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The down & dirty guide on developing a backup strategy

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People who run small businesses have a huge number of tasks to attend to every day, from hiring decisions to customer service to budget reviews. So, preparing for data loss can get lost in the shuffle.

After all, the notion that your company could lose all of its data might seem far-fetched, especially if you have defensive security precautions like antivirus software in place. You might conclude that your time is better spent focusing on products, services and day-to-day management duties.

However, data loss afflicts companies of all sizes, including those that seem secure. And, once your customer, employee or business information is compromised or lost, restoring it can be nearly impossible. Daily operations and transactions can immediately come to a standstill, and you could go out of business in a short period. In other words, disaster planning is critical.

There are quite a few scenarios that can lead to data loss, so understanding the most common ones is an important first step. Let’s look at a few.

Physical server destruction

A natural disaster like an earthquake or hurricane could demolish your server environment, wiping out your data in the process. Furthermore, even without a natural disaster, the building it’s located in could suffer a fire, flooding or roof collapse, damaging the hardware that carries your critical files and systems.

Ransomware

Ransomware is becoming more and more common. When malware strikes a company’s digital infrastructure, it encrypts all of its data, rendering that material unusable. To get the perpetrators to unencrypt the data, the business must pay a sizable ransom, most likely with a cryptocurrency. Even if the payment is made, however, there is no guarantee the criminals will make good on restoring the seized data.

Errors and malfunctions

Employee error is a major cause of data loss. It’s all too easy for a worker, especially someone who’s tired or whose mind is elsewhere, to accidentally delete or overwrite a crucial file. A staff member could also physically damage a file by, say, spilling coffee on a laptop, exposing a machine to a power surge, or dropping an important computer.
In addition, hardware can fail. Software can be corrupted. A system could crash. The power could go out before a certain file is saved. Even if you ultimately recovered your data after such an event, you’d still have to face a costly stretch of downtime.

Choosing a data backup strategy

With all of these dangers lurking, it’s good business practice to develop a data backup plan as soon as possible. Your backup data could be stored in the cloud, a vast system of secure virtual servers. And, as you’re sending your private information to the cloud, it can be encrypted to prevent outsiders from viewing it en route.

Another possibility is copying your data to onsite hard drives, which would remain locked in a climate-controlled, restricted-access storage facility. This option is economical and makes your data easily accessible, but you’d still have to worry about a natural disaster or other calamity striking your storage unit.

Of course, you don’t have to choose between these courses of action. The best strategy is to ensure redundant backups across different locations and methods, including the cloud and a secondary, on-premises server. Depending on your priorities and needs, you can update your approach based on latest trends in backup.

Moreover, you needn’t make this decision on your own. Instead, IT managed service providers can analyze your network and your business needs, walk you through your various options, ensure that your disaster plans don’t have any major flaws and help you determine the best backup solution for your company.

In the end, there are many reasons to develop a strategy for data backup, including regulatory compliance and simple peace of mind. The information you collect and curate over time makes all of your business operations possible. No entrepreneur should ever have to discover that, in an instant, it’s all disappeared.

5 reasons why you need a backup service, even if you’re using Office 365

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Enterprises around the world continue to move key applications to the cloud. But the speed and scope of migration presenting new challenges regarding data protection, service delivery, and compliance.

While most organizations have developed robust on-premises backup solutions, the failure to protect cloud data and ensure the availability of key services is widespread and incredibly alarming.

Contrary to popular belief, Office 365 and other software as a service (SaaS) models provide no real internal backup solutions. While Microsoft has sound internal security and is capable of managing Office 365 infrastructure, third-party services are needed to ensure comprehensive data protection and compliance. Let’s take a look at 5 key reasons why you need a dedicated backup service when you’re using Office 365.

1. Protection against internal accidents and threats

Content and events brought to you in partnership with Veeam Software

Regardless of how careful you are with your data, accidents can and do happen. Whether it’s the accidental deletion of a user, the incorrect merging of fields, or the failure of a key service, accidental deletion can be replicated across an entire network and lead to serious problems.

