60% of businesses that suffer a data breach tend to close down within six months of the event, according to Small Biz Trends. In case your business doesn’t have the necessary data security strategies in place, then the chances are that you will be part of this club once data breaches strike. While most IT teams work overtime to design a secure infrastructure, it is common for some to think that the role of backing up their SaaS application data lies in the hands of cloud vendors.
Although most vendors will do their best to provide optimal security through backups, there are still a few things that you can do on your side that will help improve the security you get from data backups. Furthermore, vendors might not necessarily be committed to the backups since they aren’t as invested in the welfare of your business as you are.
Here are some of the best practices you can commit to for effective SaaS application back up.
IMAGE: PEXELS
Keep Multiple Copies In The Cloud
The conventional way of backing up data on-premise is to have it stored in different places simultaneously. The same holds true to the cloud environment. Only confining your SaaS application data to one backup location in the cloud is often risky especially in situations where that exact structure gets attacked.
This cloud to cloud backup strategy makes data accessibility and management easy for compliance purposes. Audits can easily be done in such situations making it easy to comply with the requirements.
Educate Employees On Data Back Up
Data loss doesn’t have to arise from adverse situations, and sometimes simple human errors can lead to it. For instance, having an employee accidentally delete their SaaS application account will cripple their ability to continue working. Additionally, the IT department will have to focus on data recovery for the specific employee which might take valuable time that could have been used doing other productive things.
To prevent this, start by training employees on the how to best work on the SaaS application. Consider investing in solutions that allow employees to cater to needs such as data recovery on their own to promote workplace autonomy. As such, your IT department can enjoy reduced pressure to cater to trivial troubleshooting matters and be more efficient in catering for other necessary issues.
Monitor The Backed Up Data
It can be frustrating to try and back up the data in your account only to notice that the data was not backed up correctly or it got corrupted. All data backups should, therefore, be monitored by the admins to ensure that it is in the best state possible. In most case, when issues arise, they are due to data problems instead of the backup process itself.
For instance, zero bit files may not be included in backups and are often an indication that the data is corrupted. Paying close attention to such errors will help evaluate the health of your backed up data while helping you avoid any unpleasant surprises.
Pay Attention To Metadata
Metadata is vital in helping people get context from data. With titles, tags, ownership and sharing settings, it becomes quite easy to tell what to do with the data. Unfortunately, not all cloud vendors will provide you with a solution that can store metadata.
This means that the users of the application will find it tough to use the data once they restore it as it has little to no context. As a result, choose to work with solutions that make room for metadata backup and customizations.
Conclusion
It is never enough to have a reputable vendor provide you with SaaS application cloud backup solution. As long as you walk the extra mile to ensure that employees are trained, and everything is intact, data backup will become a breeze. Consider the tips above to fortify your company’s disaster recovery plan.
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