Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery: The Beginners Guide

Today, cloud backup files are the second most popular use data solutions, following right after file storage.

As the world moves closer and closer to digitalizing every piece of data possible, questions of safety and longevity begin to rise. Not that long of a time ago, if you wanted to keep a copy of a file you simply did just that – duplicated the file and stored it on a hard drive. But the volumes of data are not the same anymore, and multiple safety concerns, from security breaches to external threats, would advise to abstain from such a way of safekeeping your data. Therefore, we turn to the more up-to-date solutions, such as Cloud Backup – the practice of keeping one or multiple copies of certain files or whole infrastructures on a cloud server somewhere geographically removed from the site of operations. However, keeping a cloud backup is not the only part of the equation, because after having backed up all the data, you may ask: “What do I do with it?” This is where you may find helpful to have a Disaster Recovery Plan – a set of predetermined and documented actions that may assist in recovering workflow from unprecedented and destructive events.

In this article, the certified experts at Romexsoft explored the concepts of Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery and compiled their insights into this beginner’s guide.

What is a Cloud Backup?

Cloud backup is a practice of storing a copy of digital files or infrastructures on a remote server that is geographically located away from the business’s operation sites to ensure safety of that data in case the business is subjected to various misfortunes such as power outages, security breaches, fires, or natural disasters.

Why do you need Cloud Backup?

Today, losing even a fraction of valuable data can bring irreversible consequences and revenue losses for any business. Because of this, it is crucial to always have an up-to-date copy of your business’s data readily at hand. However, keeping a backup on an external hard drive, like a regular person may have, could never be enough for a business. There are many issues concerning such an approach, and some of the most prominent would be lack of uninterrupted access to the backed-up data, poor security measures, lack of having the data backed up as soon as it is created, and dangers of sustaining physical damage from things like fires or natural disasters.

If we take all of these requirements into consideration, we can only come to this conclusion – keeping a Cloud Backup is the best possible solution for businesses of any scale. Because a modern business is so reliant on their digital infrastructure that it simply can not afford not to keep a copy of their data stored safely in the cloud.

Benefits of Cloud Backup

1. Safety

By storing vital data, applications, and infrastructures off-site, you protect them from all kinds of misfortunes like power outages, fire hazards, natural disasters, security breaches, or human errors.

2. Disaster Recovery

In case of a disaster happening, you will be able to access your most vital data and applications and cause minimal delays in service delivery.

3. Data Recovery

With the help of cloud backups, any data that may have been lost due to an unprecedented incident can be quickly restored and put to use, minimizing delays in workflow.

4. Flexible Storage

Cloud-based backup solutions are flexible in their nature and are easy to scale-down or scale-up on demand. One of the particular benefits of such an approach is the significant cost reduction. Every business is different and should prioritize different kinds of data while deciding on what to backup, but to put it simply – always backup data that cannot be restored any other way, and consider backing up the rest as a matter of convenience.

What is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery is a set of guidelines, pre-determined and documented, that may be used to recover a digital infrastructure from sustained losses from disruptive events like security breaches, natural disasters, or man-made mistakes.

Why do you need a Disaster Recovery plan?

To put it simply, the longer an infrastructure takes to recover from any disaster, the more revenue losses it sustains. This is why a thorough disaster recovery plan is a must-have for any business.

In our fast-paced world, everything is reliant on speed, be it speed of transactions, speed of services provided, speed of customer service responses, or literally anything else. Consequently, any delay in business’s operations can lead to revenue losses, traffic losses, or customer loyalty losses. Because of that, companies may spend significant amounts of money on improving their operations’ speed. But, unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to situations when unpredictable events happen and halt your business’s operation altogether. And this is why it’s crucial to always have a well-made, tested, and documented disaster recovery plan that your executives are familiarized with at hand.

If you want to further explore the concept of Disaster Recovery, we suggest that you may find this article on Best Practices for AWS Disaster Recovery useful.

And if you are interested in developing a Disaster Recovery plan for your own business, you may want to read the Step-by-Step Guide to Developing a Disaster Recovery Plan that our Romexsoft cloud experts have compiled to help deepen the understanding of the topic.

In conclusion

There is no denying that the modern world is becoming more and more data-driven every day. Almost every business out there is reliant on some kind of data. Be it a database of emails for a newsletter, a set of research data, or a table of login credentials, any kind of data loss brings unpleasant consequences. Today, all data is important. And when we focus on storage solutions, security measures, and infrastructure optimization, we should never forget about the most vital safety measure – prevention. After all, there is nothing better than being prepared.

To keep your business safe, you should consider always keeping a reliable means of backing up your most valuable data, and developing a thorough disaster recovery plan fit for every kind of natural or man-made disaster.

How we can help

Romexsoft is one of the leading experts in providing Disaster Recovery Development Services in the area. If you are interested in getting a Disaster Recovery Plan for your business, consider reading this Case Study on Disaster Recovery and experience the quality of our work through the eyes of our customers.