransomware
Ransomware is a nightmare scenario – where malicious software denies you access to data, unless a ransom fee is paid. This software can spread across networks quickly, including into local backups on the same network. Cloud backups are not accessible to ransomware as it is offsite, meaning encrypted data can be restored, and a ransom payment avoided.
Cost Effective
Cloud Backup is quite often a more cost-effective option in backup strategy. It is often a monthly payment, with no upfront hardware costs or software fees, meaning you can get up and running straight away without purchasing storage equipment, servers or software.
Theft Protection
Cloud backup cannot be stolen. If a local backup is on a NAS, or a local drive, there is always the potential, however unlikely, this disk could be disconnected and walked off with. The hope would be these backups are encrypted, but if they aren’t, your local backup has become a data breach. Cloud backup is not a physical item to be stolen.
Flexibility
Cloud backup is scalable. You can have as much or as little as you like, without having to purchase new drives or devices to meet your demand. Just increase storage space as you need it.
Further Considerations
It is our belief that cloud backup is the best option in most scenarios, because of the listed benefits.
It is important however to ensure that your choice of cloud backup is properly secured, encrypted to avoid interception, and you have ensurance from the provider that the proper data protection considerations are in place.
Aux IT Solutions provides off-site, encrypted, cloud backup for servers, file data and workstations – all our backups are built with both recovery and data protection in mind.
