Cloud needs back-up too! says Thordarson of KeepItSafe

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Jon Thordarson, KeepItSafe

27 July 2015

Everyone who uses a computer knows you need to back up your data, just in case. Accidents and disasters, malice and malware, not to mention criminals, all pose a threat to your precious information. That does not mean we all do it, of course. The history of computing is full of stories about lost data — or of enormous difficulty in restoring it. Most organisations today do have a back-up policy and solution in place, not least because it is often mandatory for compliance or recognised as a fiduciary responsibility of directors. The objective in all cases is business continuity, so the chosen solution and the investment will reflect the importance of speed in being back up and running.

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Online incremental back-up is a service that continues to grow in popularity worldwide. KeepItSafe was a pioneer in Ireland and is now the lead brand in the j2 Global group that delivers managed cloud services to over 12 million clients in 49 countries. But there was one gap in the market for online back-up services. More and more enterprises are using SaaS and cloud services of various kinds and relying on the various service providers to protect their data. All too often, that is simply not good enough, if not a fallacy. Mostly the clients of cloud services have minimal control over their data. Recovery in the event of a problem can be at the discretion and in the time scale of the cloud provider and an SME dealing with a huge public cloud company has no advantages.

That is why KeepItSafe launched Cloud2Cloud on 1 July, incorporating smart new technology in a service that it has in fact offered for more than two years as part of its comprehensive portfolio of back-up and disaster recovery services for on-premise, mobile and online data. What Cloud2Cloud does is deceptively simple: it backs up and protects your data in cloud services such as Microsoft Office365, Salesforce.com, Google Apps and many others.

Is that really necessary? Well, the 32% of cloud applications users who have reported losing data might now think so. Often it is just accidental, an end-user deleting or over-writing data. Sometimes, of course, it is the result of hacking or some other malicious act. Disgruntled employees (or ex-employees) know what could cause damage.

“More and more enterprises are using SaaS and cloud services of various kinds and relying on the various service providers to protect their data. All too often, that is simply not good enough, if not a fallacy”

But another key issue arising more frequently is that disengagement with all of your data from a cloud service contract is not always straightforward. There is also the question of a locked account if monthly payments are in arrears or even of data being wiped when an account is deemed lapsed after a certain — sometimes ruthlessly brief — period.

KeepItSafe delivers protection for all of an organisation’s data — on its own servers, on employee’s mobile devices and in the cloud. Cloud2Cloud offers a specific independent solution for third party cloud-to-cloud backup and data recovery. Any business using SaaS or other cloud services needs this element if its data protection strategy is to be properly comprehensive, which is also the only way to ensure that it is never found to be non-compliant.

 

Jon Thordarson is European technical support manager with KeepItSafe

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