Managed IT Solutions
Best Cloud Backup Solutions for Small Businesses
Protect your most valuable business asset. Learn how cloud backup and recovery solutions can improve your data availability and business performance.
Contact TTR Technology to launch your automated data backup plan today.
Every Business Depends on Data Backup Solutions
Data has become the most valuable asset any business can have. In an increasingly digital business environment, companies rely on computers to process client information, payrolls, contracts, business plans, and more.
Most of this data is either critical to your business operations or contains sensitive, confidential information — or both. It’s no wonder, then, that companies go to great lengths to keep their data safe.
The most important data protection practice is doing regular backups. This is easy for large corporations with deep pockets who can afford the latest and greatest in continuous data protection.
It’s a different story for small- and medium-sized businesses. Installing and maintaining backup appliances and solutions is expensive, and many SMB budgets can’t stretch far enough to ensure reliable backup.
In fact, 30% of small business owners say their current backup methods are insufficient. In addition, 42% say they don’t have proper disaster recovery strategies and services.
As a result, 45% of small businesses have experienced data loss. To top it all off, data from FEMA shows that 40% of SMBs will shut down permanently after such a disaster.
These numbers highlight one simple fact. Every business, no matter their industry, requires powerful enterprise backup services to protect themselves and their clients and customers.
Here we’ll explore the most effective backup solutions for small businesses, how they work, and how your operation can best employ them.
Local or Cloud Backup — Which to Choose?
In general, companies have two options available for them when they want to backup data. They can do it either locally, or choose to upload their backups to cloud storage.
Let’s take a closer look at both solution and how they protect data.
Local Backups
Local, or on premises, backup uses data storage media that's directly plugged into your system, such as external hard drives or physical servers. These kinds of devices are generally known as direct-attached storage, or DAS. There are certain benefits to keeping your backups on premises. DAS devices aren't connected to the internet and are stored in-house, meaning that no third party can access your files. They also give you, their owner, complete physical control over the storage devices. However, the on-site location means that your backup drives are vulnerable to any physical disaster that takes place at your office. You will also need to hire a dedicated IT team to maintain and manage data on your DAS devices, which can be extremely expensive. Finally, there are no guarantees on uptime or recovery time with physical in-house devices.
Cloud Backups
Cloud backup solutions store your data off-site at a data center owned by a third party. Generally, the backups are handled by a backup software that often function automatically to push your data to the server. Cloud backup has several advantages over local backups. The backup and recovery software generally supports both computers and mobile devices, enabling users to access and recover data both in the office and at a remote site. A cloud-based enterprise backup solution will also ensure data availability at all times, significantly cutting downtime in the event of data loss. Most cloud backup service providers also offer data integrity and recovery assurance, which provides clear business value by protecting your operational continuity.
Local or Cloud?
So, should you choose a local or cloud backup solution? The answer might surprise you — you need both. To properly protect your entire system, you must have a comprehensive backup plan that includes both on- and off-site data protection. Local solutions are often small-scale and not fit for businesses, while relying only on cloud solutions means you can't access your company's data without the internet. A complete enterprise backup and disaster recovery strategy ensures you'll have the best of both worlds.
Best Practices in Data Protection
Now that we know your business requires both local and cloud storage, the question is how do you actually use them? To properly protect and restore data, use these industry best practices.
To completely safeguard your business from data loss and hardware failure, remember these numbers: 3-2-1. A 3-2-1 backup plan means you maintain three copies of data, two on separate local storage devices, and one on a cloud server.
This approach helps you avoid a single point of failure if disaster strikes. If your local drives break, you can access your cloud backup copy — if the cloud becomes unavailable, your data is still safe on-site.
One fact of IT is that, eventually, every single system will break or fail — often without warning. If you don't backup your files on a regular basis, you risk significant loss of data when hardware failure happens.
At the very least, you should backup your data once every week. However, shorter 24-hour intervals are recommended.
If you manage all your backup processes manually, it's all too easy to forget to do it. This brings us back to introducing unnecessary vulnerability to your infrastructure.
The best approach is to use an automated backup solution. This way you can work in peace knowing that you're always on the ball with backup and recovery.
It's not enough to only backup some data. A partial backup and recovery solution only opens the door for possible data losses.
Make sure that your data protection strategy encompasses your entire environment, including all mobile endpoints. Use data compression and encryption to make your information more manageable and to keep it safe.
Data management is a complex task that can eat up much of a small business owner's time. Setting up cloud backup solutions, ensuring their proper operation, and doing daily backups is probably not what you want to do with your time.
The smartest move for small businesses is to partner with reliable managed IT service providers that offer comprehensive data backup services.
Benefits of Managed Cloud Backup Services
Managed cloud backup services are an ideal choice for small businesses. They offer multiple benefits that not only protect data, but can also improve your business productivity and profitability. The key features of managed cloud services will:
We're available 24/7 so that you can keep your data safe from accidental deletion or malware attacks. No matter where you're located or your hours of operation, we're always available for you.
TTR Technology is ISO 9001 Certified and a GSA contract holder, certified to work with government agencies. In fact, we've done IT work with NASA, and the US Army.
We take care of everything for you so that your data is backed up when you need it, and you can recover and restore files when accidents or attacks happen. We can customize our cloud backup to meet any business's needs regardless of its size.
Contact us today to learn how backup and recovery can help you.
What makes TTR Technology
your top choice for Managed IT Services
TTR Technology provides IT support, including quality service, unique proprietary data recovery, and technology solutions not found anywhere else.
Our data centers. Running 24/7.
New York
Los Angeles
Amsterdam
London
Chicago
Montreal
Paris
Singapore