The cloud offers companies countless different advantages: It can make processes more flexible, reduce costs, improve user experiences and achieve a generally more profitable business model. All of this is based primarily on the data collected and analyzed through the cloud. One of the most effective and secure ways to store this data is to back it up in the cloud. We explain how it works and how you can benefit from it too.
Backup in the cloud - the future of data storage
Cloud backup are online backup, web backup or online data backup - many words that all describe the same thing: A method of data backup where data is stored in off-site data centers rather than on internal devices. Cloud backups are often the best solution, especially for SMBs, when it comes to data protection.
For a cloud backup, the data is usually transferred from the internal sources to the external storage media via the public Internet and with the help of servers. To save costs and increase efficiency, a full backup is usually made only once and from then on only incremental updates are performed: So only the changed or new data is transferred during a backup and not the entire data set.
With a backup in the cloud, customers can also access an all-round service. The software for efficient and automatic backups and the entire infrastructure required are provided by a service provider. As a user, therefore, all that is needed is a sufficient Internet connection to be able to store theoretically infinite amounts of data.
Why cloud backup is so popular with SMEs
Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular now often rely solely on cloud backups and no longer have their own storage or backup capacities. There are various reasons for this, but the most important is certainly cost control. Because, as with almost all cloud computing services, cloud backup also increases the scalability of one's own backups extremely.
After all, with a cloud backup provider, you only pay for the service you really need: Only the bandwidth, storage capacities and additional services that one actually uses are charged. This means you no longer have to worry about sudden load peaks or idle times. After all, the costs always adjust to one's own needs in real time.
If you store and back up data internally, however, the situation is different: The internal infrastructure must be able to respond properly to all eventualities, so sufficiently large reserves must be provided. This in turn means that the costs for in-house servers and the necessary service infrastructure rise sharply.
In addition, there are personnel costs: In order to enable internal data backup, sufficient manpower is generally required to carry out the maintenance of the servers and the processes involved. But you also need specialist knowledge: In short, without internal IT experts, who are expensive, such a data backup is not possible.
However, if one uses an external provider for the back-up, all these problems are eliminated. This is because a provider such as Amazon AWS or the Google Cloud Platform provide the necessary expertise, manpower, infrastructure and reserves. As a company, all you have to do, as already mentioned, is make sure you have a sufficiently strong Internet connection. More service and security for SMEs
More service and security for SMEs
Cloud backups not only make data backup cheaper, but also more user-friendly. This is because the corresponding software from the software provider already comes with everything you need for a professional backup. Updates are carried out automatically, during which the data is first checked for viruses and then compressed, encrypted and finally transferred.
SMEs also benefit from an external backup solution when it comes to security. First, the firewalls and other security services from AWS, Azure and the other major providers are among the best solutions on the IT market anywhere. Storing data in an off-site data center also increases protection against natural disasters and fire. This is an especially important point considering how critical collected data has become to business performance.
Cloud storage and traditional backup
As mentioned earlier, SMBs are now turning almost exclusively to cloud services for data backup. Many large enterprises, on the other hand, use a hybrid between traditional on-site backup and cloud storage. This is primarily because the data volumes here are simply disproportionately larger than at SMEs.
For example, large companies more often use a traditional backup solution for storing critical data, as this critical data can then be restored much more quickly if necessary. Finally, there are physical limits to the amount of data that can be transferred, which can delay the process of recovery when large amounts of data are involved.
In addition, companies from particularly sensitive sectors, such as healthcare and finance, often need to access in-house solutions to ensure complete control over their own data. However, SMEs should also bear in mind that international cloud providers do not always act in accordance with German data protection regulations - so a traditional backup may also be necessary here.