Simple accidents have been responsible for serious damage over the last few years, with an outage on Amazon Web Services costing up to $150 million dollars in 2017.
A backup service can restore data and services quickly and with minimum disruption, either to the on-premise Exchange or the Office 365 cloud network. In addition, dedicated backup services can protect you against internal security threats and manage the risk of malicious data loss or destruction.

2. Protection against external security threats

Along with internal security threats, many businesses have experienced a rise in malware, viruses, data theft and other security threats from the outside. Kaspersky blocked almost 800 million attacks from online resources across the globe in the first quarter of 2018 alone.

While Microsoft 365 and other cloud suites do have some security controls, they’re not robust or reliable enough to handle every case scenario. Having access to a high-grade, third-party backup service is the best way to reduce your exposure and manage the risks associated with data loss and destruction.

3. Retention and recovery management

Cloud-based services are popular for many reasons, with Office 365 and other solutions featuring better integration between applications, more efficient data exchange and delivery, and the ability to utilize transparent services regardless of location.

Many of these benefits come at a cost, however, with enterprises losing control over data retention and recovery. While Office 365 does have its own retention policies, they are ever-changing and difficult to manage. In fact, confusing and inaccessible data retention is one of the reasons why so many businesses refuse to move to the cloud.

You can have the best of both worlds with backup solutions that provide you with complete control over data retention and recovery management.

4. Legal and compliance obligations

In addition to running a business and ensuring access to key data and services, organizations have a responsibility to meet certain legal and compliance obligations.

A cloud backup service allows you to retrieve important data instantly and with minimal disruption to critical business systems.

Whether it’s retrieving user data for law enforcement, accessing your mailbox during a legal action, or meeting regulatory compliance standards, dedicated cloud backup makes it easier to meet your responsibilities.

5. Managing the migration process

With more businesses moving to the cloud all the time, the migration process is often presented as a seamless and natural transition.
While the benefits of SaaS are valid and well-known, managing hybrid email deployments and other critical services during migration can be more challenging than Microsoft would have you believe.

Whether you want a dedicated cloud solution or a mix of Office 365 and on-premises services, backup solutions like Veeam (our recommended solution) allow you to protect and manage your data during and after the transition in a way that makes the source location irrelevant.

Microsoft doesn’t back up your Office 365 files

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Microsoft Office 365 opens up a whole new world of collaboration and document sharing for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). However, it doesn’t, of itself, provide sufficient backup to protect your critical data. 58% of SMB’s across the US aren’t prepared for data loss—an alarming statistic, given that 60% of SMB’s who lose data shut down within 6 months.
Below, we break down why backing up data is so important and why Microsoft Office 365 isn’t sufficient for your data protection needs.

What is backup?

When you back up data, you make a copy of the data or the data files. This can be a physical copy, such as copying files to a USB drive, or a virtual copy, such as a cloud-based program.
Backing up your data means, if original data is damaged, lost, or breached in any way, you still have access to the original files.

Why you should back up your data

In business, you should always prepare for the unexpected. You need to minimize downtime and protect your business activity. That’s where backup comes in.
A data backup strategy is critical to any SMB’s disaster recovery plan. Without backing up data, you risk:

Loss of productivity and falling behind on timelines

Whenever you lose files or data, employees can’t get their work done. This may mean wasted time for you and your employees. It could also mean disappointing customers who are relying on you to complete a job.

Profit losses

if you’re spending more time rebuilding, repairing, or locating lost files, you’re not moving your business forward. Backing up data keeps your business moving in the right direction.

Damage to your brand and reputation

This is especially worrying if you lose files because of a data or security breach. When customers lose faith in you, it’s difficult to earn this trust back—especially as an SMB. Show you take both your customers and your business seriously by backing up your data.

