5 Misconceptions Around Backup and Recovery

A backup and recovery solution is essential for protecting your data, your systems and your business. Don’t let these 5 misconceptions about backup and recovery put your business data at risk.

First, What is Backup and Recovery?

Backup and recovery is the process of creating and storing copies of data in a separate system from the primary data. This protects it against data loss that could result from software or hardware failure, accidental deletion of data, cyber attacks, power failures, or data corruption.

With a backup and recovery solution, you can restore copies of data from an earlier time, in place of lost or damaged data or even to a separate device / folder altogether. But you should make regular copies of data to minimise the amount of data loss between backups.

Data could be backed up on a USB stick, external drive or something more substantial, in the same location or in a remote location. Cloud backup is favourable as the data is stored in a remote location, typically across a cluster of data servers, and protected against in-house disasters such as floods  & fires.

What are the Misconceptions Around Backup and Recovery?

Despite the benefits of backup and recovery, many businesses fail to protect their data due to misunderstandings about this solution. We take a look at 5 common misconceptions about backup and recovery.

1. Backups are Always Expensive

A backup and recovery solution is often assumed to be high cost and need substantial investment to store copies of all data and systems in a secondary data centre.

However, advancements in technology and cloud-based backups have helped cut costs while continuing to provide a safe and secure solution.

This is because cloud backups offer on-demand pricing models that mean you only pay for what you need. Cloud backups are also flexible and you can increase your data allowance to meet business growth.

2. Syncing Your Files to Dropbox is the Same as a Backup

If you think Dropbox and other online file syncing and sharing services are the same as a backup, this could result in disaster for your business.

Dropbox is great for keeping copies of files in sync across many devices, but it is easy to for someone with access to make a change that causes the loss of data. Also, Dropbox only retains deleted files for 30 days.

With a proper backup and recovery solution, your live data can be deleted or amended and will be completely recoverable as well as providing full recovery in case of disaster.

3. Cloud Backup is Not Secure

We tend to assume having something closer to us makes it safer, but this is not always the case when it comes to your data.

Weather-related disasters or fires are rare, but this will not be on your mind should such a disaster occur. Storing backup data offsite in the cloud means it is not vulnerable to in-house disasters and it will be stored in certified data centres with emergency standbys in place. In addition to this, cloud datacentres have immense levels of physical security. Technicians work is constantly tracked and monitored to the extent that they are timed and questioned if a repair takes longer than it should.

Also, cloud backup is only as secure as you make it. You can have a secure cloud backup service, but if the person controlling it sets their password to ‘Password123’ pretty much anyone can have a guess and get in.

With a well-planned backup and recovery solution, you can be sure that your data is in a safe location. We can also advise on passwords, the regularity with which you should backup your data and provide other guidance.

4. Backing Up Your Data to the Cloud Takes Too Long

There is the misconception that backing up data to the cloud is going to take too long and be an ongoing problem. This can be a natural assumption as you may not know how good your cloud backup solution is until you start using it.

Only the initial backup will take a long time and we can advise on the expected schedule. You can also leave this turned on overnight to get the job done quickly. Following this, cloud backups will only upload changes that are made to files / folders thus reducing the length of backups drastically.

At San-iT we have years of experience providing cloud backup solutions and apply the most suitable option with the least impact on your business’s time.

5. All Cloud Backup Services are the Same

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all cloud backup solution and so choosing an off-the-shelf model could put your data at risk. Every business is unique and your data can be backed up and recovered in a variety of ways.

San-iT can work with you to help you understand your data, the data to be protected, what is crucial business data, how quickly you need to be able to recover data, and the recommended time between making copies of data.

Protect Your Business from Disaster with San-iT

Don’t let the misconceptions about backup and recovery put your business at risk. Protect your data and systems from disaster with a cloud backup and recovery solution from San-iT.

We will work with you to ensure you understand how it works, the measures taken to protect your data and prioritise the needs of your business, now and into the future.

Give us a call on 0800 084 2575 or email us at info@san-it.co.uk.