Backup Software Boosts Data Protection with Cloud Storage

Corporate data is never truly safe—it’s always at risk of damage or loss from threats including hackers, accidents, or natural disasters. This is why businesses must incorporate an extra layer of data protection off-site in a safe location, where archived content can also be housed when it’s not in use.

If you use backup software, then an effective way to safeguard your Windows, Mac, or Linux environment off-site is using integration with third-party cloud storage providers. Specific backup software providers may be certified with Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi, Dropbox, and other nationwide and/or global cloud storage providers. They may also be certified with regional cloud storage providers as well, such as DreamHost, 1&1 IONOS, and ArubaCloud.

Benefits of Public Cloud Storage

There are many benefits of public cloud storage, particularly when you are adding it to boost the power of your on-premises storage, whether to stream media, distribute content, archive or backup data, or for disaster recovery (DR).

The advantages of cloud backup begin with low pricing. Because of its ability to offer a pay-for-use model, public cloud storage providers are a very cost-effective option. A recent Gartner report identified the behemoths Amazon and Google as the market leaders in public cloud storage. Public cloud storage can offer much lower pricing compared with flat-fee storage options.

Secure encryption is another benefit of cloud backup support for backup software. Cloud storage providers are vulnerable to data breaches, so AES-256 encryption offers the assurance that customers need to retain ownership of their data, even if their provider suffers a breach.

The right cloud backup support also allows companies to avoid cloud storage lock-in. Since the cloud storage market changes so quickly, companies need the ability to easily switch between providers to meet the needs of their current environment. Cloud backup support with multiple providers helps avoid the problem of cloud storage lock-in.

Advanced seeding options are also important, given the limiting factor of bandwidth in uploads to the cloud. To avoid a huge time commitment, use a cloud storage provider that offers seeding options for the initial backup.

You’ll also want large-scale recovery support for cloud storage, which allows your company to obtain your entire backup set from your cloud storage provider.

Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud

Since every enterprise’s backup strategy should incorporate off-site data protection as well as local protection, consider this effective strategy:

· Backing up your computers locally

· Protecting your data on quick local disk storage

· Periodically transferring to cloud storage

The third step frees up client computers, as the longer transfer time can be moved to an evening or weekend. The three-step workflow is what we call “Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud.”

Off-site Storage for Critical Documents

Another backup strategy is off-site storage via the cloud for important documents.

This involves four steps:

1. Create a cloud set for your cloud storage.

2. Make a backup policy for your computers. The cloud set should be the destination.

3. Next, create a filter for "Office Documents." You can include files by extensions, by path, and refine with exclusions.

4. Last, select that filter for the backup policy, which then back up every file that matches that selector to cloud storage.

Companies can also opt to combine these strategies to suit their specific circumstances using backup software. For example, you might want to use a "Disk-to-Disk-to-Cloud" strategy, but only transfer "Office Documents" to cloud storage.

Bottom-line, backup software helps to provide extra insurance on your enterprise’s sensitive data in the cloud, helping organizations avoid potential data loss, avoid fighting fires, and get back down to business.

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About the author, JG Heithcock, General Manager at Retrospect, a StorCentric Company (www.retrospect.com)

JG Heithcock has eighteen years experience in the storage and backup industry. JG was the User Experience Architect at WildPackets (now Savvius) before coming back to recruit and manage the Engineering team for Retrospect at EMC. JG is one of the founding members of Retrospect, Inc., A StorCentric Company.