Is Cloud Backup good insurance for your brokerage? Don Purchase is the Business Development Manager at Stage2- Data; Canada s Premiere Cloud Solutions Provider. Stage2Data is the Affinity Partner of the IBABC for cloud solutions. don.purchase@stage2data.com Direct: 647 260 3355 Cell: 647 995 7809 INTRODUCTION Having an adequate data protection solution that can recover your business quickly from a natural disaster, server crash, or a virus attack is essential to maintaining your brokerage s operations. It s important to have a reliable backup solution and disaster recovery (DR) plan. Yet many brokerages still do not have a viable DR plan in place. Many rely on manual backup processes that are prone to failures and offer little security. Some factors that contribute to a business not having a DR plan are, accelerating data growth, budget limitations, perceived difficulty in implementation, and a resistance to change. A popular trend and one that makes good business sense for brokerages is cloud backup solutions. Cloud backup offers low upfront costs, reduced IT complexity, a cost effective pay as you grow model, is automated, reliable and easy to use. Cloud backup offers more security than USB drives or tapes. Depending on the solution and vendor, cloud backup can also ensure industry and government regulatory compliance and can even serve as a value add to your customers. There are many cloud backup providers in the market. Being properly equipped to know what to look for is very important to ensure you are making the best decision for your brokerage.
These Three Pillars of Strength will help you evaluate a potential cloud backup solution and provider. The Pillars of Strength are; Experience, Technology and Support. 1. EXPERIENCE The vendor you choose must be a proven expert in the cloud backup and recovery industry. There are many cloud backup providers that have very little or no experience in cloud based backup solutions. It is increasingly difficult to choose one that will best serve your brokerage. When looking for a cloud backup provider you need to research vendors and ensure they are established experts in the industry with the required service levels and infrastructure. Many cloud backup providers are simply resellers of a backup software and have little experience in the cloud or offer very limited support (not 24x7x365) or infrastructure to store your data properly, such as compliant data centers. Therefore it is imperative you find a vendor that you can Trust that has a proven track record that will best serve your business today and in the future. Below are some important questions to ask: Who is the management team? How long have they been in business working with cloud backup solutions? How many staff do they have? Is it a strong company? Do they have a Certificate of Insurance? Do they retain staff or frequently lose them? What is the company s mission statement or core values/strengths? What does this vendor specialize in? Is it more than cloud backup and if so what? Does the vendor have experience working in your industry? Are they Canadian owned and operated? Are their data centers in Canada? Do they have references within your industry you can talk to Contract: Go over the contact agreement thoroughly and have a clear understanding of what it entails. Do they offer a contract with proper protection and service level guarantees? If you are unsure of something be sure to get clarification before proceeding. Make certain that all costs quoted to you are present and the support fees are clearly defined. Another important consideration is the duration of the contract. Many cloud backup solutions give you options on month to month, annual or 3 year terms (with cost savings associated respectively with each). Choose an option that will best fit your businesses current status and future growth path. You may also want to ask the vendor about the flexibility they have in working with customers who may require a modified contractual agreement as your business grows and your infrastructure changes.
2. TECHNOLOGY Look closely at the technology. The solution needs to be enterprise grade for business (not consumer grade) and be able to address all that a brokerage has today and may have in the future as it grows. The cloud backup solution you decide on should be able to offer: a. Restore capabilities: Any backup solution is only as good as its ability to restore data when called upon to do so. So it is important to find a cloud solution that is proven and a vendor who can offer you a high level of support you can rely on when needed. It should be able to back up all of your data including your applications and databases such as your BMS, Exchange and SQL server and others if it is in your environment. Your cloud solution should have the ability to do file and folder level restores and a full system restore if needed. b. Security: The cloud backup solution should have high levels of encryption for security reasons. Look for end to end encryption to be a part of the cloud backup solution. Here the data is encrypted before it leaves your server. Then as the data is transmitted into the cloud it is secured again in another level of encryption (like a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) authentication pipe, similar to the ones used for online banking), as the data is offsite and at rest (in a compliant data center) it is doing so fully encrypted and secured. Another important level of security to consider is that you control the password encryption key. Some solutions manage this for you which gives them access to your data and in turn can make you non-compliant with your industry or governmental regulations (depending on your industry and federal or provincial laws). c. Scalability: Take a step back and determine where you want your business to be in the future. The cloud backup solution you choose should be able to accommodate your brokerage s growth. It should be able to grow with you as your business grows. For example, in the future you purchase another brokerage and add more data and applications. You will need a solution that has the ability to handle and address these changes so that you do not have to go through the process of finding a new solution. Having a clear understanding of where your business is currently and where it will be in the future will give good insight on choosing the right cloud backup solution. d. Flexible Deployments: As stated in the last point (Scalability) your business may be very different a few years from now than it currently is today. Having a cloud backup solution that has flexible deployment options is an important feature. Take the previously mentioned example that you have now acquired another brokerage and you have more data, applications, and servers to consider. It would be very beneficial for your solution to have the flexibility to offer options of different deployments that will be more cost effective than the original. e. Compatibility Having a solution that is compatible with various Operating Systems (OS) and applications is important. For example, today your brokerage has all physical servers but next year you plan on having all your servers virtual. It is a valuable feature of the solution to be compatible with both so you do not have to look for a new solution. As your business environment grows and changes it is an important consideration for your solution to be compatible with various applications so it can grow with you effortlessly.
