Your company’s data is important, and having adequate backups is a critical part of keeping that data protected. Whether it be a hardware failure or cyber attack, when disaster strikes, your business will come to a halt unless you have the proper plans and data backups in place. Managed backup solutions provided by a managed service provider (MSP) are one of the best ways to ensure that your organization has secure and reliable access to your data when the unexpected occurs. 

What Is a Managed Backup?

A managed backup is monitoring that’s put in place to check the integrity of your company’s backups. Typically, a small to midsize business would partner with a managed service provider for this service. Managed backups can also serve as a disaster recovery site, which you can use to restore your data and documents after experiencing an issue that compromises your data. 

As part of our managed backup services at CoreTech, we use a series of daily backup completion and weekly system checks to make sure all of your servers boot up properly in a virtual environment. We also provide a few different types of managed backups, depending on your organization’s needs. These include:

• A backup appliance for your server that is placed onsite and then backed up to a cloud data center
• Cloud backup that takes all of your data and documents from a cloud service like Microsoft Office 365 and backs it up to a remote location separate from Microsoft servers
• Backups for remote users where files are backed up locally from the remote user’s laptop or PC to a cloud location
  
  

Why Your Business Needs Managed Backups

Managing backups internally is not only complicated and time consuming, but it can also be quite expensive. You need to have technical experts on your team who understand the intricacies of proper backups and who have the time to monitor these systems around the clock.

Since most small to midsize businesses do not have these types of resources, they will often work with a trusted technology partner for managed backup services. Here are just a few ways that an MSP can benefit your company when it comes to managed backups.

Disaster Recovery

Disaster recovery is an important part of any company’s IT plans. If your devices or servers are infected with ransomware, the first thing you are going to do is take your systems offline to clean them. Then, you will need to restore your data and applications from a backup. That’s why having good backups in place is critical. 

It’s important to note that ransomware and cyber attacks are not the only issues that constitute a disaster for your IT systems. Fire, natural disasters and even vandalism can impact your equipment, servers and data. When you make managed backups a part of your disaster recovery and business continuity plan, you ensure that your company can work remotely and access your data and applications in the cloud, regardless of the state of your physical building.

Your MSP knows the ins and outs of the backup system it put in place, which makes the process of restoring data quicker and more efficient. This helps you save time, which is a significant benefit when you are experiencing downtime.

Deletion

One of the most common situations that CoreTech runs into as a managed backup solutions provider is accidental deletion of important data. Adequate backups allow businesses to restore important files or applications that they have deleted but still need access to. With managed backup services, the MSP can quickly restore this information so that the company can access necessary files, folders or applications as soon as possible.

Server Failures

Sometimes when a server fails, it has to be completely rebuilt and restored from a backup. Though this is a rare occurrence, it happens often enough that businesses should consider this possibility when reviewing backup options. With managed backup solutions, the MSP will be able to bring the company back to where it was right before the system failure.

Even if your business has to buy new equipment to replace the server, you will still be able to run off the onsite backup equipment that you have put in place. Working with a managed backup service provider gives you the benefit of being able to recover quickly while minimizing downtime and productivity loss.

Backups in the Cloud

If your business uses cloud-based systems as part of its operations, you will still need a backup solution to minimize data loss. As part of your managed backup services, your MSP will back up any files, data or applications you have inthe cloud to an off-site cloud location to keep them protected.

For example, let’s say that you use Microsoft Office 365 for creating, saving and sharing documents on SharePoint and OneDrive, as well as sending and receiving email. Microsoft does not have a backup in place — so if there is an issue with the system or someone on your team accidentally deletes files, there is no way to recover this data. However, if you have a managed backup in place, you will still be able to access this information.

Get Help from CoreTech

Downtime can really cost your company, and managed backup services act as a safety net. They provide your business with the peace of mind of knowing that you will be able to recover your data quickly if something were to happen. Managed backups not only protect your company from data loss, but they help minimize downtime and productivity loss as well.

At CoreTech, we take a customized approach to developing managed backup solutions. Our flexibility with our offerings allows us to tailor each solution to meet each company’s unique needs. Our team has also tested and used all of the best-in-class tools we provide, ensuring that they meet our customers’ needs.