Your data is one of the most important assets you have in understanding your customers and driving your business forward. If your data gets corrupted or accidentally deleted and you have no way of recovering that data, your company is at risk of losing everything. Therefore, finding the right backup and recovery vendor should be a top priority.
But what happens when you realize the solution you had chosen may not be the best fit? Choosing the right backup system can be overwhelming to begin with. Equally challenging is figuring out how to switch to a new different vendor after realizing your current solution doesn’t match your needs.
There are so many key factors involved when switching to a new cloud backup solution, which is why we are here to unpack a few of the best practices to guide you along the way.
Best practices to consider
While all third-party backup solutions provide a similar service, they may differ depending on the depth and breadth of their solution offerings. For example, one vendor can offer a faster implementation process or provide multi-cloud coverage that spans various enterprise workplaces such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Salesforce. Others can include better customer support from multiple time zones and languages while some prefer cheaper pricing or simple usability.
Here are some of the top factors to consider:
- Cost: Pricing is always an important factor when choosing a vendor. One thing you should consider is how the new vendor’s cost structure compares to the previous one. Just because the service is cheaper, doesn’t mean that the vendor is offering the right solution for your business. For example, are you paying per GB of backup storage or paying per user? Ultimately, choosing a platform based on necessary features should always come before the price.
- Complexity: It goes without saying, but backing up your data should be a seamless process. If it takes too long to load or your vendor has a complicated structure, then your time and resources could be better spent elsewhere. When disaster strikes, even people with zero technical background should be able to restore the data easily. Additionally, customer support is also an integral component to consider when switching to a new vendor. Does the new vendor have a global customer support team that shares multiple languages and time zones? After all, data doesn’t operate on just one region and language. It is a timeless variable that needs constant attention and care. The support team should also have sufficient competency to resolve your issues in a timely manner and have the capacity to escalate if they find a bug or defect in the product.
- Compliance requirements: One of the most convenient features of a backup vendor is relying on its expertise when it comes to data governance and compliance regulations. A good backup provider should be able to monitor regulations worldwide and share as much knowledge with you to ensure your data is compliant regardless of your geographic location. Data privacy legislation such as GDPR is stringent on how your data is being stored and any violation could be costly for your business. When switching vendors, you must consider whether the new vendor uses the same public cloud (i.e., AWS, Google, Azure, etc.) to backup their data. If not the same, you should figure out how switching will affect compliance with any relevant regulations (i.e., GDPR/CCPA).
- Data retention policies: Having a data retention policy is critical when addressing compliance needs. When switching to a new vendor, it’s important that you know how long you will need to keep your data at your old backup vendor. In particular, finance companies have regulations like SOX and SEC-17 that require their data backups to remain at the same place for a certain period of time.
- Data export capabilities: Exporting data is an optional feature that some vendors offer. Find out if your current backup vendor has this capability and if you can export your data prior to moving to the new provider. Doing so will essentially allow you to have a “backup” to your backup solution. This is another way for companies to safeguard their data in case anything goes wrong. Additionally, some vendors will offer insights and analysis about their data backup, which is helpful for key stakeholders to better understand their company’s security posture.
- RPO/RTO: Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) are two important ways a company can determine its ability to handle a potential data outage. RPO focuses on backup frequency while RTO measures how much downtime a business can tolerate. Essentially, the lower these numbers are, the better. More frequent backups mean your company has less data to lose and more time to do its recovery work. But more frequent backups can sometimes come with a high cost, since you have to pay for a solution that provides that capability. Make sure that the new vendor has a backup feature that aligns with your business objective. Do you require a daily, weekly, or monthly backup? How does having a weekly backup affect your business operations if data gets corrupted? Would you prefer manually backing up your data so that you can access any lost or corrupted data in a shorter time span?
Retaining mission-critical data should be a top priority for all companies and finding the right vendor partner for backup and recovery is a no-brainer. Breaking up with your current vendor may not be easy, but once you’ve identified a solution that better suits your company’s needs , then it’s time to make the switch.
Consider switching to Own
At Own, we’ve helped nearly 7,000 companies worldwide protect their data through services like data security, backup and recovery, archiving, and sandbox seeding. We offer a comprehensive solution within the Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and ServiceNow ecosystems and provide a cost-effective solution to safeguard your data no matter the cost.
Schedule a demo today to learn more about how we can help.
