The Advantages of an Offsite Backup for Your Business Data
If you’re looking to boost productivity, nurture growth and cement continuity in your day-to-day operations, your business data may benefit from implementing an offsite backup. Ideal for accessing and securing important information and data, an offsite backup is an innovative, cloud-centric asset that can be utilised in disaster recovery plans as well as a number of other crucial IT services.
So what is an offsite backup? And what are the advantages for your business data?
What is an offsite backup?
An offsite backup is the backup of a company’s operational system and digital assets as well as their vital data and information, in as the name implies, a specialised offsite environment.
Many businesses will opt to keep their data and information in a location specifically designed and built for offsite backups. Many businesses and organisations in the South West for example, choose to back up their data at the Plymouth Science Park Data Centre, which is a purpose-built environment designed to store IT systems, servers and networks.
The advantages of an offsite backup for your business data
There are many advantages to think about when considering whether or not to implement an offsite backup in your day-to-day operations. When utilised with other cloud-centric technology, an offsite backup boasts a number of benefits that can cement continuity, boost productivity and nurture growth within your company.
Disaster recovery
One of the main reasons the majority of businesses utilise offsite backups is to protect their data in the event of a disruption, such as a natural disaster or cyber attack. Ensuring your data is backed up and secure away from your centralised office or workspace secures your vital information and safeguards it in the event of a fire, flooding or other disasters such as attempted data theft. Utilising cloud-centric technology also ensures the data can be restored quickly – even if your centralised office or work environment is completely destroyed.
Cyber security
Local backups can make your business vulnerable to cyber attacks and jeopardise the security of your system. If there’s a ransomware attack on your business, for example, any data and information located onsite is automatically compromised and can become vulnerable to theft.
Cost-effective
Perhaps one of the best benefits for large and small businesses alike to consider, offsite backups are more cost-effective than maintaining an onsite backup. Utilising cloud-centric technology eliminates the need to purchase and manage specialised hardware and can free up your existing IT resources. As an offsite backup is often managed by a professional IT support company, the service is also cheaper in the long run. This is because your IT service will proactively manage, monitor and update your offsite backup and resolve any issues before they escalate and cause a disruption.
Cloud-centric
Offsite backups often utilise cloud storage to function effectively and efficiently. As a result, your digital assets and valuable data will be accessible from anywhere at any time. This unrivalled level of heightened accessibility provides businesses with peace of mind.
Scalable
As your business grows, it goes without saying that you’ll want your digital assets and IT infrastructure to flourish with you. As offsite backups rely on cloud-centric technology to function correctly, your backup will be easily scalable as well as more cost-effective in the long term. This is because the subscription fees typical of offsite storage are much more affordable than purchasing additional hardware. Essentially, utilising a cloud-centric offsite backup service is only limited by your budget and the needs of your business. It can also be easily increased or decreased in minutes.
Other advantages of offsite backups
There are hundreds of offsite backup services on the market, often offered by professional IT support services and delivered with a unique set of features and benefits. As a result, it’s important to carefully assess which offsite backup will work best with your business.
It’s also important to ensure your business receives a detailed service level agreement as well as examining the data security capabilities of the service to confirm your compliance criteria will be met.
Common features you may come across include:
- Disaster recovery and cyber security
- Data lifecycle management
- Data clean up and preparation solutions
- Automated sync of information and sharing options
- Data compression
- Replication of data backup copies to other specialised IT infrastructure for added protection
At the end of the day, choosing a backup provider is usually a matter of personal preference and will come down to the unique specifications of your business. While some businesses prefer to have complete control over their data including the execution of manual backups, others choose to delegate the responsibility to a third-party service such as a professional IT support company. Before making a final decision, it’s important to do your due diligence and to review all of your options.
Does my business need an offsite backup?
Many businesses, particularly smaller organisations, keep their data on-site, while others don’t bother backing up their data at all. It may appear that backing up your company’s digital assets offsite in the cloud is a complicated and entirely unnecessary hassle. However, in reality, an offsite backup ensures minimal disruption to your day-to-day operations in the event of downtime. In severe cases, an offsite backup also ensures that any vital data or information is fully recovered. In essence, an offsite backup ensures that your valuable data is safe, secure and accessible in the case of an outage or disturbance.
Protecting your business data with Acronyms IT Support
It goes without saying that if your business is hoping to nurture growth, boost productivity and cement continuity in your day-to-day operations, you need a regularly scheduled offsite backup. A regular offsite backup is a crucial component of proactive IT support, ensuring your data and information is not only protected but can be easily accessed during any downtime.
Since 2003, Acronyms IT Support has been assisting businesses and organisations across the South West with their offsite backups. Our talented team of technicians, engineers and consultants boast a wealth of combined industry experience and expertise, and can deliver a range of different services and digital solutions tailored to the needs of you and your business.
If you have any questions about offsite backups or any of the other services we offer, please contact the team at Acronyms IT Support today.