Any company that uses mobile devices or the internet in any way—which is virtually every business on the planet—should be concerned with backing up their data in the event of a crash or security breach. Selecting the right cloud managed service for your needs though can be challenging, and there’s a lot to consider when shopping for a service that fits your unique needs.
Selecting a Cloud Server to Handle Data
As businesses grow, so do their data needs. One of the biggest challenges that companies face is accommodating that growth. Most businesses utilize the cloud for more than just backup; cloud managed services are an intricate part of MDM solutions as well. In essence, a lot of data is involved with a backup plan. One of the biggest challenges that any company faces, regardless of if it’s a small business or large corporation, is the massive amount of data involved in a comprehensive backup plan. Selecting the right cloud service for your company’s needs may be easier to do by using a business technology company or cloud consulting service.
Keeping Your Backup Safe
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges that companies face with creating an effective backup plan is security. Any information transmitted digitally is vulnerable to a security breach. Unfortunately that is just a fact of life in today’s digital world however, in today’s competitive market most cloud managed services prioritize network security above all else. A company specializing in cloud consulting services can best advise your company on how to keep your data safe from cyber criminals. But, one of the ways they will do that is through top notch encryption. To make your data safe, client side encryption is an option. You can encrypt your data before it even goes to the cloud however, at the cloud, it’ll also be encrypted. Many reputable cloud servers will provide the encryption key to their clients exclusively. They won’t even have access to it. When selecting a cloud service company, it is best to look at companies that have been ISO 27001 and 9001 certified.
Still, some legislation goes as far as to prevent companies from story data outside of geographical borders. It is important for a company to consider legislation in their country before considering cloud managed services. Aside from legislation, it’s also important to realize that some companies will not ship physical drives to your company’s location in the event of a catastrophic crash that requires a large restore at short notice.
Making Sure Your Backup Is Available
Ensuring that your data is available 24/7 is important for almost every company that utilizes the cloud. Companies big and small invest in having cloud managed services available at all times not only for connectivity within the company, but for backups in the event of a crash. If that system is experiencing downtime during a backup or at a time when a company needs to restore part or all of their services, this could be detrimental to the company.
It is best to ‘shop around’ for a cloud service provider that has a reputation for little to no downtime, or who reimburses customers for the time they are unavailable. Consulting with existing customers can provide insight into the quality of services that a company gets from any one particular cloud managed service provider. Some questions that you or your IT support can ask would be about a company’s track record with downtime, how resilient their data servers are and the availability of their own IT support staff.
Alternatively, hiring a cloud consulting company can save a lot of man power or time when it comes to finding a cloud managed service that best fits your company’s needs.
Moving to a New Cloud Server
Much like a typical brick and mortar location, sometimes a company outgrows its current cloud server. It’s important consider when and if this happens as some cloud managed services do not have a service platform that facilitates moving your business easily. In some cases, a cloud service provider may actually restrict a customer’s ability to move to another service. It is not only reasonable, but responsible to question a cloud managed services provider concerning their policies on transitioning a client to another company.
It’s best to choose a cloud managed service that can provide company data on a physical backup. A physical drive containing your company’s data can make moving to another service easier, but many companies are unwilling or unable to do this. When considering a cloud server it’s important to ask about their contract period and policies on cancellation before signing a legally binding contract.
Affordability
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges, at least for small businesses, is an affordable backup plan. Most cloud services base pricing on the amount of data being stored so, for larger companies, this can become costly if it isn’t carefully managed. Many companies prefer to outsource backup services due to the OPEX business model and thanks to a competitive market it is often easy to find cloud servers that offer attractive features at a reasonable rate for storage.
Another factor when considering the price of a cloud server are their fees. Before signing any contracts it is important to ask what additional fees they charge for restores, maintenance, setup and what their charge is per license. Also, it’s important to know what kind of IT support the company provides in the event of a crash and if it comes at an additional cost.
There are many factors that go into considering a backup plan for your business. For some businesses cost may be the biggest challenge, but it is important to ensure that your data is available in the event of a crash, not to mention safe from cyber criminals. Selecting the right service can be a daunting, overwhelming task so it may be wise, and ultimately cost saving, to hire a cloud consulting company to help in selecting the right services for your company. Ultimately you need to be certain that in the event of a crash, you can restore your data and get your company up and going again quickly.
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