Costly downtime and wasted resources

Smaller businesses struggle to recover from prolonged downtime, which all too often leads to wasted resources. Backup systems prevent or mitigate this lost time.
Don’t waste time redoing work and hunting down files for an audit. Get a proper backup strategy now.

Why Office 365 is insufficient for your backup needs

While many of us assume that Microsoft Office 365 protects and backs up our data, this is not strictly true.
There’s a big difference between the responsibility we have for properly backing up and securing our data and the responsibility held by Microsoft. Although the data protection policies for Microsoft Office 365 are more thorough than earlier policies, Microsoft doesn’t guarantee quick data retrieval—or complete data recovery.
By relying entirely on Office 365, there’s a real risk you won’t recover all of your data and that you’ll still experience lengthy downtime.
Cloud-based computing is safe, but that doesn’t mean it’s infallible.

Why you need a specific Office 365 backup solution

When you’re using Office 365, you’re likely sending, amending, and creating documents all the time. You need a comprehensive, reliable, and efficient way to back up all this changing data before it’s put at risk on the cloud.
What’s more, if one file in your Office 365 suite is compromised through, for example, a security breach or human error, it may affect multiple files across your business.
Having a separate backup system, completely removed from Office 365, is the best way to select the files you want to replace and ensure you never lose more files than necessary.

7 typical disaster recovery plan mistakes (and how to fix them)

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A disaster recovery plan is just one step in an approach to keeping your business running well. Cyberthreats aren’t going away and new threats emerge all the time. Complete data protection requires a robust plan that includes everything from backup and disaster recovery to business continuity.

If you’re serious about crafting a disaster recovery plan that will protect your business, there are some common mistakes you’ll want to avoid. Here are 7 pitfalls we see businesses get sidelined by on a regular basis—and how you can overcome them.

1. Not having a plan at all

The only thing worse than a disaster is a disaster you’re totally unprepared for. If disaster recovery is totally new for you, don’t sweat it. Start by reading our guide to completing a disaster recovery plan.

2. Not clearly noting who is responsible for what

It’s natural to focus your data recovery plan on the data, itself, including the hardware and cloud storage you depend on. But what will keep your business going is your people.

If you have a managed IT services provider, they can certainly help, but it’s not all on them. That’s because this is about your business.

For each step of data recovery, you need to know who will be affected and who will be responsible. Consider management, employees, departments and sometimes even customers.

3. Not having a plan for communication (internally & externally)

An easy mistake to make is assigning roles for each task but not considering how people will be notified of the step in the process.

Your communication plan can take many forms, from modern solutions like mass notification through SMS messages to an old-fashioned phone tree. The specific tools you use doesn’t matter nearly as much as having a clearly-outlined plan well in advance.

Make sure everyone in your organization, as well as your managed IT services provider, is included and informed.

4. Not identifying critical processes

It’s easy to get stuck in the weeds. You know the systems you use, as well as the pitfalls and obstacles associated with each. But don’t forget the goal: business continuity.

Everything you do isn’t critical. Evaluate each process your company relies on and ask yourself what will happen if each of these processes goes offline. Having taken into account the risk associated with each process, decide which processes absolutely have to stay up and running.

Those are your critical processes. Your business continuity plan should focus on maintaining them.

5. Not having key buy-in

Disaster recovery plans affect the whole business. Because that’s true, it’s important to keep leadership in the loop about the plans and the risks.

If you’re not sure where to start, consider checking out this resource: 4 cybersecurity facts your company’s leadership team should know.

But don’t stop with the leadership. From there, make sure that everyone in the organization knows what your business continuity plan is and why it matters.

6. Not monitoring, testing & updating

A good disaster recovery plan is active.

You should be monitoring and testing. Monitoring your network will make you aware of potential issues before they have a chance to take your network offline. Proactive in testing also helps to identify potential, as well as giving you a better picture of overall risk. And system updates mitigate vulnerabilities and ensure functionality.

