The Difference Between Cloud Backup and Hybrid Cloud Backup

Prevention is better than cure. With business data becoming increasingly valuable and vulnerable, organizations are signing up for cost-effective and easy-to-manage backup solutions. Direct-to-cloud backup, which includes storing business data directly on the cloud without an on-premise appliance, has become a highly sought-after solution that fulfills the need to protect endpoints.

When Direct-to-Cloud Backup is not Enough

Direct-to-cloud backup works well for most small-sized businesses that have small files to back up and employees working remotely. However, in some cases, the need for a broader backup strategy becomes imperative. For example, in order to back up servers, applications, and large data sets, hybrid cloud backup – data backed up on both the cloud and local storage – proves more advantageous for two reasons.

Firstly, with local storage in place, both backing up files and recovering them is faster for large data sets since the files do not have to move over a network. The recovery speed of direct-to-cloud backup is dependent on your network’s bandwidth, and moving large amounts of data may take too long or put too much strain on the network. Secondly, locally backing up applications and data that are critical to the running of the business is a must and ensures that your business stays operational during an outage or disaster. No one wants their business coming to a standstill in the event of a server hard drive failure.

But some organizations don’t have local backup storage in place due to the effort required to set it up and manage it. Overworked IT administrators dread this responsibility. However, Unitrends’ all-in-one appliance is purpose-built to remove the hassle of storage set up and ensure effortless backup, retention, and disaster protection. Whether it’s for the hardware version (Recovery Series or Recovery Series MAX) or the software version (Unitrends Backup Software), the setup is so simple that you can start backing up data in no time.

Automated regulatory compliance, 50% reduction in admin time, easy scalability, one-click on-appliance recovery for the MAX series, enterprise-class data protection, AI-based ransomware protection, and award-winning 24/7/365 support, are just a few ways Unitrends’ all-in-one appliance can end your worries about data backup and protection.

Pairing Local Storage with Cloud Failover

But even with all its benefits, local storage remains vulnerable to unpredictable events such as flood, fire, natural disasters, and outages. Such an occurrence can destroy your data or prevent you from accessing it for an indefinite period, irrespective of the solution you use.

One example our Support Team recently encountered was a relatively inexperienced IT staff backing up the original copy of data to a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device that sat in the same server room. When the server room flooded, all the backup data on the NAS was also lost.

But in addition to solid IT and backup practices, every business also needs a disaster recovery plan. These figures drive home that point:

  • According to FEMA, 40-60 percent of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) never re-open following a disaster, and 90 percent of small businesses that fail to resume business within five days of a disaster, perish within a year.
  • Nationwide’s Small Business Indicator states that 68 percent of small business owners do not have a disaster recovery plan, even though 49 percent of them admitted it would take their business at least three months to recover from a natural disaster.

And as we saw with the misplaced NAS example, if a natural disaster does not hit your business, human error might. Aberdeen Research discovered that human errors accounted for up to 64 percent of data loss incidents with an employee mistakenly deleting the wrong email, contacts, or critical configurations.

To avoid such setbacks, backing up a copy of all your data on the cloud should be a no-brainer. For most businesses, a multi-pronged approach that combines direct-to-cloud backup and hybrid cloud backup will work best. Direct-to-cloud backup works great for files and employees on the move, and hybrid cloud backup works well for servers, applications, and large data sets. This will ensure all checks and contingencies are in place to counter any major eventuality.

While setbacks related to human error can be avoided, how would you mitigate the damage caused by naturally occurring disasters that are unavoidable? The answer lies in installing a fail-safe business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) framework. Here’s how you can ensure your business data is not just restored but recovered to its original state in the aftermath of a disaster.

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