Online Data Backup Services Woodland

What you need to know about online data backup services in Woodland

Online data backup services offer many advantages over traditional offline data backup. You do, however, need to manage them in a slightly different manner. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to what you need to know about online data backup services in Woodland.

Geography still matters, even in the cloud 

The internet may be without frontiers, but companies have to be incorporated somewhere and that somewhere will usually have laws to which they must adhere. Additionally, they will have to obey any additional laws which apply in the territories in which (or with which) they do business. For example, if a company is collecting data from EU residents (not just citizens), then they have to comply with the EU’s GDPR program, regardless of where in the world they are based.

Some people might question how the EU would expect to enforce GDPR on companies based across the world, but common sense would raise the alternative question as to whether or not it was sensible to gamble on the fact that it wouldn’t. This does, however, highlight the point that companies, even SMBs, can be held legally accountable for their actions and that law-enforcers and regulators will come after them (in this context as the data owners), not any IT services partners they use.

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This means that any SMB using the cloud in any way, including for online data backup services, needs a robust model for understanding who is handling and holding their data and where it is held. They also need to ensure that service contracts obligate the other party to fulfill the SMB’s legal/compliance obligations and that these contracts are actually enforceable in the real world rather than just in theory.
The simple reality is that the closer someone is located to you, the easier it is not just to get them into a courtroom but also to action any judgment you are granted. It, therefore, follows that, even in the cloud and the world of online data backups, there’s a lot to be said for sticking with local IT services vendors.

You must apply robust data governance

There are two good reasons for applying robust data governance. The first applies both to offline data backups and online data backups and the second really only applies to online data backups.

The first is that any security/compliance issues are multiplied across each copy of your data. Assuming you’re following the long-standing 3-2-1 approach (three copies of your data, including your production copy, over two media with one copy being kept off-site), that means that you can be attacked on three fronts or fall out of compliance in three places. The more robustly you manage your data, however, (especially your sensitive data), the less of a target you will be (and frankly, the less damage you will need to put right if there is an issue).

The second is that in the world of the cloud, you pay for exactly what you use for as long as you use it. This is a substantial difference from the world of traditional data backups in which storage was basically a sunk cost and a fairly affordable one at that. In the cloud, by contrast, if you carry excess data, then you pay specifically for that excess data, not only in your production systems but also across your online data backups. If you then feed it into a data archive, you pay for it there too.

This means that any data you hold should be kept because it is needed (for production or compliance) or because it is wanted. If, however, you are stuck with data which nobody seems to need and nobody seems to want, but nobody is prepared to delete (and you’re sure it’s not sensitive), then at least put it into a data archive. It’s far from ideal but it’s a lot less expensive than holding it in production and backing it up all the time.

You have much more scope to fine-tune your use of storage 

With offline backups, assigning different types of storage to different types of data is often not only more hassle than it’s worth but also more expensive than it’s worth. It often makes the most sense to bulk purchase one form of storage and to use it for everything.
With the cloud, however, you can and generally should, fine-tune your storage settings so that they reflect the speed with which you need your data. Ideally, you should do this both in your production environment and with your online data backup (“on-site” and “off-site”).
If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced online data backup services provider in Woodland, please click here now to contact Salient IT.