Selecting a cloud backup solution also means selecting a cloud provider. For enterprises, cloud provider options range from the megacloud providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to small regional providers. Another decision for enterprises is in selecting the actual software part of the solution. IT needs to decide if it should extend the current solution to the cloud or replace it all together with a new more cloud-native solution. These two decisions are intertwined, and the choice of one often impacts the choice of the other. Making the right decisions is critical for the enterprise.
Cloud Backup Software Decisions
The choice in cloud backup software is mostly dependent on how much the organization has invested in on-premises data protection software and hardware. The speed at which the organization is migrating applications to the cloud also impacts the decision. If the organization has a significant investment in data protection software and hardware, and its progression to the cloud is slow, then it wants to augment instead of replacing its current strategy.
Augmenting the current data protection strategy typically means adding on cloud support modules from their current vendors, integrating those into the on-premises configuration as well as integrating into the cloud. The primary advantage of this approach is it is one of the more cost-effective means to open the data protection process to all the possibilities of the cloud. The problem is it forces IT to learn and manage all the points of integration.
Another advantage is this method provides the most choice as to which cloud provider the organization will use. All the cloud options are on the table, but that means the organization needs to be careful in its selection of cloud provider. Megacloud providers may provide the best price, but it leaves more of the integration work to the organization. Smaller regional providers can perform the integration work, but they may be limited in their ability to protect the organization from a regional disaster or adhere to specific industry data compliance regulations.
In between there are global cloud providers. These providers focus on a specific solution type of service, like backup, but they can customize the integration to the cloud. Unlike the regional provider, they have multiple data center locations, protecting the organization from a regional disaster.
To learn more about moving enterprise data protection to the cloud watch our on demand webinar “Moving the Enterprise Backup to the Cloud – A Step-By-Step Guide.” All attendees can download our exclusive white paper “Why Cloud Backup Doesn’t Work for Enterprises.”
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George Crump is the Chief Marketing Officer at VergeIO, the leader in Ultraconverged Infrastructure. Prior to VergeIO he was Chief Product Strategist at StorONE. Before assuming roles with innovative technology vendors, George spent almost 14 years as the founder and lead analyst at Storage Switzerland. In his spare time, he continues to write blogs on Storage Switzerland to educate IT professionals on all aspects of data center storage. He is the primary contributor to Storage Switzerland and is a heavily sought-after public speaker. With over 30 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, SAN, Virtualization, Cloud, and Enterprise Flash. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest storage integrators, where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.
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