We all agree on the fact that backup is essential. But what kind of backups are we talking about? Copies hosted locally or in the cloud? On an in-house server, located on the company’s premises, or on an outsourced one?
In this post we will explain you why making local backups can be a good idea for your company, although of course it is not exempt from drawbacks and disadvantages that you should also evaluate.
Reasons to make local backups in your business.
We have talked many times about the importance of making backups and mentioned the cloud as one of the least costly methods for your company. But there is also the possibility of making local backups, so that you have full control over your backups, without intermediaries of any kind.
In such cases, it is important that we make backups in a certain way so that they are really useful, since there are traditional methods that will not work for us.
Let’s look at why it’s good for you to make local copies for your business, even if you’re already backing up to the cloud.
1. Local backup gives you more security. Having your backups on your own central server will be safer than having them on an external server, which you cannot control. Although it is true that this implies more responsibility in terms of maintenance, it is true that you also have this advantage.
2. You do not depend on the Internet connection. In order to restore your backups, you are not dependent on having an Internet connection to do so, although nowadays most devices are connected to the Internet. You can download your backups from any device that is connected to your private network.
3. You comply with data protection regulations. Although there are also cloud systems and servers in usa with which you can comply with data protection regulations, it will always be more convenient that if you store personal data of third parties, these are on your own or your own servers than on a computer located in another country.
4. There are various methods of doing this. Local backups are easy to make and configure, and you have different methods to make them. While the best system is to automate the backups so that they are made periodically and stored on a central server, you can choose various destinations to save them to for redundancy (USB sticks, DVDs, etc.).
5. You have greater scalability. In general, when you have your own servers you have more versatility and flexibility to increase or decrease the hard disk space you need, without having to wait for your SaaS provider to make changes, which in turn will affect all the clients on that server. In that sense, you are not dependent on others; you can have a tailor-made solution.
Disadvantages of local backups.
Local backups are not without disadvantages and difficulties, which you should also evaluate before deciding on them. Or, at least, keep in mind that storing your copies also in the cloud can be of great help to enjoy greater protection.
Among the disadvantages of backups, the following are worth mentioning:
1. They increase costs. By having to take care of the acquisition and maintenance of servers, it is vitally important that companies assume some upfront costs for server maintenance and backup configuration, as well as any changes or upgrades that need to be made to the network.
2. You must be computer literate. To apply all the necessary security measures, as well as server maintenance, you need to have qualified personnel in the company with knowledge in the matter. Otherwise, it is advisable to delegate this function to IT professionals.
3. Security risks. Although having control over your servers and files is ideal for your business, it can be a double-edged sword. A lack of continuous attention to your servers for backups can lead to increased vulnerabilities in your systems that put the integrity of your files at risk.
4. Poor distribution. A bad configuration and distribution of those files that you need to back up can result in taking up space and more space, to the point that you have a lot of gigabytes wasted for lack of a coherent strategy that allows you to save on the use of devices.
In any case, if you opt for backing up, these disadvantages are not aspects to which you cannot find a solution, but they are risks that you must evaluate. There is no 100% foolproof backup system, but we can take steps to increase security.