Cloud Backup - INACTIVE

By Bethany Ramos

Offsite data storage is essential for uninterrupted business operations. It can help you retrieve files you recently worked on or had damaged by a disaster. The technology offers proven methods to recover and restore data to get you up and running as soon as possible with minimum interruptions.

As a business owner, it can literally pay to expect the unexpected. Most businesses utilize offsite data storage to protect against small mishaps that are likely to affect daily productivity, including a power outage or hard drive crash, as well as larger calamities that could push a business toward bankruptcy, like massive internal water damage or an earthquake.

How does offsite data storage work?

When you work with an offsite data storage vendor, your critical information goes to a central data storage facility. The facility stores, manages, and protects you customer information, business data, and records. Your information is secure and easily accessible. You can simply log into a web-based system to access the data and pull up the files you need.

How does offsite data storage differ from on-site data storage, you ask? The answer is simple. An offsite data storage service will offer resources in record archiving and indexing in a protected facility with guaranteed surveillance, fire protection, and security.

Offsite data storage can be used for electronic data, as well as physical documents, including:

Stay calm and collected knowing your business data is backed up. REX Photos

• Single page files, i.e. medical files or contracts
• Internal records, i.e. staff information
• Archived files
• Regulated files, i.e. legal documents
• Patent information
• Digital records
• Audio/film records
• Product prototypes
• Historical artifacts

An offsite data storage provider may offer different services in document and data management, including long-term storage, rapid retrieval for urgent files and electronic data, and even premium protection for fragile or valuable documents and files.

What are the benefits of offsite data storage?

A key benefit to offsite data storage is you don't need a huge budget to maintain your information. Your data is instantly protected, and you don't have to spend time worrying about it. It isn't as expensive or time consuming as outdated data storage methods like tape backup. Vendors can work with your existing infrastructure to instantly protect and backup your data while lowering IT costs. This translates to less downtime and increased production for your staff.

While many companies may still utilize on-site data backup because of its ease and convenience, the clear-cut advantages of offsite data storage can't be overlooked, including:

• Redundant data storage, providing the capacity for multiple backup copies.
• Unlimited data retention.
• Scalable backup when and if data load increases.
• Geographic security when data is stored in multiple locations.
• Automated backup to completely eliminate human error.

Vendors will typically provide additional security features for your offsite data storage needs, such as real time backup and seamless access to data. This is important for businesses with limited in-house IT resources. You can also backup new or revised files by sending data to a central data storage server hourly. This way, you can recover information from a specific time while limiting data loss.

Unless a business is archiving physical files and artifacts offsite, electronic data backup is now more convenient than ever. The greatest benefit that a business can receive from offsite data storage is circumventing costly downtime in the case of a small to large disaster. Even more importantly, if valuable customer or client data is lost on-site, it can be retrieved from an offsite backup source to protect company assets and private information.