Over the years, we have seen a surprising number of customers choose to deploy their cloud server without adding any backup solution, this decision often leads to detriment. Without the protections in place, infrastructure is vulnerable to a host of threats that can damage or destroy critical data. What many organizations fail to realize is that hardware redundancy and high availability alone do not substitute for comprehensive backup capabilities. In this article, we will discuss the risks of going without backup, distinguish key definitions, and provide best practices for building a solid strategy.
Understanding The Differences Between Backup, Redundancy and Availability
While hardware redundancy and high availability provide value, they do not offer complete protection on their own. As mentioned, many customers incorrectly assume that hardware redundancy and high availability solutions are all that is needed to safeguard their infrastructure. However, relying solely on these measures is insufficient. It is important to understand some definitions and best practices around truly securing infrastructure and a holistic approach is required to fully defend against data loss and downtime.
Backup, redundancy and availability are closely related to each other when it comes to data and systems. Backup involves the duplication of data, applications, or systems. Redundancy is the practice of having multiple components or systems to prevent single points of failure and availability is the measure of how accessible a system or service is to its intended users. These are interrelated and play a crucial role in the protection and recoverability of an organization’s information and assets.
Hardware redundancy and high availability cannot protect customers from data loss due to total hardware failure and removal of data, which is precisely what backup is designed to do that is to protect data for the long run.
3 Major Risks of Deploying Cloud Server Without Backup
1. External Threats
Being connected to the internet allows you to reach customers worldwide. However, this also attracts malicious attacks and seeks vulnerable systems to target. These attacks have become more frequent, sophisticated, and widespread, as evidenced by the disruptions caused to governments and businesses of all sizes. Backup is one of the many essential tools to protect your data from being damaged.
2. Hardware Failure
While server components are designed to be durable, they are not invincible. The risk of hardware failure increases over time. Although this represents a small percentage of the risk of data loss, it is still a matter that should be taken seriously, given the critical role data plays in your business.
3. Internal Security Risks
Despite our best efforts, we all make mistakes, and in the world of cloud computing, errors can result in loss of data too. With every configuration that you make, there is always a possibility that you might delete a file, overwrite it, or even lose important information. Therefore, this is a clear indication that backup is crucial since it allows for the recovery of lost data whenever an error occurs.
Best Practices for Secure Backup
The optimal backup approach is known as the 3-2-1 method. This means creating 3 full backups, 2 local and 1 external to your cloud backup, and one should be within the local network, the other should be on a different device, such as a NAS or backup server. This separation provides an additional layer of defense against ransomware as a compromised domain account could infect everything within the same domain, so it is recommended to have the second backup on a separate network.
Finally, the last backup should be completely outside your local infrastructure, the easiest and most reliable way is through a Cloud Backup solution like Acronis.
It is good to have backups but it is even better to ensure that these backups are working. Nothing is more frustrating than discovering that your backup configuration is wrong, and the data you need is not there. LayerStack has partnered with Acronis to offer a comprehensive backup solution that includes the features mentioned above and more.
