Cloud hosting has changed dramatically over recent years, with many new cloud infrastructure and storage systems being offered, and many new users making use of those offerings. But not all cloud hosting services fit all disaster recovery situations. It is important to make a distinction between how different data services better suit disaster recovery (DR) or backup recovery (BR).
Disaster Recovery vs. Backup Recovery
You need DR in the case a major event causes your business to lose access to its entire database, and its operational applications, systems and site. DR means regaining access to the latest complete “snapshot” of all of these components. BR is more selective. It is a response to a specific lost file, or folder, or earlier version of either, that needs to be recovered as a result of an intentional or unintentional deletion or destruction. (All the other IT components may be working just fine!)
BR needs to be a faster, more agile process typically done onsite, while DR is a much more complex procedure almost always resolved remotely, offsite. Now, so many more small to medium-sized businesses have access to cloud hosting services that serve either BR or DR, and it’s important to know the differences between the two.
Cloud Hosting Services Serving BR
These are the cloud-based services that started as “free” document sharing applications, sites such as Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive (a.k.a. OneDrive) and Dropbox. Most began as a complement to other services (for instance, Google Drive bundled and cross-promoted as an add-on to Gmail). As a free service, users are exposed to third party ads and self-promotion among other things. And while they are “free” at the entry level, beyond a certain amount of storage they are metered at extra cost.
This type of cloud hosting is considered an “As Is” product, accepted with few promises or commitments of performance. They cannot be easily customized or adapted in any way to suit your particular data needs. Service providers are also not very transparent — the user doesn’t know if / how the hosting site is backed up, or even where the data is actually physically stored. And all files to be backed up must be specifically designated, as opposed to a more universal backup system.
Cloud Hosting Services Serving DR
There is a relatively new class of cloud hosting services built specifically for bulk data storage in the cloud. Some of the frequently identified names in this category for small and medium-sized businesses (“SMBs”) are Backblaze, Carbonite, Mozy and SugarSync. These are specialized services that come unbundled with other application services, are not as tightly coupled with shared proprietary apps, or advertising and promotion, and they come with guarantees for handling your data.
These providers may even charge a low monthly fee for “unlimited” storage. They may even disclose the technologies they use, the industry standards they employ and where they host. You can arrange to have an automatic backup held on a regular basis, using their tools, or employ other features such as versioning, network compression, de-duplication, transmission / storage encryption, continuous back-up or flexible selection of files. This means you can broaden the use of the service to protect multiple databases, drives or computers, or only focus on certain files, such as current accounting records. These have become the vanguard of a new offering: Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service, or “DRaaS”.
The new breed of cloud hosting services is growing at a rapid rate. Businesses are increasingly recognizing the importance of DR capabilities, and they know that when it comes to the “free”, consumer-oriented cloud services, you get what you pay for.
