An organisation’s data or more specifically its information is effectively a companies ‘Lifeblood’ and quite simply without it there is an almost guarantee that the company will cease to operate very quickly.
In today’s electronic age the majority of businesses create and rely solely upon electronic copies of their information. The benefits of businesses operating leveraging the benefits of having their information electronically stored for instant access and collaboration between trusted partners is well documented and adopted by many. As a consequence, one would expect companies to understand the value of their information and take appropriate steps to ensure their organisations ‘lifeblood’ is protected. Sadly, despite the various legislative attempts to push organisations to protect their information such as Sarbanes-Oxley or HIPAA many small businesses fail to address the risk.
Historically, organisations would implement a tape system regime of backing up and storing the tapes offsite or more typically in a cupboard, hoping that when the need arises, the tape which has been used to back their data up for the last 3 years, in the tape drive which has never been cleaned can recover the lost data. Enter to the arena, Online Backup, where your data is backed up using your internet connection to a secure data centre.
There are a plethora of online backup solutions out there today, making online backup provider selection complex and potentially a role of the dice. Organisations selecting an online backup provider should consider asking a prospective partner the questions below,
What are the capabilities of the backup software?
Every online backup solution will enable you to backup standard files for example.doc,.mp3,.xls however is there the capability to backup SQL databases, Exchange Information Stores or Exchange Brick Level mailbox backups. Does the software have the ability to backup open files or provide CDP – Continuous Data Protection? The aforementioned features should come as standard without additional monetary expense or needing to mix and match different vendor backup software.
What is the maximum storage capacity?
As your organisation grows and years progress, your storage capacity requirements will increase, it is important to understand from the initial onset any upper storage capacity limits, additional charges if your backup should require more storage than signed up for, is there a maximum individual file size.
How is my data protected?
There a several aspects of data security which needs to be considered when choosing an online backup provider. Firstly, whether your data is encrypted whilst being transmitted over the Internet, this should ideally be SSL 3.0 / TLS 1.0 as a minimum. Secondly, when your data is ‘at rest’ i.e. residing within your online backup partners data centre, is your data still encrypted, if so, which algorithm being used (ideally AES 256) and additionally is the key used for encryption generic or known only to yourself. Finally, the data centre(s) geographic location and security accreditation achieved.
Cost
In todays economic climate, cost is becoming increasingly paramount in selecting an IT Solution Provider. with respect to online backup it s important to understand exactly what the ongoing monthly costs are, whether there are financial penalties for additional storage space usage, technical support charges.
If you would like some more information on how you can benefit from Online Backup please contact us.
Layer 7 IT Solutions invites you to partner with us today and have piece of mind that your business is protected with a customised Online Backup solutions from Layer 7. http:/layer-7.co.uk.
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