OFF-SITE BACKUP
WHAT IS OFF-SITE BACKUP?
WHY DO YOU NEED OFF-SITE BACKUP?
Cost-effectiveness
Using a cloud server is relatively cheap and removes the need for purchasing physical hardware and large storage drives.
Better security
Businesses can have peace of mind when they leave their data stored safely offsite, especially with cloud servers that have advanced security settings and encryption tools.
Safety and recoverability
When an unfortunate event happens in the headquarters, the offsite data remains secure and uncompromised.
ADVANTAGES OF OFFSITE BACKUP?
Disaster Recovery
Most companies that use off-site backup solutions do so to protect their data in the event of a natural or man-made disaster
Access Data from Anywhere
If you’re using cloud storage, your backup data can be accessed from anywhere at any time. This provides the ultimate peace of mind knowing that not only is your data secure, but it’s accessible.
Cost Reduction
Using an off-site backup can be less expensive than maintaining an on-premises backup. The cloud can eliminate the need to purchase and maintain hardware and software and free up your existing IT resources.
Cybersecurity
Local backups are vulnerable to cyberattacks, especially from malware. If there’s a ransomware attack on your organization, your production data and on-site backups can be compromised
HOW DO OFFSITE BACKUP WORKS ?
WHY SHOULD BACKUP BE STORED OFFSITE?
Primary Storage Space Preservation and Performance Optimization
Whether your infrastructure is at your place of business or with a hosting provider, primary space can be limited for those who have a single storage volume and no backup drive. The need to preserve space is essential, no matter how you plan to host your projects. For those already hosting everything with a managed provider, offsite backups can still save primary drive storage space while keeping your server running optimally. Leaving your primary storage for your operating system and critical files allows everything to run a bit smoother without having to dedicate some of that space for backups. Removing the backups from your primary drives is also cost-saving for you. Instead of having to upgrade your array quickly, you can keep what is needed to operate, especially if that data does not change much.
Defense Against a Complete System Crash
One of the primary reasons why backup media should be stored offsite is to protect against a complete crash of your system. In a perfect world, your server would always be reachable and would never experience system software, web server, or database server failures. In reality, these things do happen, and having the proper safeguards in place can save you time, money, and even your business. We covered this very topic in another article on Data Backup and Disaster Recovery. Offsite backups would be an integral part of your business continuity plan that helps your business avoid data loss. If your server were to crash, your disaster recovery plan stands ready for you to recover or restore your vital information and continue to function. How can a system crash affect you as a consumer or business owner? You can ask motorists from the Missoula County Office of the Treasurer in the state of Montana. The office was unable to process requests for drivers on Monday, July 1, 2019, due to system issues. When they returned on Tuesday, they were greeted with long lines and even longer wait times.
Protection From an Onsite Location Disaster
For those hosting their infrastructure at their place of business, there is always the chance that some kind of unforeseen natural disaster could happen, such as a fire, flood, tornado, earthquake, or hurricane. Preparing for these eventualities is paramount for data protection. Therefore, it is worthwhile to have your critical infrastructure onsite with backups stored in a separate, secure, and accessible facility. Moving backups offsite also presents savings in terms of physical space in your place of business. If you are not able to set up infrastructure in another location due to budget or lack of space, a managed hosting provider would be the next best option. This is another reason why backup media should be stored offsite. While there is an added cost for having offsite backups, the peace of mind knowing you can restore your server in a crisis is worth it to your business.
Assurance in the Event of Hard Drive Failure
System crashes are not the only threat to data integrity. Hardware failure, more specifically hard drive failure, can also result in loss of data and costly downtime. Hard drives have a finite life span and do not last forever. While drives with internal moving parts can fail much faster than drives with flash memory, there is still a definite number of reads and writes for those drives during their lifespan. Having offsite data backups mitigates against hard drive failure. While data retrieval from a failed drive is sometimes a possibility, the time involved in doing so, as well as the usual high costs involved, do not always make this practical for your business. Data retrieval from failed drives can be shipped to companies specializing in data recovery, which is generally complex and costly, and most IT personnel do not have the skills to achieve data recovery. Perhaps the most significant issue with this occurrence would be the amount of downtime involved.
