Managed Backup Services: 8 Advantages You Can't Ignore

Various factors, including hardware failure, software corruption, natural disasters, user error, and malicious attacks, can cause data loss. As a result, any business that wants to ensure the security and protection of its critical data needs a robust data backup strategy. 

Unfortunately, while nearly 90% of companies are backing up their critical data, only 41% back up daily – leaving many businesses vulnerable to devastating data loss.

For IT teams, backup processes are getting increasingly complicated, time-consuming and expensive as data is scattered across multiple cloud platforms, branch offices and remote users’ endpoint devices. As a result, many companies are now leveraging managed backup services to safeguard critical business data and minimize the possibility of data loss.

What are Managed Backup Services?

Managed backup services rely on a managed service provider (MSP) to create and store data backups, typically using cloud-managed backup technology to secure your files offsite.

Managed backup services include monitoring, maintaining, testing and deleting obsolete backups regularly to ensure your stored data is reliable, accessible and compliant with industry standards. 

Offloading the responsibility to a qualified MSP ensures organizations maintain a robust backup strategy. MSPs are experts in the latest backup technologies, techniques and tools. They know what files and data you need to back up, the frequency with which you need to run each backup, what type of backup best suits each data type and where you should store your backup files.

8 Benefits of Managed Backup Services

There are many benefits to using managed backup services for businesses of all sizes. Here are some of the key benefits:

1. Reduces Costs

Since MSPs typically leverage cloud storage solutions, you don’t need to build and support expensive local storage infrastructure. This is especially important as you scale your business. You can eliminate the need for costly new hardware as your data backup needs grow, and you only pay for what you use. 

As mentioned above, backup processes are getting increasingly complicated and time-consuming. Managed backup services also eliminate the need to hire and train additional IT staff.

2. Enhances Compliance

Regulations like GDPR, PCI, and HIPAA, along with others, were created to ensure that organizations implement the most reliable methods to secure sensitive data from infrastructure failures and malicious attacks. However, compliance can’t be achieved unless an organization handles data in a way that adheres to the outlined regulations.

For many companies, having managed offsite data backups is essential to meeting IT compliance and security requirements. MSPs are also experts in the standards and laws in each industry and will ensure you meet mandatory regulations.

3. Ensures RTOs and RPOs are Met

RTO and RPO are metrics that determine your downtime and data loss tolerance. These metrics enable you to determine how much time an application can be down before serious harm is done to the business (RTO) or how much data you can lose before significant damage is done to the company (RPO).

In a disaster, the time it takes to recover and the amount of lost data heavily rely on your approach to regular backups and data storage. MSPs ensure you have the system requirements and infrastructure to recover data efficiently and preserve business continuity in an emergency.

4. Provides Proactive Monitoring

While your IT team might be capable of handling basic technology and cybersecurity needs, monitoring your systems against the ever-rising threat of cyber attacks or dealing with an actual security incident can quickly overwhelm an IT team. 

MSPs offer 24 x 7 x 365 proactive monitoring of your system, including cloud storage and data centers. They will immediately take action to amend errors and remove threats before they develop into full-fledged catastrophes.

5. Minimizes Downtime

It doesn’t matter if it’s ransomware, a cybersecurity breach, a hardware failure, or a natural disaster; every minute of downtime can be costly. Hourly downtime costs can run from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the business.

Managed backup services minimize downtime after a cyberattack by ensuring that businesses have the necessary capacity to respond rapidly and restore data quickly. 

6. Scalability

One of the most significant advantages of managed backup services is their flexibility in adapting to the ever-evolving needs of your business. MSPs monitor the routine operation of your backups and will let you know well in advance of any issues with your storage capacity or network bandwidth.

MSPs also help optimize your backups to create the best mix of performance, resource utilization, and recovery flexibility for your needs. They will also advise on options when upgrading to a more comprehensive solution as your business grows.

7. Offers Access to Experienced Experts

It’s no secret that companies face a considerable security talent shortage making it difficult for businesses to execute a robust security strategy. And even if there was a large pool of security experts to hire from, limited IT budgets make it impossible to hire experts from every security field. Likewise, having an employee learn a whole new skill set doesn’t make sense.

Managed backup services provide access to experienced industry experts who are highly knowledgeable in data backup and resilience. With the help of an MSP, your business will can benefit from best practices and the latest technology to ensure your data is always protected.

8. Better Use of Internal IT Resources 

Business success comes from capitalizing on opportunities. Unfortunately, this becomes more challenging as your resources become constrained. Many IT teams are already operating at the edge of their IT capabilities and are overwhelmed with routine and mundane tasks.

Hiring a managed service provider lets you offload the burden of managing your data backups, freeing your IT team to focus more on strategic initiatives.

Wrapping Up

Ransomware, natural disasters, power outages, and equipment malfunctions can can cause data loss. However, if you employ a trustworthy managed backup service provider like Gibraltar, you can ensure the security and protection of your critical data.