Latest / Tech Talks With Kinsoft / Cloud Backup and Data Resilience

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Cloud Backup and Data Resilience · Tech Talks With Kinsoft

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Welcome to Tech Talks with Kinsoft. We're your
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shortcut to getting up to speed on the tech topics
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that really matter. And today, wow, we're diving
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deep. Not just data, but think digital treasure
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chests. Exactly. And everyone's trying to get
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at them. Steal, corrupt, destroy. It's relentless.
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It really is. So our mission today is to give
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you the map. The security system, everything
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you need. We've sifted through, you know, expert
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opinions, product reviews. No stack of sources.
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To pull out the key insights for keeping those
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digital assets safe. And the stakes. They just
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keep getting higher. Every single business, doesn't
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matter the size, handles critical data. Customer
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info, financials. All of it. safeguarding this
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digital gold it's absolutely fundamental we'll
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look at why a solid backup system is well non
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-negotiable now especially with cyber threats
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evolving constantly hardware failing oh yeah
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hardware failure always happens eventually and
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let's be honest human error someone clicks the
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wrong thing happens all the time so there reliability
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is key so what's the plan for today first we'll
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map out this landscape of risk you know what
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you're really up against and we'll get into cloud
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backup The core benefits there. And disaster
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recovery, the offsite kind, often overlooked,
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but so crucial. Definitely. And then we'll zoom
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in on an integrated solution from Acronis. They
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bring these pieces together really effectively.
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Right. Into a unified cyber protection strategy.
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It's pretty neat how they do it. OK, let's jump
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in. The threat landscape. It's intense. Intense
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is a good word. Businesses are facing constant
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threats. Sophisticated cyber attacks, ransomware,
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those zero -day exploits. The ones that hit before
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anyone even knows there's a weak spot. Exactly.
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Super sneaky. But it's not just the hackers,
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right? No, it's the basics, too. Hardware just
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dying. Yep. Accidental deletion hoops. Physical
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theft, even. And then the big stuff fires, floods.
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Visible disasters, yeah. Your data isn't just
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like office supplies anymore. No, it's the crown
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jewels. Digital gold, like you said. And when
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that gold is threatened, the fallout is serious.
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Outages are getting incredibly expensive. I saw
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a stat on that. It's pretty sobering. Yeah, get
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this. Two -thirds of outages now cost businesses
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over $100 ,000. Wow, over $100. Each time. And
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that's not just lost work time. No, it's lost
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deals, lost customers. And trust. That's a big
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one. Eroded trust with your customers, your partners.
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It hits the reputation hard. A direct hit to
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the bottom line and, yeah, how people see you.
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And layered on top of all that immediate pain
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is compliance, the mandate of compliance. Ah,
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the regulations. Exactly. So many businesses
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fall under strict data rules. GDPR in Europe,
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PIPA in U .S. health care. SOX for finance, PCI
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DSS for credit cards. FISMA for U .S. government
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agencies. The list goes on. These aren't suggestions.
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No, they're legal requirements. With teeth. Big
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teeth. Noncompliance can mean huge financial
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penalties. Legal battles. Massive damage to your
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reputation. Stuff that takes years, maybe forever,
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to fix. And it's not a one -off task, is it?
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Compliance is ongoing. Continuous monitoring.
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Updates. It never really stops. But meeting these
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standards, it's not just about avoiding the stick.
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It's also a carrot. Kind of. It shows you're
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serious about protecting information. Yeah. That
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builds massive trust with customers and partners.
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It's a competitive advantage, really. That's
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a great point. Now, the cloud makes things interesting
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here, doesn't it? It really does. Cloud tech
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offers huge benefits, obviously. But it adds
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complexity to compliance. How so? Well, think
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about data sovereignty. Where is your data actually
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stored? The laws are different in different countries.
