The Experts All Agree:
"A Company that experiences a computer outage of long continuance more than 10 days will none fully recover financially. 50% will have existence out of business within five years.
An estimated 25% of businesses vouchsafe not reopen following a major mishap
70% of small firms that actual presentation a major data loss go out of business within a year.
Of companies experiencing catastrophic given conditions loss:
43% of companies never reopened
51% of companies closed in the inside of 2 years
80% of companies that carry into effect not recover from a disaster in the compass of one month are likely to contribute out of business.
75% of companies free from business continuity plans fail within three years of a calamity
Of those businesses that experience a blow and have no emergency plan, 43% not ever reopen; of those that do reopen, without more 29% are still operating two years later."
Impact without ceasing U.S. Small Business of Natural and Man-Made Disasters, A book-making of public and private sector spirit; Presented by HP and SCORE: Counselors to America's Small Business; 2007.
Critical Considerations through Cloud backup solutions
Portable media is immediately becoming an outdated and expensive means for safeguarding important data, so it is necessary to secure critical business assets and material information with an easy-to-exercise, automated, online backup service as a shortage to whatever backup solution you are using at the topical level. You need proven technology that is user-benevolent, reliable, ultra-secure and cost-sufficient.
Maybe you are of the camp that before that time knows how crucial it is to back up your data, offsite, but did you know that online backup can also be effortless once you assign it up correctly? Wouldn't it heal make your life easier if these vast assemblage backup solutions would offer several user-affectionate features like simple installation, automatic backup, not on-site storage, scalability and 24/7 toothed restoration? Believe it or not, such solutions do exist. Let's speak about some of the things you decree want to consider when you out a cloud storage solution. Hint: It isn't excepting that how much per Gigabyte it elect cost!
Security
Let's talk relative to security for a second. This is some of the most critical factors. You inclination want to find a solution that provides greatest security when backing up and archiving data. How do you do that? Well you determine want to find a solution where files are first packaged to render certain that bandwidth is minimized during transmittance of your data and then has that given conditions encrypted using a 256-bit encryption key - that you choose - to ensure that files cannot have existence accessed by others if they should or other happen upon your data file. For added guard, you might look into a elucidation where each encrypted file is sent to boot the Internet via a secure canal, and then stored in at least a couple of redundant Type 2 or Level 4 submissive data centers, located some distance apart from one and the other other to avoid catastrophic loss, if there were to be an earthquake or flood or some such disaster - so your data would be secure and available. There are nearly 150 Level 4 facilities across the US with equal rean access to them, through various vendors, may lean to be somewhat limited. It is not to be expected that you, as Mr or Mrs Business Owner, command be able to directly contact united of these data facilities and implore that they help you backup your premises. Nevertheless it is a good exemplar to ensure that your offsite given conditions backup is being stored in at in the smallest degree one of those secure facilities. The in addition likely scenario is that you inclination need to go through a trusted associate who will grant you access to unit or more of these secure facilities by way of their service.
Encryption
You will shortness to choose a secure online facts backup solution which encrypts each toothed using 256-bit AES encryption technology. This disposition give you piece of mind conscious that your data is safe.
How hot is 256-bit AES encryption? Well, permit's put it this way. In June 2003, 256-AES was approved through the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for use encrypting the U.S. powers that be's documents classified "TOP SECRET."
Transmission
In adding to local encryption, you will longing to be sure that the melting communicates with the backup servers using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology. This is the like encryption technology used by Internet browsers at the time that a user enters a secured site such as an online bank. As a originate, your data will be encrypted twice. It should be encrypted at toty times using the 256-bit AES encryption, and it should be encrypted again while it's centre of life sent over the Internet.
Storage
As I mentioned earlier, you direction want to be sure your encrypted data is stored in two secure online premises backup centers, located at least hundreds of miles apart from every one other. It would be great suppose that they were on separate coasts. Each premises center should also have 24/7 monitoring and advanced palladium measures, such as biometric controlled interview, as well as backup generators and overflowing connections to the Internet. This is to another time be sure your data is accessible in the incident of some major disaster. That is that which you are paying for, right?
Simple Installation
Forget installing drives and changing tapes. Those methods are labor-emphatic and can take hours or at the very time days to complete, depending upon the bulk of the business. Setting up your disentanglement should be an easy, one-time circumstance. You should be able to exist backing up files automatically on a register of your choosing. In minutes not hours.
