A short while ago I spent about 30 minutes working on (and eventually succeeding at) restoring 15 files a customer had mistakenly deleted. A task that should have only taken 3 clicks and 5 minutes, instead took about 30 clicks and just as many minutes. Click after click, prompt after prompt, and even a reboot of the tape device was needed to rectify the situation. In case you haven’t put two and two together yet – yes, a customer of mine is still using TAPE to back up their files!

For those of you who know me you’re probably thinking “How could a self-proclaimed cloud backup evangelist still support customers using that dirty 4-letter word?”

The simple answer is: it’s my fault. I blame myself for not doing a better job of properly explaining the drawbacks of doing it the old way. In an effort not to make that mistake again, I’d like to once and for all put it out there for all to consume.

Today, many companies are using a variety of data backup options. Certainly these have worked with varying levels of success; however we are faced with the reality that the volume and importance of our data is only going to increase. Many say it will exponentially increase and its availability will become just as critical a factor. So how do you maximize your time and resources while minimizing what used to be a headache and might potentially be a disaster? Let me help by providing years of experience in data backup (and in some cases recovery) options:

Backup Option A:

1. Multiple technologies (tape, cron, manual copy, ntbackup, retrofunk, etc)
2. Multiple management consoles in order to execute, monitor and manage your backup
3. Multiple updates that will need to be applied as patches and features are rolled out
4. Multiple licensing models (different software to license as well as different modules to license)
5. Multiple consumables (tapes, disk, DVD, …)
6. Backing up to a consumable and taking it offsite
7. Multiple points of training for onboarding a new Backup Administrator

Backup Option B:

1. Cloud Based Backup

This might seem like an over-simplification, but it is not. Traditional back up methods are quickly becoming obsolete and new tools and methodologies are available today. There are many ways to get from point A to point B; however we all know the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Or in other words, the shortest distance between Backup and Recovery is Cloud Based Backup.

Find out more about how Kishmish can help your business implement a Cloud Based Backup solution.

Stay tuned to find out the advantages Cloud Backup. Follow Michael Varre and Kishmish on Twitter.