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Four important tips for making the most of cloud storage

The recent spate of natural disasters demonstrates the risk of storing all data locally. The good news is that the cloud offers truly hassle-free, cost-effective storage solutions that can ensure small business continuity.

But where does a small business get started in considering cloud storage options? Here are four tips to help small business make the most from the cloud.

Know the options. Before you decide on a provider, determine which storage type will best fit your business needs. There are two types of cloud storage: dedicated backup services and cloud sync services. The first monitors your computer and backs up files and folders when they change. Though convenient, it can be complicated to restore files. The second involves creating another drive or ‘magic folder’ on your computer, whose content is automatically stored online. As long as files are being saved on this drive or folder, changes will automatically be saved online.
Ensure security. Always ask your cloud storage provider how data is secured. Ask about security between their physical servers; about their security update and patch policies; and about security between their different server locations. Your data ideally should be encrypted both during the backup process and while it is stored. And be mindful of user names and passwords. Your email should not be your user name. That way, anyone trying to access it has to guess both your user name and password. Creating a strong password that is difficult to guess is another must.
Match the cloud service with the platforms you use. If like many small businesses you have a mixture of PCs plus other platforms in addition to a variety of mobile devices, be sure the cloud provider supports backing up all of them. So if a non-PC device is being backed up, the service should allow a PC client to access the same data, because PCs are the most common business client.
A few last considerations. Be mindful of how much bandwidth the service uses while uploading files online. Find a cloud solution that backs up only recent changes to files and not the whole file every time it’s modified. Otherwise your backup processes can consume so much bandwidth that all computing on the network bogs down. Finally, trust a reputable company for your cloud storage needs, one you feel is very likely to stay in business

For more information on cloud storage and to explore the flexible cloud storage options offered by us call: 866-504-4050.