Yes.
Many small businesses are using Software as a Service (SaaS) product, which primarily reside within the cloud. See our blog on the advantages of SaaS for small businesses here. These services are great for small businesses and allow you scale easily, however there is something of a misconception around the requirement for backing these services up.
If you had all your files sitting on a server in your office, you would undoubtedly be backing that server up.
Now you've moved all your files and email to the cloud, the requirement for backup is not quite as obvious. The service is run by Microsoft, or Google, or a similar massive tech company. "They don't have issues". "Their servers aren't going to collapse". "If they have a failure they'll have a redundant backup to restore the data".
Well… sort of. The first thing that is most important to note is with almost all these types of cloud services, their guarantees are only for the service. Not for your data. Obviously they don't try and lose your data but they make it clear it's your responsibility to manage it and back it up.
Yes, it is very unlikely that a service like Microsoft 365 is going to have such a huge issue that they'll lose all your data. That said it's not impossible but, cloud backups protect you from so much more.
Malicious / Accidental deletion
We've all done it by mistake. There are a few out there who have probably done it on purpose. Deleting files and not immediately noticing is a real problem. What if a project you worked on last year, was accidently or maliciously deleted. Whilst most cloud services offer you a recycle bin type setup, which allows you to recover recently deleted files. That almost certainly isn't enough. You probably wouldn't notice for a few weeks and without a backup, there's absolutely no way to get it back.
Ransomware attacks
Another prime example where a good backup strategy is worth its weight in gold is in the event of a Ransomware attack.
In this instance the original version of your files is encrypted on the cloud service. You are no longer able to access them. If you've only got the one copy that is quite a problem. You have the unenviable choice of having to make the decision between paying a ransom and hoping they stick to their word, or starting from scratch and accepting the files are lost.
This isn't a problem with a good backup. You can just revert to a copy of the backup before the files were encrypted. So you'll lose very little if any data.
Point in time backups
Accidently overwriting a file, even more of a problem with the increase in Autosave, can cause real problems especially if it's an old file you're using as a template. Perhaps it's a pricing structure for a particular project, used as a template for the new project and all that old info is now gone. You don't notice until you go back to the old project, possibly several months down the line.
With a point in time backup, you can restore that file as it was on any date since your backups began. So if you know when the project ended, you can be sure to get the right version back, which would be impossible without a good backup solution.
CloudAlly
Here at SynEngin we're partnered with a company called CloudAlly. They provide a great cloud backup solution. This allows us to easily manage your backups. We can ensure any data copies happen at the right time to suit your business and ensure we can recover files quickly for you in the event of a problem.
There are others out there on the market as well. Regardless of how much data you have or how safe you think it is, I would highly recommend looking into a backup solution for your cloud services, don't wait until you have a problem.
If you'd like to have a chat about backing up your cloud services then please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can book a free 1 hour consultation with us here or give us a call on 01252 918 990.