There are many online backup and “cloud” data storage/sync solutions available via the internet. Some offer free backups and the paid ones start from as little as £5/month.
But before you run off and pick a backup service for your critical business data based on price alone here are a few things you should consider during the selection process:
1. Offsite Data Storage
Obviously with an online solution it has to be offsite but if you share data centre space in managed facilities make sure your data isn’t being stored in the same facility as your servers. If it is then find another provider or make sure your provider has point 14 covered.
2. Easy to setup
There’s no point picking a backup solution which requires you to be an IT technical guru – even if you are one!
Therefore your chosen solution should be easy to setup and configure whether that’s by your or the technical team from the vendor.
3. Automatic
It goes without saying but your backup solution has to look after itself. If it doesn’t then stay away as you’ll simply be buying yourself more work and the time you forget to run a backup is the time you’ll need your data to be recovered.
Also, it’s a good idea to select a service you can use to backup your data based on a schedule. If you save your files at the end of one day you don’t want to have to wait a day, or over the weekend for them to be backed up.
4. 24 x 365
Just like it being automatic, there’s no point in having a backup solution that’s only available Monday to Friday 9am-5pm! You need maximum availability to ensure your data is backed up when you need it to be and that you can recover the data as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster.
5. Simple Restore
If a disaster does strike your business and you need to restore data from your backups it needs to be as simple and easy as possible. In a real disaster, you and your business are probably already in a world of pain and worrying about getting your data back shouldn’t add to your problems.
6. Monitored on your behalf
Why worry about things you don’t have to? Your backup should just happen and only notify you if there’s a problem. But you need to know that it’s working correctly and be comfortable with the solution to have real faith in your backups as a disaster recovery tool.
7. Wide Compatibility
Compatibility of your backup solution is vital. Just because you use Windows 7 Desktop and MS Office now doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll always use and you need to make sure you can recover files, folders and other types of data when you need them on whatever platform you’re using.
Also, a wider range of supported platforms and applications will likely mean a more rounded and thoroughly tested product.
But there are other benefits to a wide range of compatibility – namely that your backup service will integrate better with software applications and database products meaning you can recover finer grained layers of data.
One example of this is single mailbox recovery in MS Exchange. Without a good level of compatibility and integration, all you can recover should you have a problem with MS Exchange email, is the entire email data set. This in turn means you have a considerable amount of work to do to get a single mailbox back from a multi-user backup, even assuming you have the space and ability to bring back a full copy of your email system without overwriting the active one.
However, with a fully integrated product it is possible to recover individual mailboxes without a major amount of work.
So when choosing your backup service provider, have a close look at the level of compatibility and integration and make sure that it is covering all of your critical data, files and folders and bear in mind any future requirements you might have.
8. Transmission Encrypted
The security of your data is paramount. After all it’s why you’re backing it up in the first place. It’s also why the transmission of your data across the internet or other networks should be encrypted.
Encrypted data transmission ensures that your data can’t be intercepted and read/accessed by anyone or anything else between your computers and the storage facility used by your chosen provider.
9. Data Compression
This is a really handy feature and should be available in the backup solution you choose. Essentially data compression means that the amount of data actually transferred between your computer and the storage facility is less than the amount of data on your computers.
Compression takes the data you have and squashes it down into smaller, tighter packages for transmission over the internet.
This means you don’t use or need huge amounts of bandwidth and large data transfer allowances to make use of an online backup solution.
10.Storage Encrypted
This is potentially where we start to see the largest difference between online backup providers – how and where your data is stored and who has access to it.
Your data must be stored encrypted once it lands at the remote storage facility. Otherwise your data could be accessed by anybody who has or gains access to their network or facilities.
Ideally, only you should have the encryption key used to protect your data – see point 11.
11. No Access to Data by Provider/DC Staff
Whilst many backup and online “cloud” storage providers claim your data is encrypted on their system that doesn’t always mean what you think.
A truly encrypted solution would mean that no-one other than the individual or group who know the encryption key can actually access the data.
Many online backup and cloud storage solutions do indeed encrypt the data but it is done by them, and they have the encryption keys. This also means that they potentially have access to your data and you’re not likely to know if anyone else accesses it.
So choose your backup solution carefully, particularly if you manage sensitive data.
12. Data Centre Locations
Where is your data physically stored once it leaves your network? Are the data centres used by your backup provider located in your home country? Or are they elsewhere such as within the EU or US? Do you even know?
One thing to bear in mind when selecting an online backup provider is where your data ends up. Different nations and regions have different laws on data protection, due process and lawful searches.
If your data is no longer in your own country then it is no longer under the protection of your nation’s legal system and could be subject to access based on processes which would hold little or no sway in your own country.
And remember, ultimately if your data security is breached and you fall under the legal or regulatory jurisdiction you may be liable for the breach – even if it occurs elsewhere in the world. You can outsource your data storage but you can’t outsource the responsibilities and liabilities attached to that data.
13. ISO27001 Certified Data Centres
Ideally, the data centres used to store your backups should be certified as secure to an internationally recognised standard such as ISO-27001 Information Security Management standard.
This should give you confidence that your data is safe and the service providers are taking their information security responsibilities seriously.
14. Geographical Secure Data Centre Replication
You’re taking precautions and backing up your data. That’s very commendable and responsible of you – too many don’t even bother to do that!
But does your solution provider take the same precautions? If you need to recover a file or two, or your entire data collection will the service provider’s systems be up and available? Are they replicating the data you’re entrusting to them to a geographically separate location to ensure its availability should they encounter and issue at their primary data centre?
If you’re backing up your data, you’re doing so for a reason – to protect it. Now you might feel that your copy and the copy they have in the “cloud” is enough security for your data. But if you’re paying for a service you might as well pick one that maximises your protection and ensures you can access your data when you need it most.
After all, if it can go wrong it will and reducing the “single points of failure” in any technical solution increases the resilience and availability of the whole solution.
15. Free technical support
Finally, if you’re paying for a backup solution are they offering you free technical support or is it all premium rate numbers you can’t get hold of or a helpdesk you can only call during set (and usually inconvenient) hours?
Hopefully you won’t need technical support, but if you do it’s nice to know they’re there when you need them!
So there you have it – the criteria we use and therefore recommend you use for choosing an online backup or cloud data storage/sync solution for your business.
