As a cloud backup managed service provider, we often encounter common myths about cloud backup. Here, we aim to dispel some of the most pervasive—and incorrect—perceptions:
Myth 1: Cloud Backup Isn’t Secure
One of the biggest concerns people have about cloud backup is the security and privacy of their data, especially with constant news of data breaches. Ironically, the right cloud backup solution can make your data much more secure than traditional backup methods.
Often, when we hear someone express concerns about cloud security, it becomes clear their existing backup solution is far less secure. Traditional, customer-managed backup systems struggle to get data offsite quickly and securely, and they often don’t follow best practices around media rotation, encryption, and data protection.
Security is a top priority for cloud backup service providers, with stringent protocols to ensure data protection. For instance, we offer highly encrypted services (AES 256-bit, FIPS 140-2 certified encryption), with clients maintaining control of the encryption key. This means we do NOT store your encryption key, ensuring we don’t have access to your data unless you request it.
Summary: Cloud backup providers use cutting-edge security measures to ensure your data is protected—far beyond traditional backup methods.
Myth 2: Restoring Data from the Cloud Takes Too Long
It’s true that restoring massive amounts of data from the cloud could take time, but most enterprise cloud backup solutions also store data locally. In fact, 99% of recoveries are made from local storage at LAN speed, so restoring from the cloud is rarely needed.
In the rare case of a site-wide disaster where local backups are compromised, most business-class cloud backup providers can ship your data on portable, fully encrypted media within 24-48 hours. Some providers can even spin up recovered servers in the cloud for fast recovery.
Summary: Restoring data from the cloud is rarely necessary, and cloud backup providers offer quick, alternative recovery methods.
Myth 3: Too Much Data to Backup
Many people believe they have too much data to back up in the cloud. However, with modern cloud backup solutions, this is rarely an issue.
Traditional backup systems often rely on full backups, which can be time-consuming and impractical for cloud backups. However, cloud systems use an “Incremental Forever” approach, where only the initial full backup is performed once. After that, only incremental backups—transferring just the changed data at the block level—are made, significantly reducing the amount of data being backed up.
The initial full backup is typically performed on mobile media (like a USB drive) and shipped (encrypted) to the data center, avoiding large data transfers over the internet.
As a rule of thumb: for every 1TB of data, you need 1 T-1 (or 1.55Mbps) of bandwidth. A 20Mbps internet connection can support a 12TB environment.
Summary: Cloud backup solutions efficiently manage large amounts of data through incremental backups, making data volume rarely a concern.
Myth 4: Incremental Forever Means Hundreds of Restores
A common misconception about “Incremental Forever” backups is that restoring data will require restoring hundreds of small backups. This is far from the truth.
Modern incremental backup software is designed to assemble your data automatically at any point in time, allowing you to restore to any moment with just a few clicks in a single operation.
Summary: Restoring with incremental backups is quick and straightforward—just one operation to restore data to any point in time.
Myth 5: Cloud Backup Is Too Expensive
Nothing is more costly than losing your business-critical data. Our solution is based on the size of your backups, not the number of devices or servers being backed up. Plus, data is deduplicated and compressed, reducing overall storage costs.
Older, archived data can also be stored at a lower cost, helping you align backup costs with the value of your data. In many cases, we can reduce costs by moving older data to lower-cost storage tiers.
Additionally, you’re getting expert management, monitoring, and support services from your cloud provider. Without a managed service, backups often go unmonitored, untested, and unrestored. With us, you receive full expert support and monitoring—ensuring your data is safe—at a much lower cost than doing it all in-house.
Summary: Cloud backup costs are justified when you consider the security, management, and peace of mind that come with a managed solution.
