More and more storage on premise

By now we have become quite accustomed to working in the cloud. All of our data and applications are in the cloud, which certainly has advantages, but there is also a downside. More and more companies and organizations are seeing that other side of the coin, and they are turning their backs on on premise. What’s going on?

We regularly cover it in our blogs: storing data in the cloud versus on premise. For example, many companies and organizations use Office365 in the cloud, including frequently used applications and backups. At the same time, we are increasingly getting asked about on premise backup options, i.e., on local storage. Increasingly, data is being stored on-site as usual.

Advantages

And that way of working has advantages. Because what else can you do when you work completely through the cloud and Office365 is unavailable for whatever reason? Maybe because you’ve been hacked. Because the Internet doesn’t work for a while. Or maybe you forgot to pay Microsoft’s invoice. Either way, you are highly dependent on the infrastructure of cloud services, including additional costs if you want to recover data. About a quarter of all companies and organizations will experience an attempted hack sooner or later. The size of the company then does not matter. The main point is that a hacker in the cloud can encrypt or corrupt your data because the cloud, by definition, is online and accessible from the outside. Therefore, a backup in the cloud is more susceptible to a hack than a backup on premise. Additionally, in the cloud there is no air-gap, no physical separation between IT environment and backup. Backup software companies also recognize this and are increasingly providing solutions for on premise backup of cloud data.

Our advice?

It is wise to always keep a copy of your backup locally, preferably air-gapped as well. This is also smart if you’re working hybrid, meaning partly in the cloud and partly on premise. In the event of a hack, Internet outage or whatever obstacle towards the cloud: with an air-gap backup, your files are always safe. And as mentioned above, recovering data from the cloud is also still a thing. So: on premise really isn’t that crazy! Want to know more? Feel free to ask, we take pleasure in explaining a few things.

Merry Christmas and a good new year!

Nothing else remains but to wish all our associates and readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas and a great start to 2023!

(We do not send corporate gifts but donate to Doctors Without Borders and Sea Shepherd.)