For over a decade, cloud computing has been one of the most talked-about trends in IT. Compared to traditional infrastructure, leveraging the cloud has been consistently shown to offer overwhelmingly positive business benefits.
And despite a long track record of success, some IT administrators are still reluctant to trust the cloud when it comes to data protection.
One of the most common anti-cloud arguments you might hear is what’s often referred to as “The Bank Fallacy”.
The Bank Fallacy says that robbers target banks, because that’s where all the money is. This logic seems to suggest that the risk of theft goes up when you consolidate your assets.
Instead of going after hundreds of small targets, a thief would supposedly prefer to go after a single massive heist.
In other words, by moving your backups to the cloud, you would actually be creating an incentive for a data breach. There are a number of serious problems with this argument.
Let’s look at the example of a typical self-managed manual backup process.
Every day, the IT administrator would make a single unencrypted incremental backup copy to tape. In
many cases, these tapes would never be taken off-site.
But if they are, these unencrypted tapes would simply be mailed to another unsecured office, where they
would probably be kept in a closet or a cardboard box. Compare this to a typical cloud backup provider.
First, the data is encrypted locally from the client’s machine. Once encrypted, this data cannot be decrypted without the client’s secret credentials.
From here, the data is transmitted over a secure SSL connection, into a state-of-the-art datacenter. In addition to the most robust technological safeguards, the building is also physically secure.
Once in storage, the data is protected by 24/7 security guards, video cameras, and network security experts.
As an added precaution, a second redundant copy of the encrypted data is also created, in case the first copy is somehow destroyed.
It’s extremely rare that a company would have the in-house resources and expertise to implement a backup and disaster recovery process that’s as secure as those available from a full-service data protection and disaster recovery provider.
And even if they could implement such a process, the cost would be significantly higher.
When someone brings up the bank fallacy, they are essentially arguing that storing your life savings in a bank is more dangerous than keeping the cash under your mattress.
They’re also arguing that – if EVERYONE kept their cash under a mattress in their home – that this would act as a deterrent to crime.
As we all know, this is completely untrue. It’s untrue when it comes to money, and it’s also untrue when it comes to data protection. If you’re looking for complete protection that provides you with total peace of mind, the cloud is simply your most secure and reliable option.