The safety of data decides the organizations future. Thus, an effective data backup and storage system should be chosen.

Fremont, CA: Data has become the lifeline for modern businesses today. A data breach can be catastrophic, but with emerging technologies, data can be securely and reliably backed up. Organizations can control whether a breach can lead to a collapse or a painless recovery with the help of a comprehensive backup plan. Data backup and storage refers to devices or locations where copies of data, software, or entire configurations are stored in the event of a breach, hardware failure, or data loss.

Here are the types of storage systems. 

• Network Attached Storage

Network Attached Storage or NAS is a LAN accessible storage device added to the server network. NAS is capable of handling multiple devices to provide both on and off-site backup. The network-attached storage is primarily used for unstructured data like video, website, individual files, and not applications or configurations.

• External hard drives

External hard drives are an effective way of storing data, but offer backup and recovery on a limited scale. External HDDs are portable, readily usable by the IT department, and relatively cheap can only be accessed when connected, which increases data security. Hard drives are ideal for smaller amounts of data but are subjected to physical damage or theft.

• Cloud storage

Cloud storage refers to private clouds, public clouds, or hybrid solutions that leverage private, public, or on-premise resources. Cloud backup and storage is suited for any business regardless of the size as it is scalable as per need. Companies prefer public clouds over private solutions as they are remote and reduce the risk of local outages, which allows data recovery from any location with a network connection. Cloud services have in-built security and customer support; however, their networked nature can increase the risk of security breaches and without an internet connection, the data is inaccessible.

The process

Data loss can reveal the secrets of the trade or project progress. Thus, developing a proactive backup strategy enables an organization to resume operations faster, easier, and in a cheaper manner. To form a strategy, the organization has to determine the type of data the backup has to store and the priority of each one. After considering the type of data an organization needs to store, and the time duration, the options that best match the backup needs must be considered.

Further, the budget must be framed. A small start-up with minimal liabilities should not depend on expensive servers. Similarly, a large corporation with valuable R&D projects should have adequate IT staff with proper storage systems. Finally, choosing the right vendor by comparing their reputation, cost, length of implementation, and services included such as extended support or employee training, and contract specifics is paramount.