Cloud Backup Recovery

Cloud Backup Recovery: Local, Cloud or Both?

Confucius once said... “In the world there are many different roads but the destination is the same.” While we’re quite certain he wasn’t talking about backup and recovery of your workstations, servers and data, there is an application in there somewhere. There are many ways to provide backup of your most precious data and devices – and they all lead to the same destination – an ability to recover. But are they all the same?

Let’s look at two general types of backup and discover whether the “destination” is truly the same – Local and Cloud.

You’re already familiar with local backups – you most likely use them every day. They could be tape or disk-based, utilizing expensive hardware that needs to be refreshed, and are really only useful for on-premise restores (meaning, in the event of a disaster that requires recovery off-site, you’re either going to need to physically move the backup system to the new site or you’re simply out of luck).

Then there’s cloud backups. They provide high availability and redundancy at a lower cost than local hardware and can recover to anywhere in the world. They also are limited by your Internet connection and, if you have no connection, can be rendered useless.

So what’s a business to do?

Each “road” has its’ downsides in getting to the recovery “destination”. The answer lies in taking both paths. You need the speed of local backups and the scalability, redundancy and “anytime, anywhere” recoverability of the cloud. This is what’s known as hybrid cloud backup & recovery. By using a hybrid cloud solution, you take advantage of a monthly expense over making costly purchases, have the assurance that you can recover the smallest file or the largest database no matter where you need to recover to, and utilize the fastest recovery medium to ensure you are operational quickly. You also partner with a service provider to ensure every aspect of your business is recovered within an acceptable timeframe.

Both sides win

When it comes to backup and recovery, Confucius was a bit off – he’d be more likely to say, “to get to the destination, use both paths together.”