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The Upside to Outsourcing
Any company will see some benefits from outsourcing data backup:
- Though prices vary, in most cases outsourcing your backup allows you to take advantage of state-of-the-art technology without breaking the bank on it.
- Most contracts include 24/7 monitoring and management.
- By default, standalone storage solutions and SSPs offer built-in disaster recovery plans, since in most cases they store customer data offsite.
In addition to these obvious pluses, technologists say three other bonuses are speed, the prospect of automating a traditionally manual process and, of course, improved security.
Speed is one of the most tangible benefits. Traditional backups to external devices such as tape or disk take hours -- first to delete old files, then to rewrite new ones. Over the years, some companies have had to hire full-time employees to do nothing but conduct backups every day. Other companies have gotten so frustrated that they back up data only once a week.
Outsourcing the process eliminates these frustrations. After a CIO signs up, the technology runs an initial backup, a process that can take anywhere from days to weeks (depending on the volume of data). From that point forward, Ted Werth, president of PlumChoice Online PC Services, an SSP in Billerica, Mass., says the system rewrites only those files that have been altered.
"The solution is transparent to the user," says Werth, whose company resells a SaaS product that incorporates technology from Carbonite. "Once installed, the backups just operate on their own."
This automated approach removes the tactical burdens of tape handling, scheduling, monitoring, troubleshooting errors and maintenance. Seen another way, the process obviates the need for manual intervention of any kind, freeing human resources to do what they do best: programming, administering networks and so on.
Of course, the last benefit to outsourcing backup is improved security.
First, by eliminating physical tape backups, CIOs who use standalone storage servers or SSPs also eliminate the risk of losing tape backups. Second, since most backup technologies implement 256-key encryption before backing up, even if a hacker or evildoer gets the data, there's virtually no way he can access it.
For companies in industries such as health care, financial services and government -- sectors that must comply with federal regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley and Gramm-Leach-Bliley acts -- an added bonus of this security is a host of reporting capabilities that provide CIOs with the information they need to prove that customer data is safe.
Richard Heitmann, vice president of product management at EVault Inc., says this feature could save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. "For a small or midsized company, this kind of bonus is invaluable," he says.
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