5 reasons why you need to protect your data
In today’s digital age, information, data, and knowledge are everything. From personal documents to business files, our lives revolve around the information we store online. As a result, it’s more important than ever to protect your data from potential loss — whether it is a result of human error, vendor failure, or a ransomware attack.
While we can (and should) put various security controls in place to prevent unauthorized access, backing up your data should be a critical component of any organization’s information security strategy and approach to business continuity/disaster recovery (BCDR).
What’s a cloud to cloud backup?
Cloud to cloud backups are backups from a cloud platform (for example: a backup of the data from your Salesforce org) that are stored in a separate cloud platform managed by a different company such as Microsoft 365, Google Cloud, or Amazon Web Services (AWS). In other words, don’t store your backup only in the platform where that data originated.
Here are five reasons why cloud to cloud backups are so important:
1. Protection against data loss
Cloud backups and protect your organization from various types of data loss. For instance, we’ve all intentionally or accidentally deleted something — either an entire file, some code, a paragraph or chunk of text within a document, rows or columns in a data set, etc. — and then realize later that they needed that information. Some platforms have version control and file histories built into their functionality, but many don’t.
We recently had a client make some changes to an automated workflow, which unintentionally deleted a substantial amount of critical organizational data in the process. The platform vendor wasn’t able to restore all of the data en masse, but we were able to identify exactly what was missing from our backup file. In this case, the backup was the only way that we were able to guarantee that all of the missing data was restored. Other scenarios are less run of the mill — what happens if a disgruntled staff member deletes several files before they leave the company? Some cloud platforms can restore files from their backup within a certain number of days, but it often takes longer than the vendor’s default window to notice that something was missing.
2. Redundancy and resiliency
Where cloud to cloud backups really shine is with respect to redundancy and resiliency. If your organization experiences a ransomware attack or other type of security incident, would you have backups that are still accessible? If your backups are within the platform that was attacked, the answer is likely no. But having by having a complete copy of your data stored in a separate platform, it helps ensure that you can restore your
It’s too late to make a backup of your data after you’ve had a security incident. Creating and exporting backups to an external platform needs to be a routine event to minimize data loss.
In addition, by storing your data in multiple clouds, you have access to your data in case one of the cloud vendors experiences an outage. The goal is to have access to your data, no matter what happens.
3. Data portability
On a related note, if you ever need to leave a vendor and move your data from one platform to another, the best way to do this is by using a full export (i.e., a backup!) of your data. Having a current and complete backup gives you far more control over your data than if you’re completely relying on the vendor — particularly if you’re trusting a new vendor or product.
It’s worth noting that plenty of new niche platforms that aren’t really ready for prime time don’t offer the ability to let you create and export a full backup of your data. From our perspective, this is a major red flag that should cause concern about this vendor/platform and the long-term implications for your organizational data. If you’re using a platform to store any type of critical organizational data, make sure you can get it out on your own terms!
4. Compliance and regulatory requirements
Many industries have compliance and regulatory requirements that dictate how data should be protected and stored. Cloud to cloud backups are often one way to achieve some such compliance obligations.
5. Peace of mind with cloud backups
Finally, cloud to cloud backups should provide business leaders with peace of mind. Knowing that your data is protected and backed up in another cloud platform can give you the confidence you need to focus on your work without worrying about potential data loss or corruption.
Don’t wait — start backing up your cloud data today!