f. De-duplication: This term refers to the efficiency a cloud backup solution has. It is important in determining what solution works with your existing internet connection or bandwidth. A big challenge a business faces when choosing a cloud backup solution is that many require an increase in bandwidth which is an additional cost to your business. Look for a solution that incorporates high levels of de-duplication on the source side (where your servers are) so it can utilize your existing bandwidth. g. Infrastructure: Considering the infrastructure that the vendor uses is an often overlooked point. Many times it is taken for granted that the vendor will have the proper infrastructure in place when in many cases they do not. Another consideration of infrastructure when researching a cloud backup solution is if the data center (s) is compliant. Is it a tier level 1, 2, 3, or 4 data center or is it in someone s basement or in the vendor s closet at work? Depending on how secure your industry recommends the data center be, here are a few considerations to inquire about: Does the data center where your data is being stored have redundant air conditioning, internet, power grids or backup generators to ensure continuity of service? Inquire about how secure the data center is by asking questions about the data center being equipped with man traps and video surveillance cameras? Ask who has access to the data center, and what are their credentials? The key here is to not take anything for granted. It is important to note that just because a vendor sells a cloud backup solution does not mean that they are experts or know how to properly support it. h. Location: When you are doing your research on a solution it is necessary to ensure where they will be storing your data. Will the data be stored in Canada? This is important due to the Patriot Act. http://www.selectagents.gov/resources/usapatriotact.pdf Note that if you are doing business with a USA vendor (Corporate Citizen) that has Canadian offices and data centers you are still subject to the Patriot Act. Not only does your data have to reside in Canada but your vendor who you are doing business with must be Canadian owned and operated as well. i. Retentions: Different industries have different regulations and recommendations for businesses in that vertical to adhere to. Depending on the province your brokerage is located it may be recommended to have 7 years of retention on your data. Many cloud backup solutions will offer 14 to 30 days of retention on disk and then delete it as you move forward. If you require 7 years retention or more one big advantage is to have them on disk so you can access them quickly if needed. The issue here is many solutions do not do this cost effectively, and as time goes by and you retain more data and more retentions, your storage and costs increase. Many solutions start out in-expensive and give the impression of being cost effective but over time as retentions build the costs increase very rapidly. Ask questions about the pricing model the vendor uses and be clear in how the solution can address your retention requirements and how it directly affects the costs on your business moving forward.
j. Ease of use: The cloud backup solution should be easy to install and have no impact on your day to day operations during the install. It should be automated and easy for the user to operate. If you are unsure about the solution ask for a demonstration or a trial period to test the solution. If the vendor is unwilling, look at that as a red flag. You should be fully comfortable with the service you re looking at purchasing. Also many cloud backup solutions come with rich reporting features to assist in managing your backups. Look for a solution that provides notifications that backups were successful or not successful. k. Redundancy: The cloud solution should have the ability to replicate and backup the data securely and efficiently to another server or to a second site to provide redundancy. This will eliminate the single point of failure scenario and give your brokerage the added security of having more than just one copy of your data secured in the cloud. 3. SUPPORT The vendor of choice should be strong in their ability to support you. Know what level of support you can expect from your cloud backup vendor in the event of a simple file or folder level restore, or a more serious event like a server crash. Ask the vendor what is included and not included with support on both day to day and disaster type scenarios. More often this can be the determining factor in your decision on a cloud backup solution. Some other important Support considerations are: What is the vendor s method to contact support? Is it through email or a phone call? Do they issue a support ticket and get back to you when it s your turn (Queue system)? Ensure the vendor has references from your industry that you can talk to regarding their support and service. Is the support 24x7x365? Where is the support located? Is it is Canada, North America or in a call center across the world? In case of a disaster support scenario find out what the declaration fees are. If you need additional support (for example, assistance in recovering to a new server) what is the rate per hour? One of the most important and yet overlooked points when evaluating cloud backup provider is the level of support you can expect. The same way an insurance customer expects a certain level of service when they have a car accident or medical emergency, is the way you need to look at the service levels of support you will expect when evaluating your cloud backup provider. SUMMARY Cloud backup is growing in popularity due to lower upfront capital costs, ease of deployment and use, disaster preparedness (data is offsite) and because of its pay as you grow pricing model that scales cost-effectively. Determining what solution is the best fit takes due diligence and an understanding of your brokerages current and future goals and objectives. The Three Pillars of Strength outlined above will provide you with a solid guideline on what to look for in a cloud backup solution and the vendor that is selling and supporting it. 700 Dorval Road Suite 400 L6K 3V3 1-855-430-0866 2014 Stage2Data. All Rights Reserved.