As your system updates, don’t forget to update your recovery plan to match your newly patched system.

7. Not mitigating risk

Disaster recovery isn’t just about preparing an inevitable emergency. It’s also about mitigating negative impact whenever possible.

A recent example of the power of mitigation is the MyHeritage breach over the summer. It affected a massive 92 million customers. But through smart, thoughtful systems design and preparation, the damage was minimal. MyHeritage didn’t store passwords directly, but rather in a one-way hash unique to each user. As a result, the breach did not actually compromise the passwords. Further, they didn’t store personal information (like credit card numbers or family tree information) that they didn’t need to maintain.

This kind of thorough, thoughtful systems approach lowered their overall risk well ahead of time. The breach they experienced could have been devastating. But their strategy turned it into a relatively minor inconvenience rather than a true emergency.

Why does your business need a proper backup policy?

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Backing up your business information is as crucial as conducting daily business itself. Which is why you need a solid backup strategy.

With a proper backup policy, you can secure all your business data—files, documents, client and customer correspondence, and in-house or remote team communications.

No matter which industry or sector you serve, proper backup is pivotal. Data loss can seriously cripple a business of any size. A good backup strategy is the best way to avoid losing essential information due to systems failures, security breaches or plain old human error.

What can a network backup do for my company?

There are several benefits of having a backup policy for your business.

  • Any kind of data loss incident hurts. But when all your business data is backed up, you can bounce back quickly.
  • Data backups tend to lessen the impact and length of downtime. The less downtime you experience, the more you can get done . . . and the more profitable you are.
  • Backups often save you and your staff from duplicate work. Even if it’s easy to rebuild that report, do you really want to waste the time?
  • You’ll be prepared if you ever have to work through an audit or even annually when you complete your business tax preparations.

Ultimately, a well-developed backup strategy serves to protect your business by protecting your company data. That impacts your organizational efficiency, your cybersecurity and even your reputation.

Granted, the best case scenario is to never actually need your data backup. But the moment you need it, you’ll be so glad it’s there.

Related: How big data is changing the game for backup and recovery

How important are backups for my new business?

Occasionally, new SMB owners feel the need for backup isn’t as pressing. After all, there’s not as much data. A backup strategy can feel like something you can take care of later.

We strongly advise against waiting.

Network backups are of paramount importance. It’s far better to backup all your company data from the very beginning.

And if your SMB has been around awhile, it’s just as important to stay on top of backups. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because you haven’t needed a backup yet, you won’t need one in the future.

All about human error

Network backup plays an instrumental role in reducing human error. Think about it. How many times have you, yourself, accidentally deleted the wrong thing? Now imagine the potential for impact if the same thing happened at the network level.

Read about how backups saved Toy Story 2

Human error is a real factor. It will be for the foreseeable future. Data backups are perhaps the best way to insulate your company from the risks of human error.

Automated the process

Automation is big in the IT industry for good reason. Automation makes repetitive tasks easy, routine and consistent. It’s perfect for backup.

As you work with your managed IT services provider to set up your custom backup strategy, make sure the process is automatic. Manually saving all network files to an additional hard drive is not a thorough backup process.

Automatically backing up all files to a secure cloud server, on the other hand, is.

A word about the cloud

The cloud is a convenient location for network backups—if it’s a good fit for your business. Be sure to think through this from all possible angles. You’ll need to take the following into account:

  • The level of security provided by your cloud vendor. This is a good thing to think about for all cloud solutions—backup and otherwise.
  • Any regulatory requirements for your industry. If your cloud provider doesn’t meet your industry’s compliance guidelines for security, for example, then the cloud may not be an option.
  • How quickly do you need to be able to access backups? Cloud backups typically take a little longer to access than local backups.
  • Scalability options with your cloud vendor. If your company grows, can you easily add space?

