Before near-virtualized workloads, SaaS applications, and hyper-scale cloud, most enterprises relied on backup tapes and platforms designed for older systems. Most people still use systems that rely on old data storage. They are costly, inefficient, and hard to manage. Put it simply, they can’t scale or respond to emerging growth expectations.
Old data storage systems present a management problem and don’t respond well to new incidents. What’s worse is that these systems are outdated and fail to execute digital transformation. Worst of all, you can’t rely on old data storage methods during a disaster because they’re inefficient and incompetent in dealing with new threats.
Luckily, businesses no longer have to suffer from old technologies. Back-up technologies and storage best practices have improved exponentially over the past decades. You can transform your backup from a low-level IT function to a powerful enabler of risks and business continuity with cloud storage.
This post discusses five actionable ways to improve your data storage approach:
1. Consolidate Multiple Storage
Many organizations have turned into multiple storage solutions due to the growing sophistication of the IT environment. Businesses had good reasons for deploying these tactical strategies (multiple backup solutions). And they were often faced with little choice: conventional enterprise backup tools were not technically capable of handling rapidly evolving data and systems.
Today, the market is flooded with multiple back-ups for – Linux Servers, Physical Windows, virtualized workloads, Legacy UNIX hardware, systems, and data operating on public hyper clouds like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Unfortunately, this unintegrated data backup is costly and difficult to manage. It also presents security risks because of a diverse attack surface.
Fortunately, you can integrate multiple data and backup solutions into one unified interface. Consolidation will help you maintain fewer licenses, agreements, and maintenance. By consolidating multiple storage and backup solutions, you will enjoy staffing flexibility and reduce training investments.
2. Automation
Forward-looking organizations are recognizant of the importance of automation in providing new services and meeting new requirements. Modern organizations have automated tasks like deploying the cloud to perform software maintenance and builds. But only a few organizations have taken full advantage of the multiple opportunities to automate recovery and back-ups.
Today, organizations and enterprises can automate core-scheduled processes; and processes associated with moving data to the cloud. That means you can make backup tasks less manual and more automatic, especially manual processes involving physical shipping, rotational media, and storage tapes.
You can also automate periodic reporting of your routine backup processes, automate disaster recovery and backup processes. This enables you to gain unprecedented confidence in the success and functionality of all your back-ups.
3. Use an Expert
It’s always advisable to consult an expert when designing and deploying a data recovery and business continuity strategy. Normally, the data backup process is quite complex. And although you may not be required to show that you have the necessary technical expertise to back up your data, at times, it may be crucial to carry out a few technical processes to successfully back up your data. It’s because of the technicality, sophistication, and evolving nature of data storage and recovery that you may need to consult an expert throughout this exercise.
4. Prevention
Perhaps the costliest causes of data loss come from malicious software. Crypto ware and ransomware viruses encrypt users’ data, requesting payment before they release the unlock code so the hijacked data is released. Ransomware attacks are quite prevalent, the most classic case being the Baltimore Ransomware Attack of May 2019.
Since cyber criminals target small enterprises that are notoriously vulnerable and easy to infiltrate, enterprises must learn to dodge possible threats before they occur. Giving in to payment terms is a direction that can restore your hijacked data, but it shouldn’t be your “go-to-plan”. Instead, keep your business systems out of danger by avoiding unauthorized site visits, and avoiding unverified downloads.
In addition, ensure that your system is protected from malware and viruses. However, to ensure the total recoverability of your data regardless of these vulnerabilities and attacks, you should have a data backup plan. Even if your systems are maliciously encrypted, you can leverage your backup files to restore and recover your hacked data.
5. Cloud Elasticity
A classic way to improve your data backup is to leverage cloud elasticity and economies of scale. Cloud solutions are changing the way IT organizations are creating, managing, deploying, expanding, and closing apps. Disaster recovery and back-up efforts are perfectly suited for the scalability and flexibility provided by the cloud.
Your business can smoothly address explosive data growth by integrating cloud capabilities into your disaster recovery and backup toolset. Instead of buying large quantities of physical storage to back up your local workload data, you can easily leverage on the ready availability of cloud storage and the provider’s remarkable economies of scale. Most importantly, cloud-integrated backup can provide the isolation needed to protect against ransomware.
Wrapping Up!
As discussed, cloud backup is one of the most crucial steps in preventing data loss. Cloud back-up lets you access lost, corrupted, or deleted files, thus helping you continue with your work even in the face of a disaster. With trusted solution providers like Bastionpoint, you can kick start your journey with cloud data backup and business continuity solutions.
Contact Bastionpoint to transform your business data back-up with a cloud data strategy.