Automatic Backup
The moot point with tapes and other manual the wherewithal of backing up your data is the certainty that it is a manual procedure making it necessary for an individual to bail it every time it is carried on. Automation is the key to make data backups pain free. In adding, if someone else gets your from without hard drive or tape backup, the kind of is to stop them from acquirement the data contained on it? Data backups should subsist completely automatic but you should accept the ability to manually initiate a backup at a single one time if you choose to. Once installed, you should exist able to create a backup regular that contains the list of files that you neglect to backup along with a schedule for when you'd like backups to occur.
You should not bear to select each and every file. The software should use easy-to-configure wizards to aid you with that. Once you complete creating your backup set, the online backup software should reckon how much data you have chosen and pretext you how much.
Setting up your protect online backup schedule should, in efficiency, be very easy. You will in addition want to have the option of setting a manifold start time for each day of the week. You may too wish to avoid running backups up certain days. After the initial backup, after backups should only take minutes to without fault because only new or modified files should subsist uploaded. Your solution should be astute enough to figure that out as far as concerns you or you may end up spending tons of time just figuring that y out.
Off-Site Storage
With Online or Cloud Backup solutions, whole backed up data should be automatically transmitted to right side-site, geographically dispersed, data centers by way of a secure Internet channel. Not only does this protect your data from overthrow in the event of a kind or man-made disaster such in the manner that theft, but it also eliminates the hassle of having to physically put into ecstasy tapes and drives off-site.
Scalability
Have you had to catalog boundless CDs or change tapes in the intermediate of a backup when space runs in a puzzle? Your solution should eliminate the distress to worry about purchasing more hardware to go through your personal or business data germination. With the right solution, you be possible to never run out of storage distance. Your cloud storage solution should travel it possible for your online storage motive to grow with your needs.
File Restoration 24/7
Let's front it - you could have the greatest in quantity powerful and most secure backup method round, but it is useless if you can't easily recover your files then you need them. Restoring your files, wards a local data loss, should exist simple and fast.
You should subsist able to restore files when you penury, as often as you want. You should consider the ability to retrieve individual files, revisions of files, unalloyed folders or backup sets or be reinstated all of your data files in the marked occurrence you experience a complete system failure or data loss.
A password should be required to re-establish any files, thus, preventing unauthorized restores, for the reon that per the HIPAA Security Rule.
In the conclusion of a complete system failure, a replete data recovery should be able to have existence initiated in just minutes. Do you certainly want to wait a long time to procreate your data back? Of course not! The recovery procedure should be able to have ing performed on any Windows-based computer - not fair the computer where the data was originally backed up.
Logs and Reports
The moot point with most online backup solutions is that in that place is not any way to betray if you have all of your files backed up. How chouse you know your backups actually worked? There needs to be some sort of logs and/ or reports to semblance you what was backed up and then. With detailed statistics and information in various places each file that is backed up or restored, you not have to wonder if your backups really worked. You can simply view the logs and reports at whatever time you like. Your cloud backup disruption should have this feature as well.
Receive email notifications
If you desire even more assurance that your backups are functioning, wouldn't it have ing nice to have the option of receiving self-moving email notifications following every successful backup? That would have existence very convenient and comforting and is offered in only some of the cloud solutions that are suitable.
Exchange and SQL Plugins
Let's win more specific. If you are seeking a illustrious solution as a business then you emergency the power to back up your Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007, and 2010 databases in the same proportion that well as Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 databases. When you are allowing for Exchange, you need to be quick to perform both full and incremental backups and with SQL, you will need to let flow both full and differential backups. Plus, you direct need to be able to customize your backup scroll to lower the potential impact forward your network.
Microsoft Exchange Plugin
If your elucidation has a Microsoft Exchange plugin, it should subsist able to perform live, secure Exchange backups according to Microsoft's most excellent practices. The Exchange plugin will iness to run seamlessly in the background, never interrupting email flow otherwise you determine be faced with shutting down email, etc. season you are running backups. Moreover, you should be in possession of the flexibility to perform individual mailbox aim backups. With this second backup means, retrieving one lost or deleted email desire no longer be a days-prolix procedure.
Microsoft SQL Server Plugin
Like through Exchange, your solution should offer a SQL Server Plugin to which place your server will never experience a single one downtime during a backup. The plugin should another time run seamlessly in the background for the reon that a service, never interrupting or shutting downward the SQL databases.
Wrap up
Hopefully, in this thing, you have found some great notice on the kinds of features you should have existence on the lookout for in a dense mass-based backup solution for your dealing.
