4 Most Common Storage and Backup Strategies

By CIOReview | Thursday, March 4, 2021

Justin Smith, CIOReview

Storage and backup are vital insurance against a data-loss catastrophe. Thus, organizations must invest in an efficient and economical data storage strategy.

Fremont, CA: Organizations generate a myriad of data making IT more critical for the success of small businesses. Thanks to the lower per-gigabyte cost of hard disk drives and associated storage technologies, small businesses can afford economical storage and backup solutions. With the emergence of cloud storage technologies, greater opportunities are presented to small businesses. However, the majority of small companies have are not at pace with their more pervasive use of computers as there are various storage options present in the market. Storage vendors claim that they have the perfect backup hardware for business. Still, the one-size-fits-all perspective is outdated and offers a mediocre fit in terms of either budget or functionality. Here are a few most common yet customizable strategies for small businesses.

Direct Attached Storage

Direct attached storage (DAS) uses either a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 peripheral port to connect to a PC or server directly. However, the team has to perform ad-hoc or batch backups to copy data, which means the out-of-date version of files, will be present in the backup.

Network Attached Storage

Network-Attached Storage (NAS) directly connects to the system. The appliance features is capable of a file server and accept multiple storage drives. NAS supports various file protocols to work directly with desktops and laptops to offer RAID capabilities. Few NAS models offer synchronization of selected folders or volumes with a remote NAS.

Private Cloud

The organizations not comfortable with placing their hands on third-party cloud vendors are building their individual version of cloud services to gain flexibility. Once out of reach for small businesses, innovation has helped small businesses to tap into the potential of cloud storage. For instance, the Transporter is a network appliance that connects to a storage drive to share and synchronize content. The synchronization is done with other Transporter devices, desktops, or laptops.

Offline Media

Social media and tech giants are still experimenting with optical media such as DVD and Blu-Ray discs. These technologies are outdated, but they have saved Google in a Gmail outage, and Facebook is experimenting with robotic piker handling 10,000 discs, which is the size of an entire server rack.

Today, a business has more substantial needs, and they have to craft a scalable storage and backup solution according to their needs and if possible use multiple solutions simultaneo