Around 140,000 hard drive crashes happen every week in the US.
20% of small and medium-sized businesses suffer from data loss due to a major disaster and 60% of those companies are forced to shut down their business up to six months after this event.
A very scary prospect for small businesses, it underlines the importance of secure storage of crucial data.
Fortunately, cloud backup solutions for small businesses exist to provide exactly that.
This article takes a look into some of the best cloud backup solutions currently on the market that correspond to the needs of most small businesses.
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What Are Cloud Backup Solutions for Small Business?
Cloud backup is a service that backs up and stores data, files and apps from a business's servers to a remote server. Companies choose cloud backup to preserve files and data accessibility in the case of a system failure, outage, or natural disaster.
Cloud backup for business works by copying and saving the contents on your physical server to a server in a different physical location. Depending on its needs, a company can back up certain or all server files.
Cloud backup users typically use a web browser or a service provider's control panel to back up and restore their data and apps. Many businesses today require cloud server backup since they keep most or all of their business-critical data on their local computers.
Now, let’s look at some of the best and most widely used cloud backup solutions.
1. Backblaze
Advantages:
- Unlimited storage space
- Affordable, fast and easy to use
- Low-cost drive-shipping policy
Disadvantages:
- No multiple-user plans
- Mobile app can be better
Despite a recent price increase, Backblaze is one of the most affordable cloud backup solutions currently on the market. It's also unquestionably one of the most user-friendly backup solutions currently on offer.
What is particularly commendable are the generous restore-by-mail option and its fast upload rates. Backblaze even allows you to track down a misplaced or stolen computer by geolocating the Wi-Fi network to which it connects.
As competitors add new services, such as cloud syncing, file sharing, and backups of networked drives, Backblaze is slowly falling behind and not keeping up with these changes.
It's also not the ideal solution for a business that has to back up many devices, unless you have practically unlimited storage needs. In that instance, the acceptable yearly cost of backing up each machine may be worth several times that much.
2. Acronis True Image
Advantages:
- Limitless storage and unlimited users
- Excellent security and privacy
- Adjustable server location
Disadvantages:
- Complex business pricing
- Sometimes lagging
Acronis True Image, recently rebranded as Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, may be the most powerful and versatile online-backup solution available, with a terrific desktop application and a big number of backup and security options.
It provides backups for mobile devices, external drives, and social media, as well as synchronization and sharing options. It will store an image of your primary hard drive to the cloud. Antivirus software, ransomware protection, a vulnerability scanner, and a bootable file-restoration program are also included.
Acronis’ rates can quickly escalate if you want to extend your devices and capacity. However, it may be the ideal solution if you are a power user or someone who's shopping for antivirus software as well.
3. IDrive Business
Advantages:
- A large number of features
- Unlimited devices
- Unlimited users
- Most devices supported
Disadvantages:
- No monthly plan
- Limited storage capacity
IDrive provides the most bang for your buck, backing up an unlimited number of devices to either a 5TB or a 10TB limit, which should be plenty for most users.
IDrive's upload speeds are fast, its mobile apps back up the devices they run on (and recognize faces in photos for easy tagging), it offers a generous file-syncing option, and it even allows you to mail in a full drive rather than spending days uploading data.
IDrive also keeps old copies of each file for indefinite periods of time, which is useful, but be mindful of the storage limits. It also includes two-factor authentication, which is a security plus.
4. CrashPlan for Small Business
Advantages:
- Designed specifically for business
- Limitless storage
- Simple to use
Disadvantages:
- No multithreading
- Lacking disk imaging
- No backup for mobile phones
CrashPlan was one of the most accomplished consumer cloud backup solutions until it exited the market in 2017. Its small business plan keeps the service's high upload and download speeds while also adding business-friendly features, including support for Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux, and unlimited file retention.
Almost everything is adjustable, including backup frequency, deleted file retention, account security, and where to get the recovered information.
CrashPlan backs up full-drive-image backups to local disks as well as networked drives formatted in Linux/macOS. You can also obtain limitless backup space for an infinite number of devices if you're ready to spend $10 per month per user.
What you won't receive are the user-friendly features that make CrashPlan for Home so enticing, such as disk shipment and backups for mobile devices. The mobile apps are very secure, although they are rather basic. CrashPlan for Small Business uses a significant amount of system resources during backups, but you can reduce this by adjusting the application settings.
5. Carbonite
Advantages:
- Unlimited storage space
- Easy backup-flagging system
Disadvantages:
- Some necessary features not included
- Slow upload rates
- Mobile apps no longer available
Carbonite provides limitless storage space, which is always a plus when it comes to having backup storage services. It also features an easy-to-use interface that displays which files have been entirely, partially, or not backed up.
However, you should check the tiny print because Carbonite's Basic pricing tier does not automatically back up huge files, external devices, or any type of video file.
To acquire such services, you'll need to upgrade to the Plus or Premium plans, which include features equivalent to IDrive or Backblaze's basic plans but are far more expensive. (Carbonite has temporarily reduced pricing by 30%, bringing costs in line with competitors.)
A single account can host many machines, but there is no volume discount – each extra machine costs the same as the first. Upload speeds are slow. Carbonite's enticing mobile apps are also no longer available, with no timeframe for their reinstatement provided by the corporation.
6. SpiderOak One
Advantages:
- Backups for an unlimited number of devices
- Strong sharing and synchronization features
- Good security measures
Disadvantages:
- Difficult usage learning curve
- Perplexing user interface
SpiderOak was the first online storage (or online-syncing) service to ensure that each customer has a private, unique encryption key.
Most other cloud storage providers now offer the same thing, but SpiderOak also includes powerful file-sharing and syncing features, as well as support for infinite machines and backups of system data and programs.
However, SpiderOak's storage-space cost is so high that it competes with Dropbox rather than IDrive. While its file-restoration speed was incredible, its initial upload speed was excruciatingly slow.
Takeaways on Small Business Cloud Backup Solutions
Small businesses rely heavily on their data, especially if it is acquired from customers and falls under the category of “sensitive data” (customers’ email addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers information, etc.).
Storing all of this onto your local physical drives only can be a huge risk. Losing this data to a malfunction or a disastrous event like fire or flood could prove too costly for small enterprises that can’t afford heavy losses like that.
The adoption of cloud backup solutions for small businesses is there to provide peace of mind to SME owners by giving them safe and accessible storage to back up their important files remotely. It is also convenient for a software development company that provides services for their customers.
Backup services listed in this article all come with their set of pros and cons, so choose one that befits your business’s profile and goals most accurately.
