For backup, cloud technology has removed a lot of pain that was present in traditional backup technology. For small and medium sized businesses, problems like bad tapes, time to restore, and theft are no longer as issue. Cloud backup services offer improved reliability, speed of recovery, a lower TCO (total cost of ownership) and have standard file encryption. Google Apps for Business users understand that Google won’t lose their data, but what about themselves? Although Google Apps resides in the cloud, there are still several considerations in light of cloud backup versioning to keep in mind:
- File syncing services like Google Drive are different than backup. A sync app allows users to access files across multiple locations and the cloud. It protects you from mechanical failure on any one of those devices, however if a file gets deleted or corrupted, all those same devices get that file. Versioning on a file syncing app is designed with the intent of reverting back to a particular revision which may or may not be the desired backup file. File syncing services also are not designed for database files like a Quickbooks and will cause problems.
- Google Apps Vault is designed with email archiving security and compliance in mind. It will look after your email backup needs but only looks after email (as of December 2012).
- Backupify is a cloud backup app for Google Apps that backs up Gmail, Docs/Drive, Contacts, Calendar & Sites. It’s a true backup app that backs up the 10 most recent versions of a native Google document. For companies using Google Apps for Business, this app provides sleep insurance for minimal cost.
- For an all inclusive cloud document backup app, consider an app designed for that purpose to being with like IDrive. IDrive retains and allows you to restore the last 30 versions of all files backed up to your account. Your storage is computed only for the most current version; historical versions are stored for free. It works well for documents within your Google Drive sync folder and outside of it. Several computers/devices can also be on the same shared account along with network drives. It also is best for versioning of non-native Google doc files like Word & Excel.
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