Why are Home Users and Businesses are not going to Cloud Backups?
Businesses have been slow to move to the cloud because of a lack of technical expertise, and they have concerns over data loss and compliance breaches. Home users often do not have cloud-based backups set up at all or correctly because of the cost or understating.
Home users and businesses should be utilizing cloud-based backups for one really good reason. Cloud offers off-site backups. An online backup service is one of the best ways to protect yourself against such threats as malware, a crashed hard drive, or accidental deletion.
No backup plan is complete without an off-site backup. You should always follow the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Why Home Users haven’t Embraced the Cloud
For home users I find they often to no transition to cloud backups because they think the following.
They Have Security Concerns
When you have a cloud-based backup, you’re entrusting the security of your data to a 3rd party. Being cloud-based means your data is on someone else’s server. While end-users are not security experts, and keeping it on their own equipment makes they feel safer and give them more control over their data.
On-going costs and Subscriptions Fees are a Pain
All Cloud-based backup services are just that. A subscription. As opposed to just paying once for a NAS, cloud-based backups work off of a subscription model where you pay per user per month or by how much data you have.
Certain Amounts of Data Just Do Not Work
For users that create large amounts of data frequently. Cloud just sometimes isn’t worth it. Think of a videographer that creates 100GB of data per day, every day. With slow Spectrum internet, they will never get 100GB uploaded in one day. Once you start approaching 1TB or more of data it gets harder to justify the cost for a home user.
Why Home Users should Embrace Cloud Backups
Losing even a small fraction of your most important data could be a real disaster. Home users are often shocked at how expensive data recovery is. In the end, all local hardware is to some degree at risk to fire, theft, or if something happened to your whole house.
The Real Reasons Businesses haven’t Embraced the Cloud
Businesses have been slow to move to the cloud because of concerns over data loss and compliance breaches. A new study that cameout of the U.K. shows that just 47% of corporate data is currently stored in the cloud, despite IT decision-makers believing 43% would be held in the cloud within 12 months.
Businesses are just starting to embrace the cloud and are working through cloud challenges. Small businesses need to bring in help if they are going to meet their transformational and data backup goals. The report goes on to show that cloud security and unpredictability concerns may have been resolved, but they have been replaced by fear of data loss and compliance breaches. The report highlights that almost 20% of enterprise data is regarded as usable and business-critical, whereas nearly 30% is redundant, obsolete, or trivial.
A key driver of cloud adoption is to reduce IT costs, according to the report, cited by two-thirds of the businesses surveyed.
Small Business Need Help
The small business that does not have a dedicated I.T. department or that do not have someone that is an expert in business backup solutions needs to bring in help. Not just for the implementation of a cloud-backup solution but also to make sure it is appropriately selected.
Business Have Fear of Data Loss
In the cloud, the risk of data loss exists. Data loss can also happen for local hardware and any storage technology. In general, if an appropriate solution is set up and secure then there is most likely less of a chance with cloud-based backups to lose data, but it can happen.
Compliance Breaches are a Nightmare
If your company operates with the need for data security requirements such as Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or other data you need to make sure the service provided by cloud providers you select meets those requirements. Fear of data not being safe is a big reason businesses do not embrace the cloud.
Why Businesses Should Embrace Cloud Backups
In addition to cloud-based backups offering off-site backups, they also have some other features like 24x7x365 availability, enhanced collaboration, easy scalability, and often reduce costs.