Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is rapidly becoming the preferred choice for new software deployments as organizations seek the flexibility and cost benefits of the cloud delivery model. One recent study finds that organizations now use an average of 16 SaaS business applications and plan to increase that number substantially over the next three years.
However, most of these companies don’t fully understand the potential for SaaS data loss. According to one report, 80 percent of businesses using SaaS have experienced data loss. Typically, these losses stem from a common misunderstanding about SaaS backup.
SaaS operates on a shared responsibility model in which providers and customers are responsible for different aspects of security and data protection. Most providers state explicitly in their terms and conditions that they are responsible for managing the security of the cloud infrastructure and for maintaining uptime, and that customers are responsible for protecting their data. Confusion often arises because there is no standard model for shared responsibility — you must check each provider’s terms and conditions to sort out the details.
How Data is Lost
You can’t really blame SaaS providers for not wanting the backup responsibility. Studies show that user error is the leading cause of data loss in SaaS applications. Most often, data loss occurs due to accidental deletion. Because SaaS data is continually changing and growing, it’s easy for users to accidentally overwrite or delete data. Additionally, data overwrites can easily occur when large data sets are being imported during the integration of third-party apps.
Closed accounts also result in data loss. This can occur when an organization switches from one SaaS application to another from a different vendor without an effective data migration plan. Once the old account is deleted, the associated data is often gone forever.
Another misconception is that your on-premises backup infrastructure will protect your SaaS data. That’s almost never true because SaaS data rarely touches onsite servers. When working with SaaS apps, users are usually entering data directly into the cloud platform through a web browser.
As SaaS usage increases, the potential damage from data loss will only become magnified. That’s why all organizations using SaaS should have backup solution in place. A great approach is with a cloud-to-cloud (C2C) backup solution such as Datto’s SaaS Protection solution.
Simple, Effective Backup
As the name suggests, cloud-to-cloud backup involves copying SaaS data to a third-party cloud. This creates data diversity, ensuring your ability to recover data if something happens with the SaaS provider’s cloud. It also allows you to share data among multiple remote or branch locations.
C2C also simplifies data protection. Some organizations choose to back up cloud data to a local volume through a high-bandwidth Internet connection. That may work for small-scale jobs but copying large data volumes from the cloud over an Internet connection can be excruciatingly slow. What’s more, this approach forces organizations to retain on-premises infrastructure and increases costs.
Datto’s C2C backup approach takes advantage of the inherent cost benefits of the cloud and eliminates the need to manage and maintain hardware. It creates automatic backups up to three times a day, ensuring you can restore current versions of your data with just a few mouse clicks. The net result is a fast, reliable backup with few management headaches.
If your business depends on SaaS applications, or if you are considering shifting more workloads to the cloud, give us a call. Let us demonstrate how to create a solid backup plan for your SaaS data with Datto’s cloud-to-cloud backup solution.
