Understanding Your Backup Solutions Options
In today’s digital workplace, protecting your data is more critical than ever, and there are more backup solutions than ever to keep your data safe. While there are many options available for cloud storage and backups, there are important differences between file synchronization and true data backup. Understanding these distinctions, and knowing when to consider third-party or endpoint backup solutions, can make all the difference in business continuity, data recovery, and long-term security. Below, we break down the pros and cons of several backup solutions to help you choose the best strategy for your organization.
Microsoft 365 OneDrive Backup
The Good: The biggest advantage of OneDrive is that if you subscribe to Microsoft 365 for business, you already have it!
Things to Consider: While Microsoft refers to OneDrive as a backup, it is actually replication and does not provide true backup capabilities. If you update or delete files on your desktop, documents, or pictures, those changes are synced to OneDrive. OneDrive helps with business continuity by allowing access to files if your computer becomes unavailable, but if files are removed from your computer, they are also removed from OneDrive with no way to restore them from backup.
Third-Party Backup Solutions
The Good: Third-party backup solutions like Carbonite or iDrive run on your computer and target files to be backed up to their service. Unlike OneDrive, these solutions offer true backup capabilities, meaning that if you delete files on your computer, they are not deleted from the backup service. You can restore deleted or corrupted files.
Things to Consider: These solutions typically back up files only when changes are made to them. Some plans offer retention options of one year, three years, or five years, while others provide unlimited retention, allowing you to restore files back to the inception of the service. These are excellent solutions for file-level backups. Pricing for third-party backups varies, but after initial discounts and based on time retention backup plans, the cost per computer is usually around $150.00 a year.
Endpoint Backup Solutions
The Good: Endpoint backup is an image-level backup that goes beyond file-level backups. It backs up the entire working state of the computer, creating an image file that can be mounted and sometimes spun up virtually. This allows for the restoration of files from your file directories, the operating system, or even the entire working state of a computer to dissimilar hardware.
Things to Consider: This type of backup is particularly useful for computers running business-critical systems, such as an emergency management computer for a building, an access control computer for a property’s gate system, or a PC operating as a server for a small business. Endpoint backup is an excellent business continuity and disaster recovery solution and comes highly recommended by Big Fish Technology.
Struggling to understand the best fit for your business? Big Fish Technology can help. Give us a call today!