In the early days of IT, organizations stored their data on local hard drives. This data was easily accessible, but having all information onsite also presented some challenges. The most difficult of these challenges was that if the facility was damaged, destroyed or inaccessible, so was the data.
This gave rise to offsite backups of physical hard drives, as well as mirrored and redundant servers. But the real revolution in storage came with the innovations in cloud computing and cloud storage, which allowed an organization to recover their data rapidly, no matter what had happened to their local facility. All you need to recover your data is a device and an internet connection.
Cloud Storage, Defined
The easiest way to understand cloud storage is inherent in many of the applications which you use every day. For instance, you can save your photos online utilizing DropBox, or save all of your emails in your Outlook folders. Even if your laptop dies, or if your local server catches on fire, you can always access your data and files, simply by logging on from a different device.
These options often allow users to store data up to a certain capacity free of charge, but organizations generally need more storage capability for all of their current and legacy files. Cloud storage from a managed services firm allows for cost-effective storage capability at any needed capacity.
Local Storage vs. Cloud Storage
Because local storage requires physical hard drives and servers, a company must always be maintaining this equipment and keeping it up-to-date. Because of the aforementioned problems with proximity, you will still have to perform regular physical backups and transport these backups offsite.
While local storage is quickly and easily accessible in the day to day operations of your business, it becomes less so in a disaster recovery situation.
Cloud storage maintains your data safely offsite, and allows for quick and easy access from any device, as long as there is an internet connection. Your data is safely removed from any situation which may affect your physical environment, and you can recall data at any time. This means that wherever you are, you can have access to your data.
Because you are sharing resources with others utilizing the cloud, you achieve economies of scale and can save significant amounts of cash by not investing in physical hardware which much be maintained, upgraded, and replaced periodically.
It is important to note that with over 60% of businesses reporting some sort of security breach in recent years, that you must protect your business to the best of your ability. Any cloud storage service which you contract with should have a clearly outlined plan to protect your data in the event of an emergency.
The decision between cloud storage and local storage comes down to two basic parameters:
- Cost: How much will it cost to acquire and maintain local servers vs. contracting for cloud storage capacity?
- Accessibility: How easy is it to access data from an alternate location or device if necessary?
At Alliance IT , we believe that joining with our team of expert IT professionals is a powerful way to not only protect your data in a disaster, but to streamline your business and make it more efficient. Whether considering cloud storage, managed services, or any other type of outsourced IT expertise, we would love the opportunity to speak with you as to how we can help. The IT world is changing rapidly, and we are here to help you to stay on top of the best solutions for your organization.