If cloud backups aren’t an option for your business, you can back up everything locally. In some cases, this is actually preferable. We recommend a thorough, strategic conversation with an IT consultant if you’re not entirely sure which is the best fit for you.

The 4 best cloud backup solutions for small businesses

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There are several reasons to consider a cloud backup for data protection for an SMB. These include everything from ease-of-use to cost-effectiveness. But perhaps the most compelling reason simply this—it’s wise to be ready for whatever the future holds.

That’s what data backup is. Preparation for the unexpected.

You can’t guarantee the security of your company’s data if you aren’t ready for natural disasters, cyberattacks and even simple human error. Any number of things could compromise your company’s data, which is why it’s so critical the regularly back up everything.

Cloud computing offers an easy, efficient, secure option for backing up your data, thereby reducing or even eliminating downtime.

But what backup service is the right one for your business? We took a look at some of the most popular and weighed their potential benefits for your SMB.

Veeam

Veeam is a service that focuses heavily on data availability. While it can function as a no-frills backup from day one, it comes with so much more. Many companies, even SMBs, choose to take advantage of Veeam’s five-step process, moving their business toward Intelligent Data Management.

What is Intelligent Data Management? Not only is your data instantly available all the time, split up across multiple clouds so that it resides where it’s both accessible and safe. Veeam’s advanced backup option will also utilize automation to ensure your data is optimized for use and recovery at a moments’ notice.

That’s convenience that pays off.

From small businesses to universities to the Fortune 500, more and more businesses are trusting their data with Veeam. There are a few different tiers of data protection plans available. Find the license that works for you and scale upwards if/when you need to.

Additionally, Veeam is continually updating and adding functionality to its service. You’ll always have the cutting edge of data security.

Carbonite Online

Carbonite Online employs a wide-net approach to data security. Rather than defaulting to backing up a computer in its entirety, Carbonite backs up what it decides is most critical and relies on the user to further fine tune the process.

It’s a process that works well if you’re using a lot of standard folder designations such as My Documents. In fact, in that case it’s a real time-saver. But if you working out of a more customized setup, you may find it frustrating.

Carbonite uses Continuous Data Protection (CDP) to handle backing up rapidly changing data files more or less constantly. If a file changes within a designated folder, it’s backed up quickly. This is very convenient for users who can’t afford to rebuild a recently-lost file, but need their most recently worked on version recovered as quickly as possible.

Pricing isn’t exactly cheap, but arguably worth it if it’s a good fit.

SOS Online Backup

Is security one of your biggest concerns? SOS bills itself as a backup solution that’s all about security. (Though, in fairness to the other solutions listed here, security is big for everyone.) SOS’s security features range from password protection to privately managed keys and multi-layered 256-bit encryption.

SOS will simultaneously backup to a local hard drive or other computer over your local network for quick retrieval. Like Carbonite, SOS backs up what it considers to be the most important data. You’ll need to customize these settings if they don’t work for you.

The pricing is good—that is if you’re not transmitting massive amounts of data. Yearly subscriptions save you some money over monthly options.

iDrive

While certainly not the least expensive choice, iDrive is still reasonably affordable and comes with enough options to warrant a spot in our top-four roundup.

Among its most well-liked features is the availability of client software for nearly every type of PC and device. In addition, extra storage enables syncing all PCs as well as mobile devices. As with most of these services, iDrive utilizes CDP options to keep your backup files as current as possible.

iDrive includes several choices for single user plans which will cover an unlimited number of computers and devices. The business user plans also allow for an unlimited number of users, although storage is limited by pay-tier.

Know what you need

When considering your choices for a data backup service, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. Examine your needs and compare them to what the various services offer, and at what costs. Among things to look at, include:

  • Operating system and device support
  • Privacy and Security
  • Storage capacity
  • Speed
  • Features
  • Reliability
  • User-friendliness

Once you’ve mapped out your needs and budget, compare them to this list and see which service lines up the best for you.

