Guest Column
Q&A: Define, Then Sell Backup Solutions
By Kent Plunkett, CEO, Intronis
Most storage options in the cloud, whether archive, backup and disaster recovery, or business continuity, fall into two categories: fully online offerings or hybrid options. Can you articulate the difference between the two?
Cloud is where the data is backed up to one or several remote data center locations different from the customer's office location. This provides the highest level of confidence that the company will not suffer a business continuity problem in the event of a disk drive failure, data corruption, human error, fire, water damage, vandals, or other man-made or natural disaster. Hybrid solutions are those where data is backed up locally and into the cloud. Local backup is a low-cost alternative for storing very large libraries of dense files such as graphics, photography, or X-ray images that are not critical data. However, the protection offered by local solutions is limited to insuring against data loss from device level problems and does not provide business continuity protection for any network or officewide disasters. In addition, the cost of maintaining and periodically testing local hardware is often overlooked. Local backup has historically been augmented by burning backup tapes and removing a physical copy of data from the business premises daily or weekly.
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