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Right. So you need to know where your provider
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keeps it. Exactly. And maintaining control. when
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a cloud service provider a csp is managing it
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ensuring you can still see everything audit everything
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across potentially distributed servers it's a
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whole new level of complexity to manage you got
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it which leads us nicely into the foundation
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cloud backup okay so if compliance is the why
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cloud backup is often a big part of the how let's
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define it clearly simply put Making a copy of
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your stuff, files, apps, virtual machines, whole
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servers. And storing that copy somewhere else.
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Right. On a remote network accessed over the
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Internet. Think of it like a super secure SASE
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deposit box for your data. Just off -site. And
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crucially, it's different from just cloud storage,
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right? Very different. Things like Google Drive
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or Dropbox. Great for sharing files, collaborating.
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But not for system recovery. Exactly. Cloud backup
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is built for automatically backing up systems.
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It's about business continuity, disaster recovery,
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protecting the whole digital operation. Okay,
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so what are the big wins for businesses? You
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mentioned five key benefits. Yeah, let's tick
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through them. Number one, enhanced data security.
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How so? Cloud providers invest heavily in security.
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Advanced encryption, like AES -256, for data
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moving and sitting still. The standard, yeah.
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Plus, their physical security is top -notch.
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Certifications like SSAE -18, which is a tough
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auditing standard. And Tier 4 data centers. Tier
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4 designed, yeah. That means incredible redundancy,
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99 .995 % availability. Most businesses just
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can't afford to build that themselves. Okay,
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benefit two. Reduced risk of data loss. Simple
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but huge. Your data is off -site, physically
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separate from your main location. So if there's
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a fire, a flood, theft at the office. Your backup
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is safe somewhere else. That geographic separation
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is critical. Makes sense. Number three. Automatic
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and regular backups. This takes human error out
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of the equation, mostly. The set it and forget
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it idea. Pretty much. Consistent backups happen
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without someone needing to remember. That keeps
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things running smoothly and, you know, reduces
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those oops moments. Number four, scalability.
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Yep. Hugely flexible. As your business grows
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or even shrinks, you just adjust your storage
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capacity. No need to buy expensive new hardware.
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So it scales with you. Very cost effective, especially
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for growing companies. Absolutely. And finally,
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number five, easy and fast data recovery. This
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is the payoff, right? Getting back online quickly.
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It's essential. Cloud services often have like
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one -click restoration, minimizes downtime massively,
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whether it's a system crash, cyber attack, or
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just accidental deletion. And you can access
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it from anywhere. Usually, yeah. Remote recovery
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is a huge plus, especially in a real disaster
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where you can't even get to the office. Now,
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you mentioned on -site versus off -site backup
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earlier. Let's clarify that. Sure. On -site backups
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are copies on local devices, maybe a server in
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the building. Good for quick recovery from, say,
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deleting a file by mistake. But limited if the
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whole building has a problem. Exactly. That's
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where off -site backups shine. Copies stored
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in a different geographical location. Crucial
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for surviving widespread outages or site -specific
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disasters. It's about not having all your eggs
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in one basket. Precisely. Are there any downsides
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to cloud -only backup? Well, you obviously need
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an internet connection to get to it. And restoring
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huge amounts of data can be slow or chew up a
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lot of bandwidth. Okay, which is why that 3 -2
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-1 rule is so important. Yes, the gold standard.
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At least three copies of your data. On two different
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types of media. With one copy kept off -site.
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Often, that off -site copy is the cloud backup.
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And this covers you if, say, your local backup
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drive fails while you're trying to restore. Exactly.
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It builds in redundancy. Layers of protection.
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It's smart. Okay, so we've got backup covered.
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Let's move beyond just files to restoring operations.
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Off -site disaster recovery or DR? Right, DR
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is the next level up. It's not just about getting
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files back. It's about getting the business running
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again. So it involves a dedicated site somewhere
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else. Yeah, an external separate site from your
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main production environment. Gives you that geographic
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diversity and boosts security. The whole point
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is business continuity if your primary site gets
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knocked out. And there are different types of
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these recovery sites. Based on speed. Correct.
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It ties into your RTO recovery time objective,
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how fast you need to be back up, and RPO recovery
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point objective, how much data loss you can tolerate.
