It is unquestionably true that data Offsite Backups has now become an integral and valuable asset of our lives which holds true for businesses as well as individuals. Irrespective of whether the data comprises simple vacation pictures, sales reports, or even information as critical as a corporate’s business strategy, we would never want them to get into the wrong hands or simply lose it.
To avoid such situations, backing up your confidential data becomes crucial. Nowadays, one of the rising technologies applied to this cause is the use of auxiliary storage devices. This is one of the simplest ways to have your data protected on a regular basis. However, this alone cannot be a safe solution. Backup storage devices too, pose the same threat of either getting stolen or damaged to an extent that data recovery becomes almost impossible. It is because of this reason that most companies now opt for having their backup stored in an offsite location to minimize the chances of data loss.
In this blog, we will look through some of the major reasons why it is necessary to have offsite backups and certain practicalities that need to be taken into consideration.
Benefits of Offsite Backup
- Using the internet or FTP (File Transfer Protocol), data can be accessed easily from any location.
- Any disasters at the site such as fire cannot destroy the data. Similarly, the risk of data being stolen from the principal site is also eradicated.
- Since the data gets backed up automatically, this solution turns out to be more reliable in comparison to onsite backup.
With offsite backup, users no longer no need to worry about possibilities such as unexpected events that could have otherwise facilitated huge damage in the form of data loss. This makes it one of the best ways to safeguard the operations of any organization.
Digital information can be protected by employing any of one of the following backup approaches:
- Local Locations
By having local backup solutions, organizations can employ a recovery mechanism for machine or user information from databases, computers, applications, and so on. Note that this is particularly for instances when operations are affected only partially. As per the processes being deployed, there can be varying levels of criticality. One of the benefits of having local backups is that both the recovery process as well as backup process speed is faster. Due to this, there is a high possibility that it complies with the backup policies of the organization.
- Remote Locations
In this case, recovery is possible even when the organization’s operations have been completely affected by the situation. A great instance of this is the occurrence of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, etc., or even physical failures like robberies, fire, electrical issues, and so on. In order to effectively manage remote backup destinations, it is crucial that the necessary variables are being considered by the applications that affect the operations.
Why Do You Need Offsite Backups?
- Preserve Space within your primary storage and optimize performance
Irrespective of the type of your organization’s infrastructure, if you have a single storage volume then primary space will be limited. In such situations, preserving the space becomes the utmost priority and does not matter on how your projects will be hosted.
Individuals who have already taken advantage of managed services will find offsite backup even more advantageous as it will help their server run at optimum condition while saving ample of storage space. When backups are removed from primary storage drives, it also saves you a lot on cost. You will no longer require to opt for array upgradation but simply keep what is necessary for operation.
- Data Protection from disasters occuring on the site.
Those who choose to store their backups within their organization’s infrastructure are always posed to risks of unforeseen events. These could be in the form of floods, fire, earthquake and lot more. Being prepared to face such kinds of eventualities while ensuring that your data is thoroughly protected is paramount. For this reason, it is always recommended to store your data in safe and secured location that is away from your business location.
If lack of infrastructure or budget makes you hesitant on opting for offline backups then you could always get in contact with a managed host provider who would perform the needful. Although you might initially have to spend on getting offsite backups, you can at least work in peace by being assured that you are in a position to retrieve your data in situations of crisis.
- Helpful in times of System Crash
In an ideal case, your system may be working perfectly fine with no flaws whatsoever and provides you with best business experience. However, in reality, we do realise that the same might not be the case! In real life scenario, things such as server failures or system crash can occur and therefore, one needs to be prepared for it in advance to save money and time.
- Assistance during Hard Drive Failure
Data integrity can also be threatened by the failure of hard drive. This event can very well result in entire data loss and furthermore, negatively affecting your business. Note that hard drives do come with a limited life span due to a possibility of failure of internal components. Hence, to mitigate such adversities, we need to safeguard our data through offsite backups.
You may think that data retrieval from hard drives could be an option. But the truth is, this process takes up way more time than assumed and can also add up to the cost factor. Another critical factor is also the downtime being involved in such a complex process. While for small scale business, this time could much less than estimated, however, large companies are most likely to suffer the aftermath. The best example of this can be seen in many of the top applications such as Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp. You might have noticed that when these platforms experience severe outrages for a long period, this basically implies that no user interactions have taken place on these applications; they suffer huge losses.
