When data is the backbone of almost every operation today, ensuring it’s safety and recovery is more important than ever. Over the past few years, businesses have rapidly moved operations to the cloud, driven by technological advancements and the need for more flexible, scalable solutions. However, these significant advancements have great risks, such as disasters, human errors, or hardware failures.
Understanding Cloud Backup and Restore: It's Simpler Than You Think
Cloud Backup refers to having a copy of your data in the cloud, usually managed by a Cloud Managed Services provider like Wanclouds. This strategy differs from traditional data backup stored on on-premises servers. The drawback of conventional backup was that the data couldn't be retrieved in natural disasters such as earthquakes, forest fires, floods, or cyber-attacks.
By opting for Cloud Backup and Restore, businesses can send their critical data via the Internet to cloud storage, which can be easily retrieved later. Another important feature of cloud backup is that the cloud services provider automates the whole process, which means the process no longer depends on human error or gets delayed due to human negligence. For example, in the cloud, a scheduled system can be set up so that automatic backup is taken regularly, and hence, all the critical data remains constantly updated.
How Does Cloud Backup Work?
Cloud backup is quite simple. After the initial setup, data from your on-premises is encrypted and sent to the cloud provider’s servers over the Internet.
Let’s take a look at how Cloud Backup works:
- Data Selection: To minimize storage space as well as bandwidth, it is also necessary to determine what data is important to keep in the cloud. Here too, only the essential data should be selected for this purpose and not the whole workloads.
- Data Encryption: This encryption is done in an on-premise location that is, the data is already encrypted before it travels to the cloud to stop any third party from accessing it.
- Data Transmission: The data is then sent over the Internet to the cloud provider’s server, such as IBM or AWS.
- Data Storage: Your data will be redundantly stored after reaching the data center. Saving data redundantly ensures that your data is easily accessible if one of the data centers fails or is inaccessible.
Cloud Restore Explained
Cloud restore is the act or process of recovering data from a cloud backup when needed. This need may arise due to data loss from hardware failures, human error, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. Such recovered data allows users to access their information in the shortest time possible and minimizes further damage to operations by reducing downtime.
There are two broad categories of backup:
- Complete Restoration: This is when you need to recover all your data from a cloud backup. It typically happens when your entire system needs to be restored after an unexpected event, like a major failure or disaster.
- Selective Restoration: In this case, you're restoring only specific parts of your system, i.e., just the workloads affected or damaged during an unforeseen event, rather than the whole system.
The restoration process is usually initiated by the software provided by the cloud backup provider. These software are simple to use, and most often, users can choose which version of the file to restore so that, if necessary, previous versions of files can be recovered.
Benefits of Cloud Backup and Restore
Cloud backup and restore solutions have been adopted quite significantly recently, primarily due to their long list of benefits. Let's explore a few key advantages.
- Security: The first benefit of having a backup through a cloud is added protection. Various measures, such as advanced firewall rules, intrusion detection mechanisms, and multi-factor authentication, have been enacted to protect data providers so you will be assured of their safety.
- Scalability: The most critical advantage of cloud-based backup is scalability. Scaling can go up or down according to the need and requirement and is relatively fast. Businesses dealing with fluctuating or gradually growing volumes of data, for example, can scale their storage fast without having to procure more hardware, which enables them to manage their resources efficiently.
- Cost-Efficiency: Most conventional approaches to backup require tremendous initial investments in hardware, software, and maintenance. However, cloud backup solutions operate on a subscription model, wherein users pay for their storage and services. Thus, the cost of maintaining expensive infrastructure and maintenance reduces significantly, making cloud backup very economical for an enterprise.
- Access: It also allows users to access and recover data from anywhere. It is significant for telecommuter or distributed teams-related enterprises in such a way that even though local backups are inoperable, critical data may be recovered.
- Automated Backups: Cloud service providers such as Wanclouds use computerized processes to reduce manual dependency and help eliminate human errors.
- Disaster Recovery: Cloud backup plays a key role in businesses' disaster recovery strategies. It rescues business data by migrating it to the cloud, promoting business continuity and allowing companies to continue their operations in case of a disaster.
Wanclouds Cloud Backup and Restore
We at Wanclouds recognize that safeguarding your data shouldn't be compromised because it is one of your most valuable assets. Our cloud backup and restore services are designed to provide peace of mind by guaranteeing that your important data is constantly secure, conveniently accessible, and recoverable at any time.
- Automatic Backups: You won't have to think twice about your data. We set up automatic backups so you're always protected, even when you're busy running your business.
- Fast Recovery: Getting your data back shouldn't be a headache if something goes wrong. With Wanclouds, restoring your workload from the cloud is relatively smooth and with minimal downtime.
- Multi-Cloud Support: No matter which cloud you use, Wanclouds Cloud Backup and Restore solutions can always be easily integrated with your system.
- Scalable with Your Business: As your company grows, so does the need for data storage. Our backup options can expand to meet your expanding requirements without adding to your expenses.
To get started, or if you want to learn more about how Wanclouds can set up a Cloud Backup and Restore for your business, you can initiate the contact by filling out our website form or contacting one of our sales representatives at [email protected]