 

How to include your MSP in your backup and disaster recovery plan

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An incomplete or poorly prepared backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plan can result in unacceptably long outages and lost revenue for your company.

Unfortunately, busy IT employees don’t always have the time to update BDR plans or test them thoroughly. Partnering with your managed IT services provider (MSP) to improve, refine and test your plan offers a simple way to ensure the effectiveness of this valuable resource.

Here are some of the ways your MSP can help you make sure your backup and disaster recovery plan is everything it should be.

Identifying stakeholders

The infrastructure staff and senior managers aren’t the only stakeholders crucial to the success of your BDR plan.

Your MSP can help you identify others in the company who should be involved, such as database managers and application testers. These employees can offer valuable insights and help you identify resources you’ll need to restore your systems.

Setting milestones

It’s not unusual to overlook a crucial milestone or two when developing your BDR plan timeline. Like most IT projects, BDR plans involve multiple stakeholders each tasked with carrying out a small piece of the plan.

MSP staff will help you evaluate the entire plan to ensure that important milestones are noted, including those related to network connectivity, resources, infrastructure, storage, proof of concept, storage replication, recovery point objectives, testing and backup data.

Anticipating disaster scenarios and determining responsibilities

Fires, floods and cyber threats may be the first things that come to mind when you think about disasters, but as British Airways found out in May 2017, even seemingly small problems can lead to major issues. A power surge and outage led to the cancellation of 75,000 flights and forced the airline to pay $68 million in passenger compensation.

Although a power outage should have been a minor blip, the surge also destroyed the airline’s backup system, complicating restoration. The story illustrates the importance of developing a secondary backup plan in your BDR plan.

In addition to assisting you in creating a backup plan, your managed IT services provider will also help you ensure that your employees understand their roles should a disaster occur.

The MSP team can assist you in breaking down specific tasks in the BDR plan, determining which staff members will be responsible for each detail, and creating a communication plan in the event that your team can’t communicate through its usual channels.

Providing documentation

Lack of documentation can doom your BDR plan, yet it’s a common factor in incomplete plans. When Disaster Recovery Journal surveyed 1,000 firms, the publication discovered that 31.5 percent had incomplete BDR plans.

If your key stakeholders haven’t had the time to document crucial processes and instructions, that knowledge will be lost if they ever leave the company. MSP staff will work with your internal staff to develop the documentation needed to fully restore your systems after a disaster or outage.

Additional IT support

In the process of creating a backup and disaster recovery plan, it sometimes happens that you’ll discover other areas where your IT support may be lacking. If you wish, your MSP can jump in and provide either one-time consultation or ongoing IT support to ensure you’re completely taken care of.

Your backup and disaster recovery

Sooner or later, every company experiences some sort of disaster.

Whether a cyberterrorist hacks your website, an employee makes a big mistake, or a hurricane destroys your data center, a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan is the key to resolving disruptions quickly.

Partnering with your MSP will help you ensure that your plan will actually work when it’s needed.

4 cybersecurity facts your company's leadership team should know

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As the owner or manager of a company, you entrust your team leaders to handle a number of important responsibilities to ensure smooth daily operations. One of those responsibilities should be cybersecurity. It’s essential to keep sensitive company data safe from hackers. Not only that, but viruses and malware still pose a very real threat. And today’s privacy laws and regulations demand that you be protective of customer data, as well.

If your team leaders are already aware of the threat cyber criminals pose, kudos to them. But are they as informed as they should be? And what’s more, how do you know the protection they have put in place is sufficient? Are your leaders fully aware of all the important cybersecurity facts they need to know to protect the business?

While technology has certainly facilitated the way we do business, it has also paved the way for hackers and digital thieves to take advantage of the vulnerabilities in your network. All that company data—data you rely on day in, day out to do business—is at risk. Here are a couple stats to help you understand the magnitude of the issue:

That’s why it’s important that company leaders stay well informed on a number of important cybersecurity facts. Equipped with this important knowledge, they can better combat and protect your data from the growing environment of cyberthreats.

