Cloud Backup vs Storage: How to Determine Your Best Option

Cloud Backup vs Storage: How to Determine Your Best Option

Praised as the “next big thing” for businesses, cloud technology rapidly emerged and gained a welcome home globally.

We’ve heard the jokes about the mysterious “cloud” as if it were one identity, with a vague idea of an unknowable location where data goes to live. Cloud refers to online access. Many people even use the two terms ‘cloud backup’ and ‘cloud storage’ interchangeably, not understanding the difference.  Cloud storage is not backup, although some features overlap. Furthermore, using cloud storage as a backup could put your data at risk.

Let’s dive a little deeper.

Distinguishing Between Cloud Backup vs Storage

Cloud storage can be accessed anytime, anywhere, enabling cross-device integration. Multiple users can access the same data from different places simultaneously. Cloud storage centralises files across multiple devices to share with friends, family or co-workers.

Cloud backup is cloud storage’s more robust, sophisticated older sibling.  It is an automatic and comprehensive backup of all the data on your physical drives and cloud storage. As we adapt to a more connected world and create increasing amounts of data every second, security risks are crucial to consider.

A continuous and automatic backup prevents data loss. Cloud backup consumes greater data space because it must keep multiple restore points to protect against data loss. If a file is deleted and the next backup runs, that file won’t be included in the most recent backup.  It will exist in previous backups, however, so you can recover the deleted file.

In case your requirements needs an in-memory database, you should must go with Cloud option to be at safer side. For those who’re not familiar with the term “in-memory database” or “main memory database system”, It’s a database management system that primarily relies on main memory for computer data storage but is typically backed-up by non-volatile computer data storage. It is contrasted with database management systems that employ a disk storage mechanism. Main memory databases are faster than disk-optimized databases because disk access is slower than memory access, the internal optimization algorithms are simpler and execute fewer CPU instructions. Accessing data in memory eliminates seek time when querying the data, which provides faster and more predictable performance than disk. They are often used where response time is critical, such as in telecommunications network equipment.

How to Use Cloud Backup

As part of a comprehensive data security strategy, the cloud brings security and automation in addition to or as an alternative to off-site tape and media storage.

Cloud backup protects large amounts of data retained over time. If you work in an organisation with online backup in place, all the data you ever create is collected and combined with that of your colleagues. Backup typically includes continuous monitoring for changes. To ensure security, backup files can be encrypted. Cloud backup offers automation, multiple restore points, encryption, simplified recovery and better control.

Say your laptop crashes, gets stolen or a natural disaster destroys it. Online backup allows you to connect your new device to the backup software to generate a full data restore. Because the nature of these incidents is unpredictable, having an automatic, scheduled backup is the best way to ensure your data is always available.

Types of Cloud Storage

Today’s cloud storage is flexible, scalable and shareable. Cloud storage is now used to work, collaborate and communicate all over the world.

There are three types of cloud storage – public, private and hybrid.

Public

You have likely heard of public storage platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Public clouds host your data on different servers spread across the globe. Simply click the upload button and your files are on the cloud provider’s servers. As it is not possible to determine the servers in which data is stored on, the data stored is often subject to foreign law. As easy sharing and syncing are the top priority here, security is not.

Private

The private cloud offers greater security from all types of threats. Hosting takes place either on your own premises or locally in your own city or country. Businesses of all sizes can store and collaborate on confidential data.

Hybrid

As the name suggests, a hybrid cloud environment is a mix of both public and private clouds. However, because private cloud can be expensive to set up and maintain, not all data has to be privately hosted. In fact, businesses create plenty of data that is relatively less important to keep and protect. Therefore, this information can be stored in public cloud environments. Consequently, hybrid cloud packages offer the benefits of both the private and public cloud, giving organisations even greater scalability and cost savings.

Moreover, every company has their own unique needs. Thus, we recommend seeking counsel from an expert who can steer you on a path of ultimate data security. It is well worth the consultation and investment. Conversely, a hastily made wrong move into a cloud purchase can be costly in the long run. Finally, implementation and coordination with your system must be taken into consideration.

Cloud Backup vs Storage, do you need both?

It is becoming more and more clear that data is one of a company’s most valuable assets. The security of that data can be a business’s biggest liability. In the case of a disaster, your backup is your only medium of getting all your data back. It is advisable that you consult a cloud backup provider and implement a solution as a matter of urgency.

If you have a smaller amount of data that you just want to be stored online to share easily, cloud storage should be sufficient.

To both store and confidently protect your digital data from security breaches, accidental loss, natural disaster or virus, there is no substitute for an online backup service.

The best way to keep data out of harm’s way is via the use of a cloud service designed for backup, not just storage.