Cloud Storage Continues to Grow
Cloud storage has become an increasingly popular option for backing up data in recent years. The cloud offers several key advantages over traditional on-premises backup solutions:
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Scalability – Cloud storage is highly scalable, allowing you to easily increase or decrease capacity as needed. This eliminates the need to purchase and maintain your own storage infrastructure.
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Accessibility – Data in the cloud can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. This enables remote workers and mobile employees to access data from any device.
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Cost savings – Public cloud storage services like Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage allow you to pay only for what you use. This can significantly reduce costs compared to on-premises solutions.
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Security – Major cloud providers offer robust security protections including encryption, access controls and data redundancy across multiple data centers.
In 2022, I expect cloud backup adoption to continue growing rapidly. Key drivers will be the need for anywhere access to data and flexibility to scale capacity up or down on demand.
Faster and More Efficient Backup Software
Backup software continues to improve in terms of speed, storage efficiency and ease of use. Here are some key developments to watch for:
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Incremental backups – Rather than backing up all data each time, incremental backups only copy new or changed data since the last backup. This makes backups much faster and requires less network bandwidth.
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Data deduplication – Backup software now removes duplicate data across backup sets, greatly reducing the amount of storage space required.
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Synthetic full backups – Combining incremental backups with an index of unchanged data blocks creates full backups without the long runtimes.
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Automation – Rules and policies allow backups to run automatically on schedules. Backup monitoring and reporting also continues to improve.
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Cloud integration – Backup software is integrating more tightly with major cloud providers like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. This simplifies deploying hybrid on-premises/cloud backup architectures.
These improvements will enable faster backup and recovery times while reducing cost and management overhead.
Immutable Backups and Ransomware Protection
Ransomware continues to be a major threat, with cybercriminals attempting to encrypt and lock up business data to extort payments. To combat this, immutable backup solutions that cannot be encrypted or deleted are gaining popularity.
Key capabilities of immutable backup technologies include:
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Object locks – Backup objects in immutable storage buckets cannot be deleted or modified for a defined retention period. This prevents ransomware from encrypting backups.
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Air gapping – Physically isolating backup data from the network makes it inaccessible to ransomware. Some solutions use removable media rotated to an offline location.
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File versioning – Storing incremental versions of backup files allows rolling back to unencrypted versions in case of ransomware attacks.
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Anomaly detection – Analytics to detect unusual activity indicative of a ransomware attack can automatically alert IT to a potential incident.
By adopting immutable backup principles, I can ensure my data is ransomware proof and recoverable in the event of an attack. This provides peace of mind amid the rapidly evolving ransomware threat landscape.
Faster Network Technologies Impacting Backups
Backup performance is heavily dependent on network speeds. Emerging networking technologies will enable faster data transfer and more efficient backups:
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5G wireless – 5G networks offer major speed improvements over 4G, with reduced latency. This will accelerate remote and mobile backups.
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Wi-Fi 6 – The latest Wi-Fi standard significantly increases throughput, especially in high-density environments. Faster LANs will improve speeds of backups to local servers and NAS devices.
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Multi-gigabit Ethernet – New Ethernet standards like 2.5GbE and 5GbE provide increased bandwidth for wired networks. This allows faster backups over the LAN.
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RDMA – Remote direct memory access further boosts speeds by enabling servers to directly access storage over the network without taxing CPU or memory.
By upgrading networks, businesses can benefit from faster backup windows, lower impact on production, and the ability to move large datasets efficiently across sites. Networking enhancements provide a foundation for keeping pace with rapid data growth.
Increasing Use of Backup as a Service (BaaS)
Many businesses are choosing to outsource backups to managed service providers (MSPs) through Backup as a Service (BaaS) offerings. With BaaS:
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The MSP deploys and manages backup infrastructure on the customer’s behalf.
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Backups are performed according to predefined SLAs for recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO).
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Pricing is based on capacity consumed rather than upfront license fees.
Key benefits of BaaS include predictable costs, reduced management overhead, and immediate access to skilled resources. MSPs can also provide ancillary services like testing backups and assisting with recovery.
According to projections, the BaaS market will grow over 15% annually as businesses recognize these advantages. In 2022 and beyond, reliance on BaaS solutions is likely to accelerate.
In Summary
Data backup remains a critical responsibility even as new technologies emerge. Key trends this year include continued growth of cloud storage, faster and more efficient software, immutable backups to counter ransomware, speed gains from new networks, and increased adoption of managed BaaS solutions. By keeping up-to-date on these developments, I can ensure my backup strategy stays current and provides reliable protection for business-critical data. The innovations in the backup technology landscape ultimately enable improved resilience and peace of mind.