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So what are the types? First, you've got cold
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sites. These are the most basic, like an empty
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room with power and network you have to bring
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in and set up all your systems. So longer downtime,
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but cheaper. Exactly. Lower operational costs,
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but it takes time to get running. It's a bare
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bones emergency option. Okay, then what? Warm
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sites. A middle ground. They have some infrastructure,
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pre -confined servers, network are there, maybe
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even software installed. Faster recovery than
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cold. But the data isn't live. Right. Your production
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data isn't immediately there. Often used for
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less critical apps where a few hours of downtime
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is acceptable. Like the emergency shelter is
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stocked, but you still need to move in. Got it.
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And the top tier. Hot sites. Yeah. The most robust.
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Everything is mirrored from your production site
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and running concurrently. If the main site goes
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down, you fail over almost instantly. Minimal
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interruption. Sounds ideal for critical systems.
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It is. Meets very demanding, near -zero RTOs.
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But, as you'd expect, it's the most expensive
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because you're essentially running two live environments
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all the time. Okay, that makes sense. How does
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this relate to data replication versus backup?
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Good question. Backups, remember, are snapshots
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in time. Point -in -time copies. Great for restoring
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specific files or rolling back, but the recovery
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takes time. pulling from that static copy. Whereas
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replication is more continuous. Exactly. Data
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replication provides continuous or near -continuous
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updates to the recovery site. You can achieve
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almost zero data loss, RPO, and very fast recovery,
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RTO. Synchronous versus asynchronous. Yeah, synchronous
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means real -time copies, zero data loss, but
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can impact performance. Asynchronous has a tiny
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delay, so a very small chance of minimal data
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loss, but less performance hit. It's more complex
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and costly than backup, really for those mission
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-critical systems where every second counts.
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So the benefits of a proper off -site DR plan
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are pretty significant then. Transformative,
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really. Obviously, the main thing is quickly
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restoring data and workloads after a hit. But
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also protection from natural disasters. Huge.
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Geographic diversity, different power grids.
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Much less likely the same hurricane or blackout
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hits both sites. Plus better security for the
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backups themselves. Yes. Features like immutability,
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meaning backups can't be altered, and strong
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encryption add layers of security. Lower chance
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of data loss overall compared to just manual
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backups. And better business continuity, obviously.
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More reliability. It's a failsafe. Lies you resume
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normal operations much faster. Crucial protection
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against cyber threats, too. The bad guys rely
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on companies not being ready for full recovery.
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And it helps with compliance, even getting cyber
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insurance. Definitely helps meet regulatory demands.
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And insurers increasingly want to see robust
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DR plans. Plus, cloud -based DR offers much better
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scalability than trying to build a second site
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yourself. You mentioned a real -world example.
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Yarra Ranges Council. Yeah, great case study.
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They had this really inadequate DR plan using
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old tapes. If something happened, it would have
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taken weeks to rebuild everything. Weeks. Unbelievable.
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That's a business killer. Totally. Imagine trying
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to operate like that. So what did they do? They
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outsourced. Got DeRoss Disaster Recovery as a
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service and BASA backup as a service from a third
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party. Smart move and the result. Night and day.
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Full IT system recovery within 24 hours. Not
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weeks. Hours. With a 99 .99 % data recovery guarantee.
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Wow. That's the difference resilience makes.
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And testing proved users could connect from anywhere,
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which satisfied the auditors. The IT team was
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actually happier freed from the daily grind of
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managing backups. Yeah, lets them focus on more
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strategic stuff. It shows the power of shifting
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from reactive panic to proactive planning. Which
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brings us neatly to... Akronis. They're positioned
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as a leader in this whole cyber protection space.
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Absolutely. Award -winning, trusted by millions
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of users, hundreds of thousands of businesses
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globally, recognized by independent labs like
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AV -Test, ICSA Labs. And their philosophy goes
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beyond just backup, right? Stay stages of modern
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cyber protection. Yeah, that's key. Prevention.
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Detection, response, recovery, and forensics.
