Choosing a backup service vendor is a critical decision requiring much attention and caution. This business partner can either make or break your business. The reason is that they will be handling one of the most delicate business assets—data. Here is a checklist for choosing the most suitable service provider.
How Frequently Will You Back Up Your Data?
It would help if you considered your data backup frequency before choosing a backup service provider. The provider should cater to your weekly, monthly, and daily backup needs. They should also allow you to customize your backup schedule as per your time constraints.
How Adaptable Are the Company’s Backup Solutions?
It’s also beneficial to consider how adaptable the company’s solutions are to your backup needs. Its solutions must adapt to your changing backup environment. Moreover, their backup software must work well with any system, application, and database.
How Easy Is It to Manage the Backup Service?
Never settle for a backup service just because its provider says it’s efficient. Make sure it’s easy to set up and manage. There’s no point in going for a solution that’s too complicated for your current staff to manage. It would be counterproductive to adopt a service that requires you to employ dedicated experts to manage.
Does the Provider Understand Your Industry?
A good backup service is just as good or as bad as its provider’s reputation and understanding of your industry. You must research and find out who else uses the kind of backup service you want to sign up for.
Find out if its users are within your industry. Moreover, establish if they fall within your business level. It’s safer to choose their service after confirming it has benefitted businesses within your vertical.
How Easily Can You Access Support?
All technologies have their limitations and hitches. So, before paying for any backup service, you should find out if the provider can support you 24/7 when their service crashes or you are stranded.
How Does the Company Handle Security and Disaster Recovery?
Security and disaster recovery should be leading factors on your checklist. You have to ask the provider questions regarding how they secure your backed data. Ensure that they provide high-level encryption to secure your data. It’s also critical to determine if the service provides two-factor authentication and other multi-level security permissions.
The provider must also allow you to generate your encryption keys. If possible, they should provide you with your virtual private cloud. This way, you will have your data stored up in a separate and private location away from other users.
How Much Storage Space Will You Enjoy?
Some backup service providers limit the amount of space you can enjoy on their platform. It’s essential to clarify this issue to ensure that you will get enough space that meets your backup needs. Ensure you clarify any limits on the number of users on the plan you want to sign up for.
How Many Devices Will the Provider Back Up?
You have to check out how many devices the service can accommodate. A good service should cover all desktops and mobile devices like Macs, PCs, iPhones, and Androids.
How Scalable Are Their Solutions?
Don’t forget to check if the service you are signing up for is scalable. It must be able to accommodate your changing needs as time moves on. If your needs scale down or up, the service must be able to accommodate that.
How Much Will It Cost You?
Lastly, find out how much the service will cost you. First, factor in the cost of acquiring the service. Second, find out the long-term cost of maintaining the solution. Be wary of providers who entice you with “crazy” signup discounts and offers. Most of them are bait intended to lure you into a regrettably costly service you might not afford to maintain. So, consider the two sides of the coin before signing up for a backup service.
Choosing a backup service supplier is a critical decision that can either make or break your business. If you wish to have all these service quality and security issues addressed, try Nakivo Hyper-V backup services. When considering your Hyper-V backup, opt only for the most reliable solutions as VM data is much more vulnerable than that stored on physical machines is.