Backup In The Cloud - An Organizational Perspective

Cloud Computing and other services related to it have seen rapid growth over the last decade. However, the use services offered by cloud were usually limited to SMB’s given the cost advantage it had over traditional services. Big enterprises were not very keen on getting into the cloud due to the security issues it had. But with the recent developments and better security methods in place even organizations have started to consider Cloud Backup and other services as a viable alternative.

Amongst the most popular services which were provided by cloud service providers, Backups were very widely used. And it is till date one of the best ways to use Cloud storage. What was once restricted to use by smaller companies is now being increasingly adopted by their larger counter-parts.

There are various reasons why organizations use Cloud Backup services:

1. To begin with it brings down the capital expenditure by not requiring investment in infrastructure.
2. It also reduces dependence over the IT administration to take care of basic operations.
3. The only cost it involves is the operational cost which is also less compared to the traditional alternatives.

However, despite the fact that it offers so much advantage over other on-site backup solutions there are also certain factors that prohibit companies from completely relying on Cloud Backup services.

Always there has been concern related to security of the data in the cloud and the restoring problems when there is huge data which needs to be dealt with.

To address these concerns and make Cloud Backup services organizational friendly there are certain factors which needs to be taken care of.

• To ensure adequate protection of the data it must be properly encrypted.
• The encryption should be used in the cloud as well while transferring the data over the internet using an SSL.
• There must be strong authentication measures deployed. For additional safety there must be a two-level authentication.

By taking care of these factors one can make the cloud secure and use Cloud Servers for backups and make the most of it.