The internet has never been a safe place for businesses to operate. However, in recent years it has become a far more dangerous due to a dramatic increase in the use of web-based technologies by businesses coupled with a substantial rise in cybercrime specifically targeting commercial enterprises.

This shift in environment means businesses must now more than ever embrace a proactive and ongoing approach to cyber security in order to ensure commercial assets are safe. This said even with the best cyber defence in place, no system is or remains impervious to cyber-attack.

This is why deploying backup software solutions that can preserve your data and quickly get your systems back online is an absolute necessity. This quick guide will take through the key features you should look for when choosing a backup solution for your business.

Ease of use

When it comes to enterprise-grade backup systems it’s fair to say that there are many technically fantastic systems on the market. However, many of these systems have been built by developers that have neglected to build in a simple to use management system and design that quickly allows their customers to understand and easily use.

As a backup is a last resort system (break in case of emergency), the last thing you’ll want is something that’s not easy to understand or use. Aside from the learning curve required, not having a proper understanding, a system can leave you open to incorrectly setting it up and thus put your backups at risk. Always look for a backup system that has the customer in mind, works intuitively and is well documented.

Security

When it comes to backup software, there are two key types of security you should assess before purchasing:

Portal security – Does your backup service have Two Factor Authentication (2FA)? Do they force complex passwords? Do they offer reset/ additional verification for logins via your phone? If the answer is no to either of the first two questions you should steer clear of the provider; a complex password greatly reduces the likelihood of someone else accessing your backup and 2FA is standard with most enterprise solutions now so even if someone has or brute forces your password they are unable to access the system.

System security – Whether your backing up pure data, an entire website or standalone software you backup provider should be encrypting and securing your data to a high standard to prevent possible intrusion into your data and corruption or ransom of said data. Always check the level of encryption a service uses and if other measures like PPK’s can be put in place to further secure (typically a 2048 character code used to verify a user when accessing a server).

Scheduled backups & verification

Backup software should always be automatically backing up your data at regular intervals or can be set to do. This is usually standard with most providers but be aware depending on the provider they may charge an additional fee for this service. Also make sure that the provider verifies the integrity of data for each backup, to ensure if you end up in a worst-case scenario of needing to use a backup that your data is not corrupt.

Backups of backups

Most cloud backup providers will have multiple data centres across the world where they keep disaster copies of your backups (data). This ensures if one system is compromised and data corrupted that your data can be retrieved. It’s also worth glancing terms and conditions to see if they own their own data centres and what their policies are on disaster recovery if an error has occurred their end. It’s worth noting here that most businesses will use 2 or 3 different providers to backup the same data, this means if one goes done, you still have data elsewhere.

Automatic deployment

If you’re considering backing up a system such as a website (data and software), always make sure you can easily deploy a backup from your management console. Solutions like Kinsta allow you to do this, whereas other more developer-focused platforms may require a developer to deploy a backup.

Version control

This is a relatively new feature of backup software, in essence, it allows you to revert to a previous version of a file or retrieve a deleted file from the past. This is especially useful if something is accidentally deleted or you have an angry contractor set on making life difficult.

From useful to necessary

Overall backup and disaster recovery software for pure data, software and data or just software is an absolute necessity for all businesses operating in the digital space. The concept is similar to business insurance; you never want to0 have to use it for its there to protect your business from unforeseen events.