Limitless Online Data Backup West Sacramento

Need To Know About Online Data Backup Services

These days, everything either is online or is going online and that includes data backups. For the most part, they work in the same way as offline data backups, however, there are also some key differences between the two methods. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to what you need to know about online data backup services in West Sacramento.

The core of the-3-2-1 approach still holds good

As a recap, the traditional 3-2-1 approach is three copies of your data (including your production copy), over two media with one copy being kept off-site. In the context of online data backups, it means you keep your production data and one copy of it in your regular cloud, plus a second data backup in another cloud.

For most SMBs, this is still the right balance of protection and cost control. Your local data backup will cover you for everyday mishaps and your off-site data backup will cover you for more serious situations including disaster recovery. That said, it’s important to be clear about the fact that an online data backup is not a complete disaster recovery solution. You still need to add the tools your staff members need to work with the data.

Using online data backups does make it easier to take multiple off-site data backups since it saves you the hassle of transporting physical media from A to B (and retrieving them again if you need them). It does not, however, make it a whole lot more affordable so you should think very carefully before deciding whether or not you would genuinely benefit from having extra off-site copies of your data. After all, in the real world, what exactly are the odds of your main cloud and your disaster recovery cloud being put out of action at the same time?

You need to keep the law/compliance regulations in mind at all times

Admittedly this applies to offline data backups as well and for the most part, the solution is the same, namely robust data governance. There is, however, a bit of a twist in the world of online data backups. The twist is that laws are local but, in principle, cyberspace is global. This means that, from a technical perspective, you could have your online data backup hosted anywhere in the world and still access it as easily as you could if it were in your regular place of business. In practice, however, doing so could open the door to all kinds of trouble.

It is therefore strongly recommended to undertake thorough due diligence on all platforms and IT services vendors you use and to “shop local” as much as you can. This not only allows for the maximum level of oversight of any IT services vendors you use but also means that your service contract is more likely to be enforceable in practice rather than just in theory.

Effective data management is crucial to effective cost management

With offline data backups, you buy physical storage devices, and then it’s up to you what you do with them. The cost is the same regardless of whether you fill them as full as they can go or leave them empty. In principle, you pay more for larger-capacity storage devices. In practice, however, physical storage has been very affordable for many years now. This means that it’s been a long time since there was any real financial penalty for accumulating excess data, except for sensitive data.

With online data backups, however, you pay for what you consume. This means that the more you do to minimize the data held in your production systems, the less you pay for your data backups. There is going to be a floor to this in that you will need to keep the data you require for your everyday work. The point is that should be the only data in your production systems, nothing else.

There are two steps to making this happen. Possibly the easiest one is to implement a process by which dormant data is promptly moved out of your production systems. If you know it needs to be kept (e.g. for compliance) or you’re just not comfortable deleting it, then move it into a data archive. Data archives use slow storage and hence are much more economical to run.

The second, which may be more of a challenge, is to look at what data you’re collecting (especially sensitive data) and ask yourself if it’s genuinely needed. If it is, you need to collect it in a way that ensures completeness and accuracy. This would typically involve creating a user interface that facilitates high data-entry standards.

If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced online data backup services provider in West Sacramento, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.