Today’s market demands high-availability and always-on IT environments, where services and applications must remain active 24/7/365 because any downtime can bring negative consequences on revenue, image and reputation. This need consequently drives companies of different industries and sizes to entrust their data and business continuity to modern, established backup solutions.
However, this transition is not always automatic. In fact, many companies accustomed to working with legacy solutions for years may put a damper on their modernization, unaware that most of the time this approach risks causing more harm than good. Whether it is a reticence at the economic level, or whether by human nature we rely more readily on what you know and have always done, but the truth is that many traditional backups carry with them a number of drawbacks and dangers in terms of durability, accessibility, and reliability.
The current need to be able to access one’s business data at a moment’s notice and to be able to restart as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster requires solutions that a traditional backup usually cannot guarantee. The point is: what worked in the past no longer works, and all the companies that still rely on legacy backup and disaster recovery infrastructure should evaluate a cloud-based platform that can provide a higher level of durability, efficiency and cost optimization in the short and long term.
Tape library vs Cloud
I back-up to tape and take it to the bank. It is a secure solution.
We do not see innovative tools, such as the cloud, necessarily as a replacement for traditional solutions, but rather alongside them, leveraging a logic of risk differentiation. From a technical and technological point of view, technological platforms found on leading hyperscalers provide data durability that cannot be achieved by a traditional solution instead. In addition, the cloud, unlike tape, ensures shorter restore times allowing you to get back up and running faster, has high scalability and flexibility, and provides for a low possibility of compromise, which by its physical nature is inherent to magnetic tape.
Tape backup costs less than a cloud solution.
In general, tape backup systems have limited backward compatibility, usually no more than two generations. This means that companies incur new financial and resource costs every time they upgrade technology.
Backing up to tape gives me the same benefits as a managed service, and I do it internally.
Let us try to answer metaphorically. We could imagine the situation as that of a vegetable garden: although planting your own garden might be the cheapest option to feed your family, most people do not have the time, skills or patience to do so. As a result, we prefer to opt for buying groceries online or in stores. This choice leads us to reflect on how precious time is. Similarly, companies often prefer to rely on managed services instead of using their internal resources for activities that add real value to their business. In this way, they can focus on core activities without having to devote time and resources to secondary tasks.
On-prem vs cloud
We are still paying for the investment we made in hardware some time ago.
Our service does not exclude a priori the use of a local appliance and repository, and as a result, there is the possibility of integrating owned hardware within the Managed Data Protection service by building a ‘hybrid architecture.
Data storage in the cloud is less secure than on-premise storage.
The Managed Data Protection service always includes the implementation of an immutable off-site copy, which goes to mitigate the physical risk, due to a natural disaster such as flooding, fire, and earthquake at the client’s site, and the logical risk due to a cyber attack. In addition, cloud platforms have the ability to configure the use of encryption so that data cannot be read by unauthorized third parties.
No one can guarantee me that 10 years from now, for example, my data will still be in the cloud.
By relying on industry leaders, we rely on companies with very high strength, historicity, and reputation. In addition, customer data always remain the property of the customers and are retrievable at any time.
Cloud yes, but.
I want to maintain control and know what happens to my data.
The Managed Data Protection service allows the customer to maintain visibility and governance over the backup jobs performed and their status, at any time.
By migrating to the cloud, I don’t know where my data goes.
The Managed Data Protection service allows you to choose whether to keep your data within Switzerland, or otherwise within the European Union. In both cases at the proposal stage the location of the data will be transparent.
I work with very sensitive data, and my industry has very strict security standards. I can’t risk moving to the cloud.
Cloud solutions used within the Managed Data Protection service meet the highest requirements in terms of security and compliance, levels that an on-premise Data Center can very rarely rely on. Platforms that provide cloud services also allow for the elimination of technological obsolescence and, in addition to ensure compliance with current regulations, allow customers to have tools that will remain compliant over time. This is because in order to deliver their services they themselves must comply with market regulations, consequently relieving the customer of the burden.
A move to the cloud costs too much.
Cloud platforms and our service involve the use of storage classes designed for archiving and for use as backup repositories. The different classes then allow for cost optimization due to the type of data saved and its retention.
I don’t need a disaster recovery plan.
For to be able to claim that they do not need a Disaster Recovery plan every company should have first assessed the impact that any downtime would have on image and revenue. From our point of view, it is always worth at least considering a DR solution since there are several options today that reflect different customer needs.
