By Mamush Heayie

KeepItSafe (KIS) announced today the launch of its Cloud to Cloud backup services called KeepItSafe® Cloud2Cloud.

What is Cloud to Cloud Backup?
As the name suggests, Cloud to Cloud backup is one cloud backing up another cloud. Your Software as a Service (SaaS) providers are keeping your data in their public clouds. Cloud to Cloud backs up these public clouds with a private cloud to help you reclaim control of your data.

The need for Cloud to Cloud data protection arises from the fact that cloud applications fail from time to time. SaaS is a widely used business model, where applications are hosted in the cloud and users pay monthly fees per usage, per seat. However, many have started asking how safe are SaaS solutions; and have opted to backup cloud apps using backup apps already running in the cloud. Prime SaaS examples include: Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, and Salesforce.com.

Who is Responsible for Data in the Cloud?
Even though SaaS applications protect your data, at the end of the day, you – the data owner – will be responsible for protecting your data stored by these providers. According to Eran Feigenbaum, Director of Security, Google Apps “If something bad happens to your data, ultimately you’re still responsible….the number one risk is the end-user…how will you minimize the impact of a breach?” This means, you are responsible for securing your own data and there is no guarantee that the services you use will be available all the time.

The Cloud to Cloud Market is Growing
According to Forbes, “69% of enterprises have either applications or infrastructure running in the cloud.” Office 365 has become Microsoft’s fastest growing commercial product ever – the company’s cloud revenue grew 128 percent Q1 2015 compared to the same quarter in 2014. An average 5,000 businesses sign up for Google Apps every day, and at the moment, Google Apps has more than 50 million users. Salesforce has passed $5 billion in annual revenue earlier this year. Nearly 90% of SMBs are currently making use of the cloud (RightScale 2014 State of the Cloud Report); and 80% of surveyed businesses use the Public Cloud for SaaS (Aberdeen Group).

Why Use Cloud to Cloud Backup Services?
Even though SaaS providers control hardware and software failure, potential areas of data loss include human error, hack attacks, former employees, malicious inside deletion, third-party software, and more. Cloud to Cloud protected data also becomes handy for legal discoveries, as long as you have backed up your data regularly, and your account is configured right. When employees depart from your company, Cloud to Cloud services allow you to retain all the data they generated, including data already deleted by the departing employee.

Limitations
In the case of Office 365, limitations include: if data is deleted, it is gone forever, and the “Recoverable Items” folder can only store 30 GB. There is also no guarantee that data is fully protected. Liability is limited to only direct damages of up to £3,250 (USD $5,000) and/or covers a refund of the last 12 month’s subscription fees. Salesforce charges a flat rate of £6,500 (USD $10,000) and protected data is not easily accessible; and it might take weeks to recover your data, as described here.

According to The Register, Salesforce database corruption caused blackouts and 5 hours of data loss, and the data was never restored. Salesforce would not confirm what happened or admit fault, they made “limited disclosures” to “affected customers”, and they are protected from recourse by their terms of service.

Choosing the Right Cloud to Cloud Vendor
Choosing the right vendor for Cloud to Cloud is not easy. You will need to do your homework thoroughly. Factors you should look into include: recovery time objective (RTO), regulatory demands, permanence of the provider, service levels, certification, software quality and ease of use, data centre security, redundancy, what are the compression ratios is, how is the pricing structured, amount of data, number of users, etc…

The average medium-to large-sized business actually uses between 300-400 cloud apps. This means, your company might need additional services beyond Office 365, Salesforce.com, and Google Apps that might include: VMs, Physical servers, Docker containers, Mobile endpoints, and Databases.

Summary and Conclusion
At the end of the day, you will need to ask yourself if a Cloud to Cloud service fits your business’ needs or not. Don’t rely on SaaS providers to protect your mission critical data. Cloud to Cloud backup will protect your SaaS applications like Office 365, Google Apps, and Salesforce. Look for a backup provider that addresses your individual business needs.

KeepItSafe provides a fully managed and monitored backup service and uses a secure enterprise Cloud backup solution that is agentless, holds limitless file versions and has no cap on the number of platforms and apps it can support.

Background
KeepItSafe was founded by entrepreneurs Eoin Blacklock and Jonathan Crowe back in 2006 in Dublin, Ireland. The company grew faster in subsequent years and got acquired by j2 Global in 2010. After the acquisition, j2 Global did retain the KeepItSafe brand. The two founders have remained with the company and have been responsible for growing the KeepItSafe brand globally for the past five years. Fast forward from 2010 to 2015, j2 has been able to acquire 28 other cloud backup companies and can boast of a full suite of data protection solutions and services across three continents, making it the largest backup and recovery provider on the planet. Other notable j2 backup brands include: SugarSync and Livedrive.

Mamush Heayie is founding analyst and managing editor of BackupReview.info, an industry leading informational website launched in 2004 that covers Cloud Services, Cloud Backups, SaaS, BaaS, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, IaaS, and more.

 

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