Having an offsite backup strategy is crucial for any business to protect their data against localized disasters. Backing up data and storing it offsite ensures business continuity in the event of events like fires, floods, hardware failure, or ransomware attacks. There are several key reasons why offsite backup storage is essential.
Protection Against Localized Disasters
One of the main reasons businesses should use offsite backup is protection against localized disasters like fires, floods, or natural disasters that could damage on-premises backup copies. If backups are stored in the same location as the original data, any event that destroys the primary data will also likely destroy the backups. Storing backups offsite mitigates this risk and ensures backups remain intact even if the primary site is damaged.
For example, if a fire breaks out at a company’s headquarters and destroys their server room, any backups stored onsite would also be lost in the fire. Having offsite backups in a different geographic location protects against the fire eliminating both primary and backup copies. Even events like burst water pipes or electrical damage can destroy onsite backups, making offsite storage essential.
Safeguard Against Malware and Ransomware
In addition to physical disasters, offsite backup also protects against digital threats like malware, ransomware, or malicious deletion. If backups are stored offsite, connected devices like backup tapes or drives are disconnected from the main network. This air gap protection can prevent malware or ransomware from reaching offsite backups.
If a business suffers a crypto-ransomware attack that encrypts files and servers, accessible local backups may also be encrypted and rendered useless. Storing backups offline and offsite maintains recoverable copies out of reach from malware. Likewise, if an employee accidentally deletes critical data, offsite backups act as an insurance policy for recovery.
Geographic Redundancy
Storing backups in geographically diverse locations adds another layer of protection from regional disasters. If backups are only stored locally, a large scale disaster like a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, or wildfire could destroy both primary and backup data. Utilizing offsite backup in a different geographic region ensures backup availability remains high.
For example, a company could store primary data and onsite backups in Dallas, TX. If a tornado struck Dallas, it could potentially wipe out both local copies. But with offsite backups in Miami, FL, the company would retain access to recovery data unaffected by the regional Texas disaster. Geographic diversity decreases the chances of any single event destroying all data copies.
Compliance Requirements
Many government and industry regulations include requirements around data backup and availability. HIPAA, GLBA, SOX, and GDPR all contain guidelines for backup procedures and geographic redundancy to ensure critical data remains available.
Storing backups offsite can help organizations comply with these regulations to avoid data loss scenarios. Particularly for medical, financial or personal data, offsite backup provides added data protection to align with compliance standards for high availability.
Lower Risk of Unauthorized Access
In addition to providing recovery from disasters and outages, offsite backup can also help limit risks from unauthorized data access. When backups are stored offsite, it removes physical access to backup media from normal workplace activity, lowering potential for tampering or theft.
If tapes or drives remain onsite, it increases risks of someone with physical access improperly accessing data on backups. By keeping backup media stored securely offsite, companies can better regulate access to copies to prevent unauthorized restoration, downloads or tampering.
Cost Savings Over High Availability
While high availability solutions like redundancy aim for zero downtime by eliminating single points of failure, maintaining duplicate hardware onsite can be extremely expensive. Offsite backup provides a more affordable disaster recovery option for smaller businesses to ensure access to data remains available.
The overhead cost of setting up redundant power, network and servers onsite can be prohibitive for smaller IT budgets. Offsite backup provides access to business data in the case of an outage at a much lower implementation cost by leveraging space in an external facilities.
Choosing the Right Offsite Backup Strategy
There are several approaches companies can utilize to handle offsite data backup:
- Cloud backup: Back up data to an external cloud provider to store copies in their distributed infrastructure. Popular options include Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage.
- Managed backup services: Managed service providers maintain offsite backup copies on your behalf using their storage systems and facilities.
- Offline media: Use external hard drives, magnetic tape, or other media to physically transport copies to an offsite location.
- Remote servers/data centers: Maintain backup copies at an alternate company-owned facility in a different region.
The right approach depends on budget, the importance of availability, and required recovery time objectives. Lower cost options like external drives offer basic offsite capabilities, while cloud backups provide high availability and geographic distribution. Managed services give turnkey solutions without overhead of maintaining offsite facilities.
Security Considerations for Offsite Data
While offsite backup provides critical protection, companies must also ensure security precautions are taken to protect sensitive offsite data. Backup copies stored externally face risks like:
- Improper access if backups are not encrypted
- Transit theft when physically transporting devices
- Unauthorized restoration from media
- Deletion or corruption of cloud-based backups
- Insecure disposal of aged media
Companies using offsite backup should take steps to encrypt backup data end-to-end, securely erase old media, and control access to offsite copies. Physical media should be transported in locked cases and over secure routes. Cloud accounts should have limited access and tenure-based policies to delete old versions.
Testing Backup Recovery Processes
In addition to offsite storage, companies must test restore processes to ensure critical data can be recovered when needed. Verifying backups does not mean offsite copies are restorable or retain needed recovery points.
Regular testing helps validate that backups are not corrupted, encrypted or otherwise unrecoverable. Test restores should be done on a quarterly basis across all backup sets, with the most business critical data validated monthly.
Testing also ensures backup copies remain compliant with recovery objectives like recovery time and recovery point. If testing shows backups are falling outside requirements, appropriate adjustments can be made.
Conclusion
Offsite backup provides one of the best defenses against data loss from cybercrime, natural disasters, human error and hardware failure. Storing backups externally guards against localized threats impacting both primary and onsite backup data. To fully realize offsite protection, companies must take steps to secure backups, validate recovery processes and ensure availability meets business requirements.