As organisations shift from using on-premise solutions to the cloud, many will not have considered that data, despite being located in the cloud, still needs to be backed up. The channel, therefore, needs to educate and support organisations as they develop and deploy their cloud strategies.
Carl Oliver, Product Manager, Giacom explains why cloud backup is increasingly important for SMBs and where the opportunity lies.
On-premise backup solutions aren’t fail-safe
An on-premise backup solution stores data securely on office-based hard drives. In principle, this is a feasible option, but what if a natural disaster occurs such as a pandemic, flood, or fire? Accessing data becomes problematic and depending on the situation, data could be lost forever. So, many businesses turned to the cloud for support. Which, rightly, highlighted the need for cloud data security.
How secure is data when stored in the cloud?
There’s a common misconception that just because you shift your applications and workloads into the cloud, all your data is completely secure. While the cloud offers many benefits, including the availability of data, it doesn’t entirely protect organisations from data loss or corruption alone.
For instance, a recent study found that 32 per cent of companies using the cloud had experienced data loss in the cloud across numerous threats. It points out that 64 per cent of this data loss was accidental and that 20 per cent was down to malicious intent.
Therefore, it is important for organisations to factor cloud backup solutions into their long-term cloud and data protection strategies. They are crucial and help address this growing risk of data loss that takes place, be that through accidental or malicious means.
Advantages of cloud backup solutions
Using cloud backup solutions offers organisations a host of benefits too. Many modern backup tools include enhanced security features and the ability to scale backups as required. They also generally offer quicker recovery times if backed-up data is needed. Moreover, by using the cloud, organisations can scale more easily too. They have the option and capability to move their data efficiently and quickly across the world.
However, as with all technology, there are security risks to consider, which ITCs need to advise clients on. This is where the relationship between CSP and ITC is important.
Supporting SMBs with cloud backup in a Covid world
Through the pandemic, many organisations turned to remote working to maintain productivity. Many of these applications are cloud-based; and for some, this meant that their IT estate had to evolve; and across the world, there was an explosion in the use of collaboration technologies. And this is set to continue, research from the Cloud Industry Forum indicates that 88 per cent of organisations expect their adoption of cloud services to increase in the next 12 months. This trend toward cloud application adoption amplifies the need to move away from depending on on-premise backups towards relying on cloud backup solutions instead.
With many IT teams stretched, either by work at home restrictions, cloud/digital transformation projects, or cyber-attacks, they have their work cut out for them. The pressure they face is unprecedented and emphasises the importance of putting in place robust data recovery and business continuity strategies to support their businesses. Evidently, there is a significant opportunity for the channel to step in and provide advisory and execution support and services to SMB customers.
Even though the cloud solves many problems for organisations, it does come with data protection challenges. One answer to this problem involves using dedicated cloud backup solutions to protect data. The other answer lies in market education about how best to secure cloud applications and data. Within this scenario, CSPs and ITCs must work together to educate the market, especially SMBs, about how to secure and back up data effectively. By doing this, ITCs can take advantage of their CSP partner’s knowledge, positioning themselves as trusted advisors to clients, and also take advantage of the available lucrative recurring revenue-generating opportunity.