Cybersecurity fact #1:

Cybersecurity measures often fail due to human error

This is one of the most important cybersecurity facts. Cybercriminals are pretty savvy individuals. They rely on the negligence and lack of knowledge of employees in a business to enable them to gain entry into the network or infect a computer.

Consider the damage a single employee can do. Is everyone in your office safe when browsing the internet and downloading files? Do your team leaders know how to avoid falling for spear phishing scams? Does everyone use secure passwords?

A basic education in keeping the company safe is critical, and that starts with your leadership team. Make sure they know these cybersecurity facts.

Cybersecurity fact #2:

Cybercriminals are always seeking to exploit loopholes in virus protection application

The latest version of that virus protection software you’ve installed might not stop a virus or malware developed the very next day. That’s because hackers can quickly find ways to breach virus protection software.

To combat this, software companies quickly and consistently release updates to combat new threats. But you often have to install these updates manually. In the interim, malware, spyware, or a virus could slip through.

Your IT department may take care of all relevant updates. But if policy requires the end-user to update their own machine, make sure your leaders under stand the importance of these updates.

Cybersecurity fact #3:

Offsite backups through the cloud can help protect your data

If you’ve become infected with malware, or worse yet, ransomware, then your data may become corrupted or even lost. Unless, of course, you have a backup.

But it’s possible that local backups are compromised, too. That’s why many companies utilize cloud computing and cloud-based data backup services, where data is backed up to a secure, off-site location.

While it may not change anything about how your team leaders do their day-to-day jobs, make sure they understand the importance of backups. A better understanding of the value of the data they work with will inevitably result in greater care to protect that data.

Cybersecurity fact #4:

The most common method that cyber criminals use is email

As mentioned above, employees can unknowingly click on a link in an email or download an attached file without realizing that they have just allowed malware or spyware to be installed on their system.

Team leaders must teach employees to be ever vigilant when visiting websites and downloading files, and especially when clicking on links in email. They must be taught to recognize the signs of a possible scam or fake website. No one should every download any files they aren’t 100% sure about.

Cybersecurity facts matter

Everyone in the organization needs to take cybersecurity very seriously, not just team leaders. But for many companies, a well-educated staff starts with fully-informed team leaders.

After all, it only takes one wrong click to invite a cybercriminal into your system.

Which is more secure: Onsite or offsite servers?

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As your company grows, you will eventually reach a point when you must decide whether you want to use onsite or offsite servers. From a cybersecurity perspective, both options have their advantages and disadvantages.

Before you make your decision, get more informed about the pros and cons of onsite servers and offsite servers.

The security benefits of onsite servers

Some companies prefer onsite servers because they want full control of their data. They may worry that storing information on offsite servers gives criminals easier access to sensitive data.

As long as you’re willing to spend money on the right equipment and personnel, your business could benefit from onsite servers capable of giving your employees access to cloud solutions.

Security problems with onsite servers

There are a few security issues to consider before you choose onsite servers. Few SMBs can afford to hire IT professionals who focus on server security. Without the right personnel monitoring your system, the network could get infected by malware.

Choosing a reliable network monitoring tool lowers the threat of infection. Monitoring your network, however, isn’t the same thing as adding security that prevents hackers from attacking you. What will you do if you discover a new piece of malware on your network?

There aren’t many IT professionals working for SMBs that can eradicate every trace of malware, especially when the malware has been released recently and an antidote isn’t obvious.

Security benefits of choosing offsite servers

Over the last few years, more companies have started using hosted virtual servers. According to one study, 67 percent of organizations in 2014 relied, at least partially, on hosted systems.

There are several security reasons for companies to choose offsite servers. By choosing an offsite server, you get monitoring and protection from trained professionals. Placing your data in an offsite server also helps protect your business from disasters. If your office suffered a fire, flood, or other disaster, you could lose all of the information on your server. With offsite servers, though, you get added protection for disaster recovery and business continuity.

