Tape
backup is an outdated method that compromises the reliability, security,
cost-effectiveness and convenience needed for data protection and
recovery. The Gartner Group reported that nearly 50% of tape-based backup
systems fail to restore correctly. Moreover, according to Storage
Magazine, more than 34% of organizations do not test their backups, and of
those tested, 77% of them found their tape backup failed to recover.
A remote
backup company offers a multitude of benefits as the premier alternative in
offsite data storage and data recovery. Five advantages remote backup
services have over the traditional tape method include:
1. Disaster Recovery. One of the most important
contributions for organizations that properly plan for a disaster is the
assurance that data will be stored offsite in the event that the physical
building of a business, along with computers, servers and tapes stored inside,
are destroyed. When a disaster strikes, business-critical data stored
offsite such as customer billing, intellectual property and proprietary
information are all safe and recoverable. Data can be seamlessly restored
to an alternate location, allowing for business continuity.
2. Automatic
Backup. There
are no tapes to manage, IT staff to schedule or vendors to coordinate a pickup
and delivery of tapes. This enables the business to save time and money
and significantly minimize errors. Remote backup allows for backups to
automatically occur at any time on a schedule that best meets the business
needs of the organization. The responsibilities of assuring that the
backup and restoration are successful fall on the remote backup company so
productivity remains high. When problems arise, the data is guaranteed to
be both stored and restored through the automatic backup process.
3. Low Cost Solution. The cost benefits of remote backup
over tapes can be measured in several different ways. The first advantage
is the reduction of expenses associated with IT staff having to manually backup
and restore data on a regular basis. The return on investment can be
recognized further through the realization that files can be quickly restored
24/7, keeping business productivity high and the business operations continuous.
Further, remote backup allows savings through eliminating the need for capital
investments such as purchasing hardware and software. Also, since files
are compressed, more information can be stored at a lower cost to the business.
4. Centralized Servers. Consolidating backup processes
through an agentless solution to an outsourced offsite backup services provider
eliminates the need for agents installed on
each machine that requires backups, thus avoiding the drain on IT resources,
minimizing disruptive downtime and positively impacting recoverability.
The agentless solution that is offered by remote backup companies provides
significant savings through simple licensing, singular software management,
resource conservation, heightened security, backup consistency and improved
restoration.
5. Security. A remote backup company ensures data
protection and data recovery using the latest encryption technology to secure
data. A key benefit to using a remote backup company that surpasses all
other advantages with security is that the data is always available; this is
something that tapes cannot promise. Although some tape storage providers
offer encryption, once data is stolen, lost or vandalized, the data is no
longer accessible. For this reason alone, a remote backup company offers
the security needed to meet business and compliance standards, while
guaranteeing the data will be available for restoration. The
ramifications to the success of a business if valuable records were accessed by
someone using unencrypted tape could be substantial, possibly resulting in a
loss of customer confidence, stolen trade secrets and litigation.
Discussion: How would you prioritize
these top 5 for your business?