Backup and Disaster Recovery: How Storing Data to a Cloud Can Benefit You on a Rainy Day

backup and disaster recovery how storing data to a cloud can benefit you on a rainy day
Value Of Network Support

Backup and disaster recovery of your business’s data should be a top priority, no matter how small or large your business is.

Anyone who doesn’t have some kind of backup system for their data in today’s time is playing as much risk as driving without car insurance. Regardless, deciding which method to use in backing up data might be nearly as challenging when so many options exist.

The trend seems to be honing in to one system away from the office that may become standard before the end of the decade. That’s because it’s usually the most reliable in how quickly data is saved and in the data retrieval time.

Cloud-Based Backup as Most Reliable System

Saving business data to a cloud means taking your data to an outside hosted server that manages it for you. It’s a solution that’s much more manageable than the era when all data had to be transferred to tape or disk and then stored in another location for security purposes.

This isn’t to say most decisions behind using cloud-based backup aren’t going to vary depending on assessment of a business’s data recovery objectives. Because of those usually more convenient aspects, it explains why cloud-based systems are predicted to become the main solution to most backup issues in companies.

The Cost and Security Aspects are Becoming Attractive

The affordability of cloud-based systems is likely one reason why they’re becoming so popular. That’s because they usually charge a flat rate for the data storage and only charge you more when you need to use their services to recover lost data. Other outsourced backup systems don’t work that way, so it’s a cost-effective strategy for any upstart business.

Plus, with new advanced encyption methods on cloud systems, you don’t have to worry as much about your data being hacked. Each cloud-based server will allow a particular security setting depending on the requests of that business.

Retrieval During Disasters

Companies that live in disaster-prone areas are particularly starting to turn to cloud systems to ensure data can be recovered.

In locations where hurricanes or earthquakes are increasing, the destruction of a business and loss of data can disrupt any chance of a business getting back on its feet. Clouds are known for backing up data often and running recurring tests to make sure everything will be there when it’s desperately needed.

How long it’ll take to get your data back is also a major selling point. Because cloud-based systems are managed so well, it won’t take months to retrieve your data as you’d find with other outsourced backup plans.

But those are just a few of the advantages of using a cloud for your data storage. If you’re looking for the most cutting edge cloud system, consider 4 Corner IT as your source in finding the right one.

Contact us and we’ll connect you with many of our partnered cloud vendors that provide the most robust backup solutions while saving you considerable money.

One in Three Mission Critical Apps Currently in the Cloud

benefits of using cloud servers

Research from identity management provider SailPoint has revealed that US and UK based IT leaders see one in three mission critical apps as currently in the cloud. That figure has risen sharply by 2015.

The Market Pulse Survey of 400 IT and business leaders, which defined ‘mission critical’ as apps mainly focused on storage, file-sharing and communications, forecast that the number is expected to grow to one in two in three years.

The figures differed slightly dependent on which side of the Atlantic respondents were based. 32% in the US compared to 30% in the UK for cloud mission critical apps now. However, the consensus was the same.

Another element of the research centred on pain points with moving to the cloud, with the usual suspects present.

Security in Mission Critical Apps

Security was the top risk for 73% of US and 74% of UK-based respondents, with compliance (56% US, 52% UK) and uptime and performance (48% US, 42% UK) rounding off the top three.

With security still a high risk, another facet of the research considering what the IT leaders saw as ‘high-risk data’ in the cloud – and how much they were prepared to put into it – was illuminating.

The figures were again very similar. Just over one in three (35% US, 36% UK) agreed that some of the data they were storing in the cloud was high risk. This is as opposed to half (50% US, 49% UK) who were adamantly against the gamble.

Worryingly, 15% on both sides were not sure. This is because they had no way of knowing if sensitive data is stored in the cloud at all.

Security is still top of mind when discussing a move to the cloud. Recent Stratsec research inferred that some cloud providers were unable to stop malicious attacks. Meanwhile, security was the number one initiative when selecting a provider. This applies to both cloud and non-cloud users in a recent Raconteur Media paper.

The fact that nearly half of those polled stated availability was an issue is significant. Especially when considering Forrester’s 2013 cloud forecasts – one of which stating that cloud SLAs will become less important.

Roughly one in three survey respondents accessed their company’s cloud system on a mobile device (35% US, 30% UK). Understandably, these figures are lower than the standard email and intranet. However, as the report notes: “Business users are increasingly using their devices for a broader range of work activities than ever before”.

This also seems to fit in with another Forrester prediction. The continued convergence of cloud and mobile, so expect higher figures for SailPoint’s 2013 Market Pulse Survey.

For the Construction Industry Cloud Computing Makes a Huge Difference

benefits of using cloud servers

Building contractors were told this week that cloud computing could make a huge difference to the construction industry, especially when it comes to project management. 

Autodesk, which develops some of the most influential design software such as AutoCAD and 3DS Max, claimed this week that the construction industry could use cloud hosting to power remote servers, given the nature of working on a building-site, an essentially rugged environment. 

This would enable an industry which has otherwise been slow in taking up cloud technology (mainly due to security / reliability concerns) to flourish, changing the nature in which projects are run.

Autodesk senior VP Amar Hanspal thinks that the technology is now ripe for the construction industry to jump on board, just as they did for Building Information Modelling (BIM). 

Hanspal said that by using technology such as mobile phones, the work force could be reached and drawings, building models and instructions delivered. He stated that the cloud could be used as an integral tool for construction.

Cloud computing has been adopted by a lot of industries outside construction, which proves its value. 

It is enabling users to do things previously unheard of and with proper management can transform business processes. The cloud will be used, it is hoped, to accelerate the BIM which will enable engineers and designers to compute complex calculations on a much larger scale. 

It would enable not only remote access but combine this with increased processing power. 

A motorway for instance could be designed and analysed as a whole section rather than in sections. Structural engineers could compute could make large scale calculations whilst town planners look at building design solutions within an urban context. 

The possibilities are far reaching and could well negate the need for high powered expensive individual computers in the future. Such is the power of cloud computing.