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It's a full lifecycle approach. Not just picking
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up the pieces, but stopping threats beforehand
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and learning afterwards. So let's talk about
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their flagship solution, Acronis Cyber Protect
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Cloud. This is where they bring it all together.
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Precisely. It's designed especially with managed
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service providers, MSPs, in mind. But the principles
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apply to any business. It uniquely integrates
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backup. Full image, file level, supports over
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25 platforms. Right. Plus next -gen AI -based
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anti -malware. antivirus. And endpoint protection
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management, all in one. All in one. One solution,
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one agent to deploy, one console to manage it
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all. That sounds incredibly efficient. It is.
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It simplifies management massively, allows for
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better automation, and here's the kicker, it
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can cut cyber protection costs by up to 50 %
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just by consolidating vendors. 50 % by ditching
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separate tools for backup, security. management
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potentially yes fewer licenses less complexity
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less training needed it adds up fast triple the
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protection half the headache often for less budget
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it's a really compelling proposition okay let's
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look at some capabilities the workload protection
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sounds broad incredibly broad physical machines
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windows linux mac virtual hyper -v vmware citrix
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nutanix cloud microsoft 365 Google Workbase,
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Azure VMs, EC2 instances, mobile Android, iOS.
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Wow, that covers pretty much everything. And
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specific applications too, SQL Server Exchange,
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Oracle, SAP, HN. They've really aimed for comprehensive
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coverage under that single pane of glass. And
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the Advanced Backup Pack adds more, like continuous
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data protection. Yeah, CDP. That monitors and
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backs up changes literally as they happen. Gets
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you near zero RPOs for really critical apps,
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where you can't account to lose even a minute's
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worth of data. What else is in that pack? A data
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protection map for compliance reporting gives
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you clear visibility. Off -hose data processing,
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which is clever. It shifts the workload of doing
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the backup off your production machine onto another
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one, so performance isn't impacted. And blockchain
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notarization. That sounds interesting. It's really
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innovative. Every backup gets a unique, unchangeable
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timestamp recorded on a blockchain. Like a digital
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notary seal. Exactly. It provides absolute proof
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that your backup data hasn't been tampered with.
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Invaluable for compliance audits, legal situations,
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or forensic investigations after an attack. That's
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clever. And the cybersecurity side includes XDR
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and EDR. Yes, security plus XDR and EDR. Think
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of them as advanced threat hunting tools. They
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don't just block known bad stuff. They use AI
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to analyze behavior across your whole network
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to spot novel or suspicious activity really early.
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Smarter detection. Much smarter. And for MSPs,
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they bundle in tools like Acronis RMM for automated
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patching and monitoring and Acronis PSA for managing
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service tickets, billing, tracking KPIs. It's
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a whole platform. What about the storage itself,
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geo -redundancy? Yep. Your backups are automatically
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replicated to a second, geographically separate.
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at Akronis Data Center. Extra protection layer
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helps with data sovereignty compliance, and it's
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built in cost -effectively. And Akronis Active
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Protection, the anti -ransomware. That's their
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award -winning AI tech. It actively monitors
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for ransomware behavior, deflects attacks in
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real time, and can instantly restore any files
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that might get hit before the attack is stopped.
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Like an always -on bodyguard for your data. Performance
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-wise, you said it's fast. Verified fastest,
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often twice as fast, sometimes up to 10x faster
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than competitors in testing. They talk about
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a 15 -second RTO for critical systems. 15 seconds?
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That's almost instant. Very quick. And cloud
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access in just three clicks. Security is top
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tier, too. AES -256 encryption everywhere, SSAE
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-18 certified, tier 4 design data centers. Users
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consistently say it's easy to deploy and manage,
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despite being so comprehensive. So a really integrated,
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fast, secure approach. OK, let's shift gears
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slightly to the policies behind all this. Backup
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retention. Right. This is the how long do we
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keep stuff question. A backup retention policy
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is your internal rulebook. What data do you keep,
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where, and for how long? And it defines the types
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of backups, too. Full, incremental. Yeah. And
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the media tape, cloud, disk. It sets the ground
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rules. Why are these policies so essential? Seems
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like a detail, but sounds important. Crucial
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for a few reasons. First, compliance, again.
