Tag: online backup

If you operate within the business world, you undoubtedly will have heard about Cloud Computing and Cloud Backup. While you might prefer to leave “IT” to the professionals, thereby ensuring that this side of the business is handled by your dedicated IT department; with a degree of knowledge you can save your company quite a bit in both operating costs and time by moving over to cloud computing.

Back in the day, a business would have its own IT department that handled the storage of important documentation and the protection of sensitive business information. This carried significant costs – as most services do – for the personal attention provided by individuals within the department and for the software needed for the business at the time. As the business grew, software would need to be upgraded at further cost to the company. With Cloud Computing, the idea of a dedicated IT department is eliminated and the concept of purchasing and upgrading software is completely null and void.

With Cloud Computing there is little need to purchase software.
Hosted online (in the “cloud”) you can quite easily upgrade and downgrade the size or complexity of the package / software as your business grows.

• Is there any need for dedicated IT staff? No!
• Will this reduce time spent backing up information? Absolutely. The free software downloaded to your computers will automatically handle the backups for you – provided you are connected to the internet.

Cloud computing and cloud back up is perfect for small businesses for the following reasons:

• With cloud computing you save on the costs of software installation and upgrades.
• The need for IT professionals and an IT department is eliminated or at least reduced, effectively cutting further business costs.
• Your business data is saved in the cloud and the data is encrypted. This means that you cannot lose important information if your computers are stolen or damaged.

With Cloud computing there is no need for external drives or tape drives

 Backing up to external hard drives and tape drives poses a certain risk for your business. These hard drives can become damaged, malfunction or even get stolen. You will then be faced with the inconvenience of losing your data as well as the cost of having to replace expensive drives. Backing up to Cloud eliminates these risks completely!

While one of the major beneficial aspects of cloud computing for businesses is certainly financial, the complete peace of mind, that comes with the knowledge that the encryption used safeguards all sensitive business information from falling into the wrong hands, is priceless.

To learn more about cloud computing and cloud backup services, get in touch with us at Soteria. We will present you with some top quality packages and services at cost-effective rates.

Cloud backup is the process of sending a copy of all of your computer’s data to a server that is located off site or “in the cloud”.

So exactly what is required to make it work?

You will of course need your computers and a connection to the internet, but why would you choose this method of backing up over other methods? It’s simple enough to back data up to a flash drive, tapes, hard drive and similar, right?  Wrong. What makes Cloud backup so popular for businesses is the failure rate of on-site backups in the corporate world, which is no secret. Human error is a major cause of this as people forget to make regular backups, use faulty equipment or simply forget to take the data off-site.

Anything can happen to the data that you store on a hard drive or other storage device. For starters, the information that you back up is not encrypted, which means that anyone looking to steal your data has the perfect opportunity as there are simply no security mechanisms in place to protect the information they are after. Cloud backup ensures that your data is safely stored and encrypted which means that only someone with the required password would be able to read the stored data.

How does Cloud backup work?

Once you have selected a Cloud backup service provider, you will need to install software on your computer. This is a quick and easy process and you should be ready in a matter of minutes. Once the software is installed, you then need to process your first backup to the Cloud to ensure that a copy of all of your data is stored. The software is user friendly with easy prompts. Keep in mind that your first backup might take a while, depending on the amount of data you are backing up. You will be prompted to set a frequency schedule with the software, which will ensure that backups are run automatically at a certain time every day or at intervals as selected by you. Subsequent backups will be quick as they only add new or updated information to the files stored. There is absolutely no effort required on your part thereafter, as your backups will run automatically – as long as you are connected to the internet. It is advised however that you do frequent checks on the data stored, just to ensure that everything is there.

Benefits of Cloud backup when compared to other back up options:

• Cloud backup is managed by software, which automates the process. This means that you don’t need to remember to do a backup – ever.
• Data is saved off-site which means that recoverability is made a simpler task and there is no need to take devices off-site for safe storage.
• As a fully automated and online service, the need for IT support staff within your business to handle this particular operation is reduced.

To learn more about the benefits of Cloud backup services, we encourage you to chat to our friendly and knowledgeable staff members or browse through our available packages at Soteria Cloud!

 

Chances are that you have signed up, or are considering signing up, for Cloud backup services and on browsing the web, you will invariably find a variety of viable options that are affordable and offer a seemingly good service. One question though that you should be asking yourself, and the service provider of course, is where exactly the backed up data is being stored.

This might seem like a no-brainer and you would probably exclaim “a server of course”, but that doesn’t really answer the question! So you should also be asking, where is the server located and is the information being backed up to a local South African server or is your data being kept safe on an international server?

If you aren’t sure why this is important, then you need to look at your data security from a different angle. Yes, it’s great to know that your data is backed up to the Cloud and safe from hacks, system failures and other forms of data loss, but where it is actually located is important.

For starters, having your data backed up to a local server means that your support is going to come from the same time zone as you. What does this mean? It means that you won’t need to worry about language barriers which is often the case with international backups and what’s more is that your support will be provided in real time – when you need it. This certainly helps with emergency restores or in situations when you don’t have the time to wait for support staff from another country to be available on their own time.

Let’s take a look at why. The laws of the government where your data is located will govern your backup contract. This means that the terms and conditions of the service provider are relevant, but are governed by the laws of that particular country.

From a legal point of view, your data is safer being managed by a South African service provider on South African servers. Taking legal action with regards to your data is easier as you understand the legal system and how to process any complaints. What’s more, you will pay for your legal advice and assistance in your own currency, which is far more cost-effective.

Of course legal issues are not the only benefits you stand to gain when backing up your data to South African services. You will also benefit in the following ways:

• More affordable local bandwidth costs compared to international rates.
• Local speed of data transfer per back up will be quicker.
• Local bandwidth on data restores – speed and efficiency is quicker than international.
• Ease of communication with management and call centre / support staff during your own business hours.

Taking all of this into consideration, it goes without saying that if you are operating a business in South Africa, you should be backing your data up locally too.

Easy to use, fully supported and always reliable, Cloud backup services in SA can be extremely rewarding and far-sighted. Take the time to consider our packages and services at Soteria Cloud and find out more about how we can simplify your data backup needs.

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