Protecting your company from data loss makes data archiving to the cloud an appealing option. However, there are serious considerations that must be carefully analyzed to ensure that this service will completely fulfill your requirements.
Ensure that all archived data can be restored and can be used successfully in achieving a complete recovery. Many times cloud archiving is done without a clear understanding of how the data can be restored. This is certainly critical when archiving databases and other objectives that require special considerations while being backed up. Restoral can also be problematic when restoring the archived data to hardware that is different than what was backed up. When archiving data that has cross relationships, ensure this data can be restored to ensure a synchronous recovery. Otherwise, while you may achieve a successful technical restore, the restored data will be useless as it will not reflect valid business relationships. Restores should be fully tested prior to assuming that you have a valid backup. You should fully understand the form the archive will be restored in and have a clear projection of time to recovery.
It is important to understand the role, if any; your provider will play at the time of recovery. Your data must be easily located and reside in a secure environment. You must also have confidence that your data is in reliable hands and protected by disaster recovery systems and policies.
Implementations are made easy by many of these providers with archiving set-through web interfaces and regular data transfer through secure FTP to get your data into the archives. Amazon Glacier, for example, is the archiving alternative to its S3 (Simple Storage Service) with lower per GB pricing, made possible by reduced access to the data. There are many other reputable players in the space, including large providers like HP, IBM and EMC. The advantages of cloud archiving are quite clear and finding the best provider for your organization is a matter of balancing your requirements against the features and functions of these providers. However, investing in a cloud archiving service only gets your half way there. You must ensure that these services can be used to achieve successful restoration of your data.
To learn more about the Superior Technology in-house data center or online data archiving alternatives, contact us at (845) 735-3555 or visit www.superiortechnology.com.
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