How are you protecting your business’ computer system from losing data? If you don’t have a data backup process in place, you’re putting your business at risk. Lost or corrupted data can cost thousands of dollars and result in reduced productivity.

When you’re looking for data protection, backup as a service (BaaS) is a way to meet your business needs and prevent data loss.

If you don’t have a data backup plan in place, we’re going to take a look at why data protection is a good idea as well as how it works. If you’re looking to implement backup as a service, CEI – The Digital Office offers disaster and recovery backup services, as well as cloud computing solutions.

Let’s get started.

What is Data Backup?

Data backup is when data is copied from a primary to a secondary location. This is a type of data security that can protect data in case of a disaster, accident, or malicious intent.

Cloud-based backup is a popular way to keep important data safe. No matter the size of your business, backing up your data is always a good practice.

Why Would I Want to Backup My Data?

There are several reasons why you would want to back up your data. These include:

Preventing Data Loss

System failures and errors happen every day due to accidental deletion, user error, and hardware or software failures. Backing up your data prevents it from getting lost when these things happen (and they will).

Giving You a Competitive Advantage

When you have a data recovery plan in place, you have a competitive advantage. You can get your systems online and run quicker compared to a competitor who may not have backup software or a backup plan in place.

Reducing Downtime

When data is lost and systems are down, your business is down. This means you can’t reach a potential customer and your team can’t offer the service it should. By having data protection, you reduce the time you waste trying to find missing data. Time is money. If you’re losing time, you’re also losing money.

Provides a Quick Recovery

If an employee opens an email with a virus or clicks on a malicious link, all the data in your system may be affected, not just individual files. When you have a data backup, a restore from a snapshot taken before the virus happened can prevent a major data disaster.

Makes Auditing Easier

When you have a data backup, you can have any financial or accounting records available quickly, especially if you find yourself the subject of an audit.

What is Backup as a Service (BaaS)?

Backup as a service (BaaS) is a cloud service-based managed backup and data recovery service that allows you to protect your data. It installs quickly and runs continuously to maintain a running backup of your systems, applications, and associated files.

If there is a data breach or some other kind of disaster, if you subscribe to backup as a service, you will have a copy of your data to restore.

You’ve probably heard people say, “it’s in the cloud”. When information, systems, and applications on a server are backed up and stored remotely, you can find them in “the cloud”.

Businesses tend to back up to the cloud to keep files and data readily available in case there is a system failure, data corruption, outage, or natural disaster.

What Needs to Be Backed Up?

All data should be backed up when using BaaS. This includes:

• Applications
• Databases
• Analytics
• Settings
• Log files
• Correspondence

When you choose a backup as a service (BaaS) provider, know exactly what they back up and what they may not back up so there are no surprises.

How Does Backup as a Service (BaaS) Work?

Backup as a service is a reliable, managed cloud backup and recovery service. You simply connect to the backup application in the cloud, set your preferences, and let the system do the rest. With a BaaS, you don’t have to spend a lot on additional hardware or have standalone hard drives or servers.

You can choose to have your backups run continuously or at set times. Once your system is backed up, data is sent over a secure network to the cloud server. It is written directly to the cloud and stored until there is a need to restore data.

Your backup as a service (BaaS) provider manages the entire backup process and gives you a user-friendly dashboard to manage data in the cloud.

BaaS is a subscription service that can be billed monthly or yearly. The cost will depend on:

• Bandwidth
• Storage
• Frequency of backups
• Amount of data you need to back up
• How often data is accessed

Your backups will have an exact copy of all of your business data and any metadata. When you have a data loss, backup services allow you to get as much information as you need to recover.

Why is Backup as a Service Important?

Backup as a service is important for several reasons. This type of cloud storage can be a saving grace when it comes to data disaster recovery. Here are a few reasons to consider BaaS:

Simplified Backup and Recovery 

BaaS makes data management easier by moving backup from an off-site location to a service provider.

Defend Data Against Threats

This allows you to quickly recover data from anywhere and provide air gap protection for the most valuable data.

Improved Data Security

You can trust BaaS service providers to store data in secure locations that are heavily encrypted for protection.

Increased Productivity

BaaS helps businesses recover and restore their lost data to increase productivity.

Allows Easy Access to Data

BaaS services give employees access to company data from any device.

Increased Efficiency

BaaS providers ensure business owners don’t have to worry about their storage and backup systems, giving them more time to focus on their business.

Reduces Costs

Offloading data backups to a backup as a service provider helps businesses reduce costs and save time.

Peace of Mind

Simply put, BaaS solutions give businesses peace of mind knowing their data is backed up, safe, and easy to access.

Who are the Main Backup Service Providers?

There are several cloud backup service providers to choose from as you look for a backup as a service provider. Here are several of the major players:

AWS

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a fully managed service that allows you to centralize and automate data protection in the cloud, across AWS services and on-premises.

It removes the need to create custom scripts and allows you to consolidate backup tasks that were previously done service-by-service.

Veeam

Veeam is a backup and disaster recovery solution for businesses to protect their data across hybrid infrastructures. You can own, control, backup and recover your data anywhere in the hybrid cloud.

Azure

The Azure backup service provides simple and secure solutions to back up your data and recover it from the Microsoft Azure cloud.

What to Look for in a Backup Service Provider

As you search for different providers, here are a few things to look for to help you choose the right one:

Availability

Your BaaS provider should offer excellent availability at all times.

Disaster Recovery

The BaaS provider you choose should have a solid disaster recovery plan (DRP). This will ensure to data and server redundancy no matter what happens.

Customizable Solutions

The solutions you need are going to be different than what another business needs. Your backup solution should provide solutions that cater to your business model.

Support Options

Your backup solution provider should offer some type of 24/7 support options so that there will always be someone there.

Are You Looking for Recovery and Backup Services in Raleigh?

If you’re looking to protect your vital data, CEI The Digital Office can help. We offer disaster recovery and backup services for your data.

You can count on us to use the most advanced technology to keep your data safe and easy to access when you need instant recovery.

Contact us today at 919-781-8885 or reach out online to learn more from our sales representatives about how you can protect your data.