When we plan our product roadmaps, at the forefront of our minds is the question, “What can we do to make our customers’ lives easier?” Backup administrators, systems architects, and everyone involved in IT Operations are entrusted with protecting critical data…yet they have so much on their plates that keeping their heads above water is not easy.
It’s keeping this everyday reality fresh in our minds that has made 2018 The Year Of The Cloud for Bocada. No, we aren’t hopping on the latest IT bandwagon. Far from it. We know that moving backup data, and data protection, to the cloud is good for organizations and it’s good for the people that manage those organizations’ data. As a result, when organizations are ready to migrate their data protection to the cloud, we will be ready and able to keep track of it.
The Organizational Benefits of Backup Data In The Cloud
Nearly anyone following the conversation about cloud migration has read about the very clear cost benefits that come from less hardware, scalable infrastructures, and reduced planning and administration.
1. Hardware Costs One of the most concrete benefits of moving backup data to the cloud is the clear financial upside. You no longer have to pay for expensive capital investments in servers and on- and off-site infrastructure to store data for years on end. With hardware off your plate, you no longer need real estate to house bulky servers, electricity to power your systems and keep them cool, industrial-scale backup generators, or hurricane-rated structures.
This means capital expenditures are drastically reduced. All that hardware and infrastructure drawing cash resources is taken off the books. Instead, migrating data storage to the cloud means shifting it to operating expense, something that can be scaled higher or lower according to the natural seasons of your business. Money is used more efficiently and your bottom line stays protected.
2. Scalable, Efficient Infrastructure Cloud storage scales with your business, which means saying goodbye to paying for storage upfront that you may not use for months or even years to come. Instead, you can ratchet storage up or down, paying for only what you need when you need it. Your data storage usage becomes more efficient which translates directly to storage cost savings.
3. Reduced Overhead Redundancy When you’re concerned about protecting your servers from ransomware or natural disasters in an on-prem world, you have to buy backup servers offsite, sometimes in multiple locations. All those costs we mentioned earlier to cover infrastructure, real estate, and utilities are now multiplied many times over. You get data protection, but at a very hefty price. Going to the cloud means you can rely on others to provide that redundancy for you…at a cost and scale that’s good for your business.
The People Benefits of Backup Data In The Cloud
While the cost benefits are often the most talked about benefits of cloud-based data storage, the often unsung benefit is the value to IT Operations Managers. Saddled with ever-growing data, limited resources, and increased external data threats, these employees are hard-pressed to keep it all running. Yet, they are the backbone of making organizations run smoothly during times of technology crises. Moving data storage and protection to the cloud changes this game.
1. Efficient Workflows Picture a server farm. Now picture the amount of effort it takes to get that set up. Now add in doing that at multiple locations for intentionally-redundant backup storage. Wouldn’t one-click deployment be better?
With cloud-based data storage, the speed to set up the storage needed to support a multinational organization’s backup data becomes so much quicker. Mindless labor and configuration time gets wiped out so your team gets to work on more interesting projects.
2. Empowered Workers The bulk of enterprise organizations span across country borders. Yet on-premises data protection runs against this, often forcing locally-run, regional data protection.
Cloud-based data storage turns this paradigm around, making oversight truly global. Your team members can recover data no matter where they or the data resides, and no matter what device they’re using. Giving that level of visibility and control to your team members is empowering, and affords them the responsibility aligned with the value they bring to your organization.
3. Focused, Strategic Activities Consider everything being asked of IT Ops teams: manage servers and infrastructure for real-time usage, short-term backup, and long-term storage; keep data storage in line with industry or government regulations; address auditor requests for documentation; ensure that data is actually being backed up successfully; run security patches; upgrade to the latest versions, etc. It’s no wonder IT Operations teams feel taxed. No one can be an expert at all these things, yet IT Ops is being stretched to do more with less to cover all these areas.
Moving storage to the cloud reduces complexity and shortens the to-do list. It allows cloud storage providers, who have a vested interest in high availability at a low cost, to do what they do best. In turn, it allows IT teams time to turn their attention to more valuable projects that can contribute to the bottom line and make them strategic rather than costly overhead.
A Hybrid-Cloud World That Needs Data Protection
The stars are clearly aligning and pointing in one direction: data backup and data protection is going to the cloud. That means everyone committed to helping organizations safeguard their data needs to be there too.
Will we will still support tape and on-premises backup? Absolutely!
Bocada is prepared for a hybrid-cloud world, one where enterprises juggle legacy backup media types while embracing new cloud platforms. We know data protection isn’t going anywhere. On the contrary. The uptick in major cyberattacks and natural disasters points to its increasing importance. So long as critical data lives across different systems, Bocada is dedicated to giving IT teams the platform they need to simplify data protection across their complex environments.
As we move into the back-half of 2018, get ready to see more and more releases focused on cloud backup protection. Your enterprise may not be migrating data backup to the cloud just yet. But when you do, you can be assured Bocada will be ready to help you keep it safe and secure.