Data storage in the cloud provides numerous benefits. The use of cloud services promises a high degree of flexibility. Optimized integration of cloud services can help to increase efficiency, especially if a company can compensate for fluctuations with the flexible scalability of cloud offerings. Cloud storage can also usefully supplement the backup strategy and provide additional protection against data loss in the company's own, on-prem infrastructure.
So more and more companies are turning to cloud storage. However, data security is all too often neglected in this context.
- What are the risks when companies entrust such an important asset as their sensitive data to external service providers?
- What precautions are recommended to protect your data and business processes?
Security risks in the cloud
Cloud service providers must comply with security standards. However, this does not relieve users from the responsibility to additionally ensure the security of their data themselves. After all, data in the cloud must also be protected against the known threats:
- Human error
Accidental or deliberate deletion can cause important data to be irretrievably lost – even in the cloud. - Technical defects
Defects can occur in the cloud provider's hardware, which in the worst case can lead to data loss. - Natural disasters
The data center site can be affected by flood, storm or fire. For companies, this means not only a temporary loss of computing and storage capacity. Such natural and technical disasters can also completely destroy storage media. - Cyber attacks and malware
The threat of hacker attacks and malware is constantly increasing. If, for example, large volumes of data are destroyed by a ransomware attack, the economic damage to the company is enormous.
Conclusion: The high availability of storage systems must not be confused with data security. Even the data that is stored in the cloud to improve efficiency must be secured by a backup. After all, anyone who relies on the cloud as the sole storage location for important and sensitive data accepts the risk of irretrievable data loss. This always means: loss of time and experience.
Cost-efficient backup for cloud data
Anyone who relies on cloud services is usually counting on the related savings potential. Therefore, a backup solution for your cloud data must also be convincing in terms of costs.
As the classic backup medium, tape is suitable for the cost-efficient storage of large volumes of data. Tape technology offers numerous advantages:
- Offline storage medium: security through "air gap" and media discontinuity
- Future-proof due to standardization and roadmap
- Low acquisition costs
- High energy efficiency during writing, reading and storage
- High scalability
Tape is therefore the ideal backup medium for large data volumes. It enables inexpensive data storage and secure, fast access in the event that lost data needs to be restored.
PoINT Archival Gateway: Tape-based Object Storage as Backup for your cloud data
PoINT Archival Gateway is a software-based object storage which supports tape libraries and writes object data to tape via the standardized S3 interface. Our software thus enables the integration of an additional S3 storage class on which data can be stored in a particularly cost-efficient way.
PoINT Data Replicator performs an automatic asynchronous data replication to PoINT Archival Gateway, so that your cloud data is always backed up in the form of an independent 1:1 copy.
- Protection against data loss
- Cost-efficient storage on tape
- Standardized interface
- High performance values
- Optimal scaling of capacity, performance and security
- Investment protection by vendor-independent software solution
Detailed information about PoINT Archival Gateway can be found in our Technical White Paper.
