Backup service is a method of backing up data offsite using third-party services. The data backup is carried out using a network connection to a secure remote cloud-based data repository. Therefore, instead of doing data backup using an on-premises centralized IT department, a backup service connects the systems to a hybrid, public, or private cloud managed by that service. This approach of data backup removes the hassle of performing backups on external hard drives and tapes and then storing them at a remote location or on-premises.
A backup service, also known as cloud backup service, becomes an ideal choice for businesses when they run out of on-premises storage space or lack of resources make it difficult for them to upgrade their storage mediums. Besides that, online backup services store the data in a remote location, thereby any onsite malfunctions do not affect the backed up data at the remote location. So, the data is easily accessible and can be restored anytime.
How Does a Backup Service Works?
The initial step to use the services of a backup services provider is to find a perfect backup service that meets your business needs. There are dozens of backup service providers available today, such as Backblaze B2, SOS Online Backup, Backup Everything, and many more, that provide different backups plans for addressing different kinds of backups needs. Once you choose the backup service, then purchase its plan, and sign in to it. Afterward, the service will regularly back up the data you have instructed to backup.
Why is a Backup Service Important?
The world is shifting towards digitalization. Technological advancements and easy access to the internet have made us data-driven. Social media and other mobile apps are influencing every sector, making the business growth demand on how effective are its marketing strategies, customer data analytics, etc. All these aspects have made digital data to hold significant importance. With tons of data evolving every passing day, businesses get it difficult to handle the data in their on-premises data centers. Besides that, as the data holds significant importance today, so relying completely on local backups, such as external hard drives, network-attached storage, optical drives, and similar others, isn’t safe. Local backups mediums are vulnerable to malfunction, so having only local backups increases the chances of data loss.
Compared to local backups, a cloud storage service takes your data to a remote location virtually, ensuring that any malfunction or data loss at your location does not affect the data stored at the remote location. Therefore, backups services guarantee that your data is always secure no matter the situation. But here a question might arise that what if the backups service you are using gets some malfunction or cyber-attack. Will your backed up data will be lost? If you are using services of well-reputed and advanced backup service, then that service is always prepared for such scenarios. When the data is backed up remotely, such services perform an internal backups of the same data and stores it at a different location. So, if any malfunction occurs from their side, the customers’ data remains secure. Other than that, they do proper data encryption before backing up data in their data center to ensure that the data is secure and protected. All these aspects clearly narrate that backup services are becoming a necessity for businesses to handle huge sum of data and avoid data loss.
Benefits of a Backup Service
A backup service is becoming a basic need for businesses to meet their data needs. But a backups service does not just provide data backups, there are dozens of other benefits associated with a backups service, as follow:
- Cost-effective: A local backups requires hard drives, servers, and other hardware and backup software elements to have a proper backups mechanism. Besides that, the cost of IT staff and a proper space (on-premises or somewhere else) adds to the expenditures of local backup. Compared to it, opting for a cloud-based backups service frees you from all such hassle. All you have to do is select a backup service and then its backups plan based on the amount of storage you need. The rest of all hardware requirements are managed by the concerned backups service. The backups plans are also economical, and in fact, they are extremely cost-effective compared to what it requires in case of local backups.
- Easy to Backup and Recover: Compared to the hassle required in the case of local backups, a backup service makes data backup and recovery convenient. For data backup, all you have to do is sign in to your subscribed service and backup your data there. For data recovery, sign in again and just simply recover all or selected data into any device.
- File Sharing and Syncing Services: Once data is backed up, a backup service lets you share those files virtually with your other colleagues with just a few clicks. A backups service also provides file syncing services, making the backup process convenient. You can easily view the backed up data on a number of devices by just logging in with your provided credentials. Once the initial backups of files is completed, some backup services often keep the new updates of the files in a form of file versions. This way, you also have access to older versions of the files.
- Data Security: Data backup through backups service saves you from data loss due to any hardware malfunctions, natural disasters, and hackers threats. A backups service also encrypts the data and often provides you with encryption keys so that only you and authorized persons have access to the backed up data.
Conclusion
In the current era, backup services are an ideal choice for businesses and organizations to have a secure and guaranteed data backup. A backup services is not just cost-effective, but it also makes the backup process convenient. With cloud-based backups, a small IT staff is required to manage the backup processes. As keeping up-to-date with the market is mandatory for businesses, similarly opting for backups services is also becoming a mandatory requirement for businesses to avoid unexpected data loss.
