The other day I was writing a review of an online backup product, and I wrote about the advantages of backing up to the cloud. Even though I have two external backup drives, they are both tied to the same electrical system in my house as my computer. If the house were struck by lightning for instance, it could hose my computer and my backups in one complete and utter disaster. My sister's house was hit a few years ago and it turned her TV, VCR, DVD player and several other pieces of electronics to toast.
This got me thinking that a cloud backup system would give me peace of mind I don't have now. If that worst case scenario happened, I would be covered because all of my data would be safely stored in the cloud. It occurred to me that enterprise users could extract that same benefit from cloud backup, that assurance that your data files are always secure and ready to restore.
Getting Past the Fear
There is still a lot of fear and uncertainty about cloud computing among IT executives. It's all about command and control, right? If it's on your servers, it's in your control. You have a vice president and management you can call into your office should something go wrong. Where do you point the finger of blame if something goes wrong with your vendor's software or servers? The lines of authority aren't quite as clear. But the flip side of this is that when something goes wrong locally, if you saved a backup in the cloud, you're completely safe.
You just have to get past that fear of giving up control. You have to trust that the vendor will keep your files as safe and secure as you do. And chances are your vendor's backup and redundancy is far more rigorous than even yours is. They have to take every precaution and spend every dime to ensure that safety because the backup vendor's very business depends on it. What's more, it takes some of the leg work out of your backup process for you and your staff and it could actually save you money in the long run.
Accentuate the Positive
Even that small business home backup package I was reviewing had a nice administrative client and automatic backup system. I could choose the drives, folders, files or file types I wanted to backup. I could control the backup time each day. An enterprise-class cloud backup system would have even more sophisticated options, I'm sure.
And the thing is, that one day, you too could have that horrible electrical meltdown, just as I could. And just like me if you had that backup sitting in the cloud, you are a couple of clicks away from restoring your system and getting back online. It's easy to think of the cloud in negative terms, and all the things you can't do, but the fact is, the cloud could save you some day, and that's worthy of your consideration (as it is of mine).
