Data Backup Storage Elk Grove

A quick guide to data backup storage in Elk Grove

The need for storage is a huge issue for both consumers and businesses. One of the ways both are addressing it is by converting physical items into digital ones. For example, data is no longer collected or generated on paper. It’s collected or generated in a digital format. This is, overall, a very astute move, but it does make it even more important to have a robust process for backing up your digital data. This includes making sure that you have appropriate data backup storage. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to data backup storage in Elk Grove.

Functions Of Data Backup Storage

1. Managing the data you collect and hold can help to reduce data backup storage costs

It may sound like stating the obvious, but the less data you hold in your production systems, the less data you need to back up, and therefore the fewer data backup storage you need. Hopefully, all companies are now collecting and holding personal data on an “as needed” basis. There is a good chance this is already a legal requirement and if it’s not it probably soon will be (plus it’s best practice). It can, however, be challenging to apply the “as needed” principle to all data, especially if you’re an established company with a lot of “legacy” files.

If this sounds familiar then a pragmatic way to deal with it is to look at what data you are collecting and generating in the present and make sure that it is all relevant. Then remove any dormant data from your production system. If you can’t delete it, then archive it. There’s still a cost but it’s a lower one. Going forward, make sure that data is removed from your production systems as soon as it becomes dormant. If it needs to be kept, then it can be kept in an archive.

2. Fine-tuning your data backup storage settings can keep costs to a minimum

Regardless of your everyday working environment, the public cloud is usually the best place to keep your offline data backups. There’s an obvious case for doing so if you’re already in the public cloud. If, however, you’re in a private cloud or a data center, then the case is essential that the public cloud offers the best balance between security, convenience, and cost-effectiveness.

The case for using the public cloud becomes even stronger when you consider that the major public cloud providers are now increasingly likely to be able to comply with mainstream data protection laws and compliance programs. This means that even if you aren’t comfortable using them as your everyday solution, there is a growing case for using them as a short-term solution, for example for business continuity/disaster recovery purposes.

In the public cloud, you pay for exactly what you use for exactly as long as you use it. There are therefore two main ways you can lower the cost of cloud data backup storage. The first is to reduce the quantity of data you hold and the second is to scale back on the speed of storage you use.

If you’re already in a cloud, then you can analyze your use of production data and adjust your use of storage to reflect the urgency with which given categories of data are needed by users. You can then use these settings to inform your Recovery Time Objectives and hence your choice of data backup storage.

If you’re working out of a data center, then you are unlikely to have the same flexibility to fine-tune your use of storage either in production or for any data backups you take to physical media. If, however, you are using a public cloud for your off-site data backup storage then you can use the same general approach to reduce your costs.

3. Using physical data backup storage

If you’re running your own data center, then you will be taking your local data backups to physical storage and may choose to use physical storage for your off-site data backups (although this is increasingly rare). In theory, you have a wide range of physical media from which to choose. In practice, only two, perhaps three, make any real sense.

Tapes used to be the standard choice for data backups. They are still popular with companies that have long used them. They are, however, not likely to be adopted as a new/updated solution mainly because they are extremely slow (and cannot be searched easily).

Hard drives are now the standard choice for data backups. They solve many of the issues associated with tapes but they are very delicate. This can cause issues if you want to transport them to off-site storage.

SSDs are a great option in theory, but in practice, they are still far too expensive for most SMBs.

If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced data backup storage partner in Elk Grove, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.