Keeping data on an offsite server only protects your business when you choose a reliable partner. Make sure you choose a company that takes security and uptime seriously. Otherwise, you won’t get the benefits that you expect.offsite servers

Problems with using offsite servers

While there are numerous benefits to choosing offsite servers, there are also some disadvantages.

Depending on how your partner structures its servers, your network could get infected by malware because of another company that uses the same servers. Without strict walls between accounts, another business’s poor security could hurt you.

You can improve the chance of choosing a reliable partner by asking companies about their rack space, cabinet space, and cage space. You should also ask about the company’s uptime, service level agreement, and data backup redundancy.

A hybrid approach to server security

Since there are pros and cons to both options, it makes sense to consider using a hybrid solution that combines the best qualities of onsite servers with the security advantages of offsite servers.

A hybrid cloud solution can give your business stronger security, automatic data backup, uncompromising performance, and the ability to scale quickly as your organization evolves.

You don’t have to choose between onsite and offsite servers. A hybrid approach might match your company’s needs better than those options.

5 ways Veeam backup boosts your overall cybersecurity

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Cybersecurity is a big topic in every industry due to the increase in threats and the escalating costs of recovering from a breach. If you can protect every device on your network, you’re lucky.

However, an even smarter strategy is to focus on following best practices for protecting your data, regardless of where it resides.

Veeam backup in the cloud provides an exceptionally strong backup and restoration capability.

Backup is critical for cybersecurity

Threat prevention is a valuable part of a cybersecurity strategy. On the other hand, in today’s security environment, many threats come from places that are difficult to control.

For example, research shows that 90-95 percent of cyberattacks start with a phishing email. Educating employees on the threats that may appear in their email inbox is a good first step, but hackers are very clever and many employees can be fooled.

In addition, all organizations are vulnerable, including schools and educational organizations. For example, the Department of Education issued a warning letter to schools based on several successful attempts to extort money from school districts. The personal information schools store in their records make them a prime target.

Surviving a cyberattack by using strong backup and recovery procedures becomes even more important as hackers get better at what they do.

How Veeam backup makes a difference

The Veeam software is unique in that the company developed it in the era of the cloud. This allowed the company to create a backup process that easily outperforms legacy backup software.

In fact, the International Data Corporation (IDC) market share numbers for 2017 show that Veeam leads the industry in terms of market share growth.

Here are 5 ways that Veeam backups boost your cybersecurity.

Lightning fast recovery

Provides hyper availability.

Data loss avoidance

Streamlines disaster recovery.

Verified recoverability

Guaranteed recovery of every file, application and virtual server

Leveraged data

Includes safe deployment with production-style testing

Complete transparency

Ongoing monitoring that provides alerts before operational impact

The ISG Technology and Veeam partnership

ISG Technology established Platinum status agreements for both the Veeam Cloud and Service Provider Program and the Veeam Reseller Program. According to ISG Chief Operating Officer, Jon Bierman “The partnership goes beyond strengthening our technical team. Our sales and customer-facing teams will also be better equipped to serve our customers as we increase our alignment with Veeam.”

The partnerships allow ISG Technology to provide managed cloud backup services that take full advantage of the Veeam backup technology. For many organizations, online backup services are a cost-effective insurance policy.

With the Veeam technology, we can effectively provide backup as a service both on and offsite.

Final Thoughts

In today’s environment, organizations face several data challenges:

  • They need to gather information and offer user-friendly tools to use it
  • They need to ensure that the data is always available for internal and external users
  • They need to protect the data from cyberattacks
  • They need to ensure quick restoration of data when any type of disruption occurs

Veeam backup meets the need for keeping data available and restoring it quickly and accurately.

In addition, organizations that take advantage of Veeam technology through a managed service provider can have the same high level of capability without the capital outlay required to develop cloud backup capabilities.