Why Cloud Backups Are Better Than USB Disks And Tapes

If you're still using legacy solutions, you could be creating more work for yourself for no real benefit.

One of the most fundamental bits of IT advice is that all businesses should keep multiple backups of their important data. That way, you have more places to restore from, and therefore more chance of getting your files back. 

It's also a good idea to keep at least one copy off site. By doing so, you protect this data from any incidents that affect the copies stored on your premises. Traditionally, this has meant using USB disks or magnetic tapes, which are rotated throughout the week and taken off site each day.

But the cloud has changed all of that. Today, the best way to keep backups away from your business premises is to store them online. Here’s why.

Available From Anywhere

You don’t always know where you’re going to be when you need to restore from a backup. And if the disk you need is at an employee’s home, then there’s going to be a delay while you wait for it, before you start to restore. No such problems occur with cloud backup. No matter where you are, you can access your backups and restore your data. You can even access backups at the same time as your colleagues.

Avoid Catastrophes

The whole point of keeping a backup off site is that it protects your data in the event of fire, flood or some other catastrophe. However, with a tape or USB, you probably only have one copy stored away from your premises at any one time. If your office was ever destroyed, you would be entirely reliant on that one backup. With the cloud, none of your backups are ever on site, so they simply wouldn’t be at risk.

Don't Risk Hardware Failures

Hard drives and other physical storage involves hardware with moving parts. Over time, they will always break down. This can be sudden, resulting in the total loss of data, or it can be slow, which usually manifests itself as data corruptions and slow access speeds. Cloud backups, in contrast, do away with the hardware, so you don’t have worry about your backups going up with a puff of smoke.

Increased Retention

Let’s say you rotate seven USB hard drives for your backups – one for every day of the week. That means you have seven days of retention. In other words, if you needed to go back and restore a particular file, from a particular day, you could go as far back as the previous week. If it was erased before then, it’s gone. The huge datacentres that power cloud backup services offer far greater levels of retention. Of course, it depends on what services you sign up for, but you can easily be looking at weeks, months or even years of retention.

Fully Managed Service

Why deal with fiddly backups if you don’t have to? Instead of swapping out tape or disk drives every day, and hoping that no one forgets to do it, cloud backups can be fully automated. That saves you time and effort, and cuts out the chance of human error. You focus on your work, and your backups are taken care of quietly, in the background.

No Format Fuss

Different operating systems use different disk formatting. Windows, for example, generally runs on the NTFS file system. Apple Macs, however, use either APFS (for newer machines) or Mac OS Extended. A common system that works on both is FAT (also, more recently, ExFAT). So which one do you use for your backup disks? With cloud backups, you don’t have to decide; it’s all taken care of for you.

Always Up To Date

If you use specialist backup software, it needs to be kept up to date, to get the latest features and to make sure it has the most recent security patches. For the same reasons, you may need to update the firmware of your storage media. By using a cloud backup service, you do away with all of that. It’s all automatically kept up to date, so you never miss out on new features or put your business at unnecessary risk.

Want To Know More?

If you’re interested in migrating your backups to a cloud solution, call TMB Group on 0333 900 9050 or email info@tmb.co.uk.