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6 Reasons to Trust Your Backups to a Cloud Expert

– Jay Waggoner, Director of Cloud Services Business Development at VeriStor Systems, says:

Backups. They are arguably the least glamorous task for any IT team. And yet, they are also one of the most critical. In fact, according to Gartner, 43% of companies go immediately out of business after a “major loss” of computer records. Even worse, only 6% of companies survive longer than two years after a significant data loss.

Although these statistics are ominous, so many organizations are still using a hodge-podge of backup solutions. But, there is an easy answer. The cloud. Cloud backups, managed by data protection experts, will eliminate the burden of traditional backup solutions. They also offer the predictability of an operational expense, rather than costly up front capital expenses traditionally expected with a backup or disaster recovery solution. Typically available in varying degrees to support a range of recovery time objectives (RTOs), cloud data protection solutions can resolve many of the challenges faced by these data dinosaurs.

Here are six reasons you should offload your backup process to a cloud data protection expert.

  1. Optimized resources. With the cloud, there is no hardware to purchase, no software to license and no ongoing maintenance costs to consider. But, cloud data protection not only minimizes your hardware and software resource costs, it will also dramatically reduce staffing resources as you no longer need to manage the hardware and software on site.
  2. Secure and compliant.  Cloud security is truly risk proof. With security features such as built-in 256-bit encryption and retention in secure SAS-70/SSAE16-certified datacenters, data is never at risk. Plus, hosted virtual infrastructure services support a full range of regulatory compliance requirements including SEC 17a4, PCI/DSS, HIPSS/ HITECH, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Gramm-Leach so considering the impact of a new regulation or policy is never an issue. Cloud providers will also offer service level agreements that assure that your data is unquestionably available at a set and agreed upon level.
  3. Offsite. To achieve disaster recovery preparedness, cloud solutions, by nature are offsite resources that will safeguard data in the event of any disaster. Often replicated between multiple data centers, data protected in the cloud is always secure and available for recovery – even when its data source has suffered the unexpected.
  4. Cost effective and predictable. Cloud-based solutions are usage-based services with a set monthly or quarterly billing that is both cost effective and predictable.  This shifts the cost of data protection from its history as a capital expense to an operational expense that can deliver the financial benefit of no surprises. So beyond the cost savings of eliminating the need for self-procured hardware and software, organizations can also achieve the budget consistency financial teams desire.
  5. Flexible and scalable. Cloud-based data protection also delivers unparalleled flexibility. They support an unlimited range of operating systems, applications and platforms and don’t require specific hardware or software at the source. This gives organizations freedom from “vendor lock in,” so that they can choose their products of choice at any time. It also enables organizations to have the elasticity to scale data protection strategies to meet the changing demands of their organization. Whether responding to fluctuating seasonal demands or unexpected data growth, organizations relying on cloud data protection never need to worry about ensuring that their organization has the storage capacity to meet their dynamic demands.
  6. Fully Managed. Finally, it’s transparent.Many cloud-based providers will offer fully managed options so that backup and disaster recovery is as simple as a “set it and forget it” process. With a third party to monitor and support data protection operations, someone that “lives and breathes it 24×7,” IT teams are free to focus more on their strategic priorities.

Don’t get stuck managing backups in house any longer. Protect company data in the cloud with the peace of mind that comes from expert management, monitoring and support so that you can survive any data loss without a second thought.

Jay Waggoner is the Director of Cloud Services Business Development at VeriStor Systems, an advanced IT solutions provider specializing in virtual infrastructure and enterprise private, public and hybrid cloud services and solutions.