Are You Backing Up Your Cloud Services? Here's Why You Should Be!

1 out of 3 companies have experienced data loss in cloud services. A major misconception is that a cloud storage system like OneDrive or Google Drive doubles as a backup system for files. But backup and recovery applications are very different from cloud storage.

Why Cloud Storage is NOT Cloud Backup Consider a service like Dropbox. This type of cloud storage syncs with your computer and updates online files with any changes you make to the file on your synced computer. But what happens if that file is accidentally overwritten? The synced file is overwritten too, and your original file is lost. Cloud platforms and cloud storage systems are designed to keep the most recent copy of a file available and avoid having multiple versions of content stored in various locations. This is efficient and saves time, but it’s also NOT a backup service. How cloud backup and recovery platforms differ is that they’re made to capture all your files as they are at the time of the backup. Those files cannot then be changed or overwritten. Good backup strategies will include several backup retentions, so you have copies of your data going back to a reasonable time period. Backup and recovery apps are also designed for restoration of data and, depending upon how they’re set up, system and setting information as well. Cloud storage is more of a holding place for your files to give you the ability to easily access and share them from anywhere, but it’s not designed specifically for data  backup and restoration.

How Can Cloud Data Loss Happen? There are four main ways that cloud data loss can happen:

Overwriting Files If a user overwrites a file, the original version can be lost. While some cloud platforms keep a certain number of past versions, this function is time and space limited and the original can be lost once a certain platform’s retention period is over.

Accidental Deletion A new user that’s trying to organize their hard drive, might accidentally delete a synced folder and not realize that they’re also deleting it from the company’s cloud service as well. Another form of accidental deletion is when an administrator removes a user and doesn’t designate an owner for their files. After a certain time period, these will be deleted by the cloud system.

Malicious Infection or Deletion Credential theft for company SaaS (software as a service) accounts is at a high. In March 2020 alone, 29% oforganizations had their Office 365 accounts breached. Once a hacker has access to your cloud platform, they can infect your file system with ransomware or other malware or go through mass file deletion.

Cloud Provider Outage When you host your data in a cloud platform and don’t back it up separately in a third-party backup system, you’re putting a lot of faith in a company that they won’t lose your data or have a major outage. Outages are part of life in the cloud technology world, and the longer they last, the more it costs your business if you can’t access your data stored in a cloud service. Both Microsoft and Google state that outages can happen. Microsoft’s Services Agreement specifically recommends that users back up their data contained in MS cloud services in a 3rd party platform. It states in part: “In the event of an outage, you may not be able to retrieve Your Content or Data that you’ve stored. We recommend that you regularly backup Your Content and Data that you store on the Services or store using Third-Party Apps and Services.”

Include Cloud Services in Your Backup & Recovery Strategy The more businesses rely on the efficiency of cloud solutions, the more chance that a larger percentage of a company’s data is being stored in them. This is especially the case during the COVID-19 lockdown that had millions of employees in Texas and around the world working from home. You should ensure that any cloud platforms you use that store company data are being properly backed up. There are multiple cloud app backup and recovery solutions out there that are specifically designed to securely capture data contained in SaaS platforms. Texas I.T. Pros can help you with a complete integrated backup and recovery solution that includes monitored backups and incorporates both cloud and non-cloud data.

Protect Your Business by Protecting Your Valuable Data The information we use to run businesses on a daily basis is now largely in digital format. Let the experts at Texas I.T. Pros help ensure your information is protected using an integrated backup solution. Contact us today to get started! Call 940-239-6500 or reach out online.