With the recent news of Sony’s corporate data being hacked and stolen and various other hacking scandals through 2014 you may be wondering, “Is my data safe and Secure?”
But beyond that, there’s another question to ask yourself: “If I were to lose my data, how would I get it back?”
With businesses increasingly adopting cloud computing solutions, new alternatives in data recovery are taking the stage.
For some businesses, the process of data backup for recovery is as simple as saving important data to an external hard drive. For larger companies, data recovery can be more involved, requiring off-site locations, complex disaster recovery plans (DRP) and significant outlays.
The unfortunate reality is that traditional DRP systems are a huge expense for many companies. The cost of renting space, equipment, technicians and other overheads can easily get very expensive, making the management, set up and restoring of data cumbersome and time consuming process for any business regardless of size
Consequently, many businesses do not have adequate data recovery plans in place. According to Eran Farajun, Executive Vice President of Asigra, a Toronto-based company specialising in a globally recognise cloud backup and recovery, the advent of Data Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) through cloud computing offers an affordable, forward thinking alternative for many companies.
“With cloud backup you’re paying at a marginal rate,” says Farajun. “Sure, there’s a data centre with computers, staff, and infrastructure — but you’re only paying for the services that you need. There is a huge economic benefit there.”
The benefits of cloud backup aren’t purely financial. DRaaS contracts offer easily customised and scalable solutions that can grow in lockstep with a company’s needs. Cloud backup strategies also provide faster recovery times than traditional methods such as magnetic tape recovery. The time to value for the right workload is much shorter in the cloud. When you need to recover data, and you’re using old processes, your team and customers can’t wait weeks for data to be recovered. The pace of business is measured today not in weeks and months, but in minutes and hours.
In the next three to five years the majority of business data will be moved to the cloud. It’s a strategic first-mover advantage that enables business to have less time and overhead managing backend processes, allowing business to focus on delivering their actual product or service offering and enabling them to become more competitive.
While many Cloud Application Providers offer space to store immense amounts of corporate data, they do not necessarily offer secure backup and recovery solutions that meet the specific service level requirements for each enterprise.
This is due to a number of industries requiring business to backup and store their store locally as often “data sovereignty” is an issue. It is important that you choose a provider that gives you 100% transparency about where your data is stored. Having your data backed up locally in New Zealand is an important consideration for any business that handles and stores personal customer data. This is applicable across any industry – from construction & financial services to Insurance.
