Cloud Infrastructure as Backup

Nowadays, using the Cloud as a back up is one of the most used options for corporations.

The benefits it offers:

• Cost reduction: If we consider the cost of building a private backup data center, we have to take in account the investment made on hardware, software, tapes and deprecation. Using the Cloud we do not have to pay for all of this, as the physical infrastructure will not be under our possession.
• Recovery time objective: The recovery time is the time to restore the data center’s full operation mode. The Cloud produces an estimation of the time it takes to recover the data, as they have a well designed disaster recovery plan.
• Service-level agreements (SLAs): The different Cloud infrastructures offer specific SLAs through legal contracts that will serve as an insurance policy to guarantee the performance of the backups periodically.
• State-of-the-art-systems: Cloud providers upgrade their hardware and software constantly to provide the most secure and efficient infrastructure. They can offer encryption, virtualization, data deduplication and constant monitoring. The upgrade frequency of their devices is high due to their clients requirements and to offer a better service.
• Anywhere access: Data is accessible from any part of the world. The flexibility it offers allows to reestablish the datacenter on the chosen location.

The cons of Cloud backups:

• Bandwidth: As the bandwidth of the link through which the data is transmitted is shared, the time required to perform a backup or recovery increases. With the initial data load, a significant amount of bandwidth is required.
• Security: Storing the data on another firm’s infrastructure can be dangerous. Vendors have controls in place, more than normal firms have on physical data centers. This benefits the company as constant surveillance of the servers is guaranteed.
• Vendor lock-in: When having chosen the Cloud service provider, transferring the data to an other Cloud can be a difficult task that can bring complexities and challenges.