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Many regulations dictate minimum, sometimes maximum,
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retention periods. Okay. Legal requirement. What
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else? Business requirements. How long is an old
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backup actually useful? If you lost data today,
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would a backup from six months ago help? Maybe
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for some things, not others. Right. Operational
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relevance. And the big one. Storage costs, especially
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with cloud, where you pay per gigabyte. Indefinitely
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keeping old backups gets expensive fast. A good
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policy tells you what you can safely delete to
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control costs. Policy directly impacting the
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budget. Makes sense. So when you create a policy,
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first figure out what data needs retaining. Legally
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required versus just nice to have. And you mentioned
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basing it on last access date? Often better than
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creation date, yeah. Avoids archiving stuff that's
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old but still used daily. But don't forget long
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term things like contracts, leases, financial
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records. They need specific handling. And obviously
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know your specific compliance rules. Absolutely.
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Meet or exceed them. And policies need to be
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dynamic. What if there's a lawsuit? You might
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need a litigation hold. Instantly changing retention
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for certain data needs to be adaptable. So best
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practices involve organizing data, setting version
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limits, maybe different policies for different
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data sets. Yeah, define life cycles. Decide how
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many versions, how often to back up. Regularly
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purge old, unnecessary stuff. Review the policy
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periodically. Consider industry rules, restore
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needs, storage capacity, network bandwidth. Lots
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to juggle. Where should these backups live? Media
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types. Options vary. Public cloud like Amazon
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S3 Glacier or Azure Blob is great for cheap,
18:01
long -term archival. But getting data back can
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be slow and sometimes costly. Tape. Is that still
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a thing? Definitely. Especially new LTO9 tapes.
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Super cost -effective for long -term, very durable
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up to 30 years, huge capacity. But again, restore
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speeds are slower. And disk. Fastest restores,
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but more expensive per gigabyte. Best for recent
18:20
backups you might need quickly. Not great for
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massive long -term archives. So mix is often
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best. Multi -tier. The 3 -2 -1 rule again. That's
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the robust approach, yes. Use different media
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for different retention periods and locations.
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Layers of safety. Okay, finally, implementing
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and testing the policy. Right. Define your tiers,
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short, medium, long -term. Map data to them.
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Figure out frequency, media, location. Remember,
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three, two, one. Define security and access controls.
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Who can access what backups? And critically,
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automate the policy enforcement. Use your backup
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software, like Akronis, to automatically keep
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and delete backups according to the rules. Takes
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human error out. But you have to test that automation.
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Absolutely vital. Yeah. Test and validate regularly.
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Does it actually delete what it should? Keep
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what it must. Simulate restores. Document everything.
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Train your staff. And review, review, review.
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Keep it updated. Because the business changes.
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Regulations change. Your policy needs to keep
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pace. Wow, okay. We've covered a lot of ground.
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From the risks and compliance burdens. Through
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the benefits of cloud backup. The necessity of
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off -site DR. And how integrated platforms like
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Akronis Cyber Protect Cloud aim to unify all
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that protection. Right down to the nitty -gritty
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of retention policies and making sure they actually
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work. The big takeaway seems to be that data
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protection isn't just an IT task anymore. It's
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a core business function, a necessity. Couldn't
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agree more. In today's world, it's not if you'll
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face a data challenge, it's absolutely when.
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And the real power isn't just bouncing back.
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It's being prepared, being resilient, coming
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out stronger. Exactly. So the question for everyone
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listening is, what vital piece of your data strategy
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needs shoring up today? What are you going to
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secure next? And if you're ready to have a conversation
20:04
about your specific business needs, your security
20:07
posture, your IT strategy. We definitely encourage
20:10
you to reach out. Visit us at www .kinsoft .com
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.au. That's www .kinsoft .com .au. Our team is
20:19
there, ready to help you navigate all these complexities
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and build that truly resilient future for your
20:23
business.