As data volumes grow, it is increasingly challenging for businesses to manage their own backup and recovery requirements.
This is according to Demetri Petropoulos, head of business development at Global Micro Solutions who notes service providers, on the other hand, are experienced in maintaining and supporting backup infrastructure.
Therefore, choosing a cloud backup service provider is a decision that should not be taken lightly because if anything goes wrong, the business is ultimately in the provider's hands, says Petropoulos.
Warren Olivier, Veeam's regional manager for Southern Africa, warns that organisations must be careful to not only consider price when choosing backup-as-a-service providers. Contract negotiation is key, companies should read the small print to find out the value of the data and who is held responsible if it is lost, says Olivier.
There are a plethora of service providers in the market at the moment - probably too many - and some of them are not going to last long, adds Olivier. "If the company providing your data protection goes under, what happens to your backups?"
He points out cloud backup service providers must have a track record that shows their product and the company are reliable.
Businesses should be confident enough to trust their cloud backup service provider will quickly get the company up and running without losing a single file -while saving money, protecting the information and tailoring their service and solutions to suit the end user's requirements, says Petropoulos.
Companies should be able to customise the service level agreement to meet specific needs, including negotiating own recovery time objective and recovery point objectives, says Petropoulos.
Before companies entrust data to a cloud application backup system, it is critical they validate that the vendor has its own backups and recovery plans in place, says Petropoulos.
If the vendor is using its own data centre to host the backups, then it should be able to provide customers with details on redundancy, distribution and availability levels as part of the service level agreement.
According to research firm Forrester, many cloud backup providers are vague and noncommittal around efforts to recover lost customer data. Therefore, organisations should review sections on backup and disaster recovery in their vendor contracts to see what the business can expect if it loses data. If contracts are vague or inconclusive, users should reach out to the provider for further clarifications.
Olivier states a basic service level agreement should cover uptime guarantees, turnaround time on service requests and problem solving, reporting systems, fees, and compensation if the agreement is breached.
The service provider should be able to help with the migration from the existing backup platform and should offer a test drive so that users can experience the backup and recovery process, says Petropoulos.
There should also be assurance that the business, no matter how small, will receive the same attention as a larger client in the case of a disaster, he adds.
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