How to Choose a Cloud Backup Solution for Businesses

1- In any business time is funds. A key feature in a backup solution is simplicity when it comes to deployment & installation; zero hassle, zero worker intervention, zero headache. The installation ought to be seamless & take up little-to-no time to complete. Everything ought to be handled on a central, remote location on the cloud without the necessity to put in anything on individual machines or on a complex local server.

There are MANY cloud backup solutions on the market today. It's become impossible to know which is the right for your needs; everyone is claiming they are the best, the simplest, the quickest, etc. After ten years of experience in the field & hundreds of thousands of hours spent on global analytical research I have put together a list of the most important factors to think about before choosing a solution:

2- Configuration ought to be completed in the cloud throughout the whole company; there should'nt be a necessity to by hand configure each machine with regards to the backup settings & what information will be backed up. A solution that requires by hand setting up a backup policy/job configuration ought to not even be a consideration.

3- Why stress over using separate program to handle images of your hard disk stored on local locations when you can discover a cloud backup solution that handles all of that for you? Using a cloud backup solution that supports complete DR will remove the trouble of worrying about local storage, servers, purchasing hard disks, etc.

4- For example: In case you are away on a business trip & your Windows somehow gets corrupted you can basically repair your whole method from the cloud. With today's high-speed web it will only take a couple of hours to get back up & walking with all of your information, applications & settings intact.

5- Make positive that DR comes with "true" deduplication expertise. If the Catastrophe Recovery is not deduped it won't be useful (Deduplication refers to backing up instance of a specific file throughout the world & using pointers to acknowledge who can access this file. This can be completed on common files, such as Windows files to save both time & space) A true cloud solution is mandatory! Most cloud backup solutions use proprietary storage, backing up to their own personal servers. A true cloud solution means that your information will be stored in widely known, first class storage facilities that duplicate your information throughout their global network of locations. Using a proprietary storage location has a great deal of risk since they are not as secure or reliable. In 2009 Carbonite lost the information of their customers due to proprietary storage failures. True cloud locations like Amazon, Nirvanix, etc. also have a risk but their risk is much smaller & backed with a guarantee to help protect you from such instances.

6- Block Level Backup, otherwise known as Delta Backup, is crucial. Block Level Backup breaks up larger files, that are changed often, in to smaller pieces & only backs up pieces that have been modified. For example: Outlook stores all emails in huge.PST file, without block level backup your Cloud solution would backup this huge file (around one GB) each time you get an e-mail which will tie up your business' bandwidth & is not practical. Block level will let you only back up the modified sections of the file saving both time & space.

7- Security is obviously important to all businesses. A backup solution is handling important information & work & time ought to be made to make positive that it is secure. The key things to look out for is that the backup will be encrypted using AES-256 or higher, your backup is encrypted at the source & that you are given the ability to authorize personal encryption for key people in the company, such as the CEO.

8- of the major benefits with leveraging the cloud is the ability to access your information at all times. Your backup solution ought to provide the same convenience. You ought to be able to access your backed up information through a web interface and/or your mobile device. By access this means the ability to restore, view, share & perhaps even edit.

9- Speed!!! Backing up a complete computer, not to mention a company, can be time consuming. There's different technologies that help speed up the process; make positive the solution you pick makes use of these technologies. Most cloud solutions on the market are slow & give tiny to no options when it comes to throttling the bandwidth. A backup solution that is slow negates all other fancy features that it may contain.

10- Strong management consoles are often overlooked. A powerful web console can make or break a backup solution. The management section ought to let you control your whole company's backup; You ought to be able to view reports & monitor activity, edit, add & suspend users, create/edit backup policies, control security, etc. all directly from the cloud. Plenty of backup solutions on the market claim to have such management functionality, but at the finish of the day all it does is handle the billing, which is important but not the only important thing. There is no point in backing up in case you cannot restore. The backup solution you pick ought to come with a variety of restore options. Backup has come a long way from single file restore, emailing compressed files, or requesting a CD with the restored information to be shipped which can take lots of time. In this fast paced day & age, time is of the essence, so restoring a file ought to be completed in seconds. There ought to be several restore options, such as file restore, folder restore, drag & drop restore, restoring deleted files, restore from an older version, & complete Catastrophe Recovery restore. These options ought to even be available in remote locations such as from a web interface or a mobile device.

11- Information is critical & losing your information can be detrimental! Make positive the backup solution you pick gives you the ability to restore your whole machine basically & quickly in case anything were to happen to your information. You ought to have the choice to restore information to its original location & even restore Windows files if needed.

12- Cost!!! As a business owner the last thing you need to worry about is another bill. Payment ought to be straightforward, flat fee & without surprise charges.

13- Features & bells & whistles are great but if it affects your computer's performance it is going to slow productivity. You ought to not be able to feel the impact of a backup solution & it ought to seldom interrupt your work. To have different performance modes, such as battery mode or presentation mode, are key. For example: In case you are presenting a PowerPoint to an important customer you ought to not must feel a hang because a backup has started. The solution ought to intelligently notice that you are walking a presentation & slow down the backup so that it goes unnoticed.

14- Finally, as a business, you need something that is simple to setup, worry free, & requires tiny to no learning curve. A set-it-and-forget-it type of solution is ideal.

Business wide backup is important, & with the increase in computer reliant information its importance is only growing stronger. There's lots of players in the market claiming to be the quickest, simplest, most powerful, & the best so it can become confusing. This editorial sums up all of the major features that ought to be mandatory when selecting a cloud backup solution. Without the core features such as the backup expertise, user experience, restore options, seamless performance, & a safe & secure cloud storage facility, a backup solution won't be as powerful & as beneficial as it could be. The key is to look for a solution that is the whole package, provides complete protection, access & sharing options, & naturally a fail safe such as a variety of restore options & catastrophe recovery in case something were to happen to your computer. This editorial ought to make choosing a company wide backup solution less confusing & permit you to benefit from all that a cloud backup can offer.

Muayyad is an Architect & a program designer, they spent years working on making a cloud backup solution to alter the way business-wide backup is completed. Our main objective was to generate a actual cloud backup solution for Windows that goes above & beyond sending a duplicate of your information to the cloud & referring to it as a backup. You can try Timeline Cloud for FREE