When it comes to data protection, most people don’t think twice about what could happen to the things stored on their hard drives or local servers. Unfortunately, disaster can strike at any time, and without a proper backup solution, your data can be lost forever. There are many backup services available, but finding the one that suits your business depends on your needs.
The Cloud
More and more businesses are relying on public cloud backup services to run their operations and store their data. The public cloud, which hosts data off-site, and is always available to restore what has been lost, and is built on a well established and stable environment making it suitable for everything ranging from personal files to business data. And between costs, security, and scalability, the advantages are many.
Moving to a cloud service may seem like a simple process, but for anyone with large amounts of data, creating a cloud strategy is necessary before migrating. Finding the cloud strategy that works best for you requires some planning and thinking about your individual business needs. Here are a couple tips to help you plan your business’s cloud strategy and make the transition:
1. Locate your data
If your organization consists of multiple workstations, computers, servers, external drives, or multiple locations, your business data may be spread over various platforms. Before making the jump to a cloud service, or even beginning your search, it is important to make sure they can support your current infrastructure in their cloud environment.
2. Assess your data and security weaknesses
Once you’ve located your data, identify which data (if any) is vulnerable to loss and deletion. This Data Security Assessment will help. Take note of any security red flags so that the solution you choose can properly disarm them.
3. Determine data priority
The most essential data for your business or personal life should be prioritized in any cloud migration, should disaster strike in the midst of moving to the cloud. Determine what data is most important to you, and absolutely needs to be backed up with the cloud so that you can back that data up first. It’s also important to identify which data you can and cannot live without. You may be able to reduce the size of your storage plan by identifying files that your business could survive losing, or cleaning up files you no longer need. If there are files your business absolutely could not live without (think PR nightmares, productivity and profitability losses), make a note of these so that you can ensure you’ve selected a cloud solution that will provide the proper amount of protection and retrieval abilities.
4. Think ahead
It is important to plan for long term cloud use and invest in features that will prevent limitations and pitfalls as your business expands. Will you need a scalable solution? This is likely if you are a growing company or a company with a lot of data fluctuation.
5. Determine which cloud provider suits your needs
There are many cloud providers, and they’re all very different. First, decide whether you need cloud storage, cloud backup, or both. Then, do your research and see which company has the features you need. Not every cloud service provider offers military-grade encryption so that sensitive information is secure, so depending on the nature of the data that needs backing up, this could make or break a decision to migrate. As for redeployment of your data, be sure to check if the company you wish to use doesn’t make you jump through hoops to get back in business. Some cloud service providers offer free recovery, some offer paid assistance and some offer no assistance, so make sure you choose the service level that fit your needs in an emergency, not just for everyday use.
Depending on the level of retrievability you need, there are also options for data recovery with zero-downtime and customer service assistance for emergency efforts.
6. Learn your service
Learn the ins and outs of your cloud service and become familiar with all of the options in your service plan. Learning and becoming fluent in how your cloud service works means you can maximize efficiency and even troubleshoot minor issues on your own without having to call support — maximizing productivity and minimizing downtime.
To get the full feel of the software you’ve selected, you should also take advantage of any cloud backup free trials offered. This will be the truest test of how well your provider will meet your needs.
There are many benefits that come with using a cloud service; the biggest one being the potential for completely automated and continuous backup of your data. If you are looking to migrate to the cloud, do your research and write out a strategy to make migration easier and maximize the benefits of cloud computing.
