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MARKET FOCUS: CLOUD FOCUS:<br />
BACKUP<br />
THE CLOUD BACKUP OPPORTUNITY FOR MSPS<br />
CARL OLIVER, PRODUCT<br />
MANAGER, GIACOM, EXPLAINS<br />
WHY CLOUD BACKUP IS<br />
INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR<br />
SMBS AND HOW THIS OPENS<br />
UP NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR<br />
SERVICE PROVIDERS<br />
Depending on who you talk to,<br />
digitalisation across the globe has<br />
been accelerated by around five<br />
to eight years because of Covid19.<br />
Transitioning towards the use of cloudbased<br />
technologies has formed a key<br />
component of this transformation. But, as<br />
organisations shift from using on-premise<br />
solutions to the cloud, many will not have<br />
considered that data - despite being<br />
located in the cloud - still needs to be<br />
backed up. This is particularly true of the<br />
SMB market.<br />
option, but what if a natural disaster<br />
occurs such as a pandemic, flood or fire?<br />
Accessing data becomes problematic and<br />
depending on the situation, data could<br />
be lost forever. A case in point is this last<br />
year, as pandemic work-from-home<br />
restrictions prevented many people from<br />
working in offices, making the idea of<br />
accessing office technology and IT<br />
backups difficult. So, many businesses<br />
turned to the cloud for support. Which,<br />
rightly, highlighted the need for cloud<br />
data security.<br />
The channel, therefore, needs to<br />
educate and support SMB organisations<br />
as they develop and deploy their cloud<br />
strategies. But, it also means that ITCs<br />
need to work with their Cloud Service<br />
Provider (CSP) partners to capitalise on<br />
the potential recurring revenue<br />
generating opportunities that backup<br />
provisioning can offer.<br />
ON-PREMISE BACK-UP<br />
SOLUTIONS AREN'T FAIL<br />
SAFE<br />
It won't come as a surprise to<br />
the IT channel that protecting<br />
data and backing it up is<br />
critical. But, what is the<br />
difference between backing up<br />
data on-premise compared with<br />
cloud backup solutions?<br />
As you can imagine, an onpremises<br />
back-up solution<br />
stores data securely on<br />
office-based hard<br />
drives. In principle,<br />
this is a<br />
feasible<br />
HOW SECURE IS DATA IN THE<br />
CLOUD?<br />
There's a common misconception that<br />
just because you shift your applications<br />
and workloads into the cloud, that all of<br />
your data is completely secure. While the<br />
cloud offers many benefits, including the<br />
availability of data, it doesn't entirely<br />
protect organisations from data loss or<br />
corruption alone.<br />
For instance, a recent study found that<br />
32 percent of companies using cloud<br />
had experienced data loss in the cloud<br />
across numerous threats. It points out<br />
that 64 percent of this data loss was<br />
accidental and that 20 percent was down<br />
to malicious intent.<br />
Worse yet, the average cost of this data<br />
loss without a backup solution in place<br />
equates to almost US$4,000 - not<br />
counting the potential reputational<br />
damage and fines from regulators. So,<br />
while cloud has enabled businesses to<br />
evolve and thrive, especially through the<br />
current pandemic, it's clear that data<br />
stored in the cloud still needs to be<br />
backed up via a dedicated method.<br />
This is why it is important for<br />
organisations to factor cloud back-up<br />
solutions into their long-term cloud and<br />
data protection strategies. They are<br />
20 <strong>ST</strong>ORAGE <strong>Mar</strong>/<strong>Apr</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
@<strong>ST</strong>MagAndAwards<br />
www.storagemagazine.co.uk<br />
MAGAZINE
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