Cloud Computing Forecast: Backup-as-a-Service on the Rise
Let’s talk about data backup and recovery. On second thought, let’s not. It’s stressful. It’s time-consuming. It’s expensive. Nobody likes it.
It’s true, if you are a member of an IT department, chances are, you despise data backup, right? It’s like emptying the dishwasher. A boring, repetitive, endlessly unsatisfying task. Unfortunately, this boring, unsatisfying task also happens to be of utmost importance to your business. Perhaps it doesn’t have to be this way.
Perhaps data backup and recovery could be stress-free. Fast. Dependable. Is there a secret sauce that can solve your backup woes? Yes, and its name is Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS). Like so many other things in this brave new digital world of ours, BaaS solutions are online and cloud-based. For businesses struggling to envision how they could possibly maintain and keep up with a traditional, hardware-based data backup solution, BaaS can be transformative.
Here are 7 key ways that BaaS can rock your world:
#1 – Save. Save. Save.
BaaS can save you money. First, you don’t need to make a large upfront hardware purchase, you can use your existing infrastructure. Second, less hardware means less electricity, less management, and less monitoring, allowing your team to focus on strategic initiatives. Finally, I don’t need to tell you how it is simply not possible to keep up with exponential data growth and the storage need that comes with it.
#2 – Data When and Where You Need it
Ahhh, the cloud is beautiful, isn’t it? You, or your client, or your employee can get any file, at any time, wherever you are (provided you have an internet connection, of course). So simple, so elegant, so absolutely amazing when you think about it!
#3 – No More Manual Backups
With BaaS solutions, backups can be automated, so you don’t have to plan or worry about downtime (for system backup windows). You don’t have to keep track. You don’t even have to think about it.
#4 – Speedy Recovery
If/when you do need to recover your data, it is much faster and straight-forward process. With a cloud-based BaaS solution, it doesn’t matter where you are. You can restore your data from anywhere even if your office is out of commission.
#5 – Reallocate IT Resources
Just think of all you can get done when your IT team no longer needs to be constantly managing your backup hardware! Get on with the strategic initiatives; let your BaaS provider handle the boring stuff.
#6 – Stronger Compliance Safeguards
The best backup as a service vendors have geographically diverse data centers with top tier security. This has two benefits. First, if, for compliance reasons, you need to ensure continual access to your data, redundant data centers offer more reliability. Second, these data centers generally offer better physical protection than your data centers with electronic and/or biometric access mechanisms and better protection against mother nature.
#7 – CyberSecurity Protection
A Backup as a Service (BaaS) solution will also offer added layers of anti-virus, anti-spam protection. With BaaS cloud backups, files are encrypted before transmission and will remain so until they reach their destination. You are the only one with the key. Your data will be more difficult to access and less vulnerable to security threats such as ransomware.
The reality is that it just is not possible for many businesses to keep up with the costs, infrastructure, growth, and management required of a traditional, hardware-based data backup and recovery solution. Why keep all that hardware around, just sitting there, waiting for someone to hack it? BaaS is a powerful service—a tool that can streamline your IT demands. These solutions can be completely customized to your businesses’ unique needs and challenges. They can grow as your company grows. And the best part? You won’t have to worry about data backup and recovery again.
