Backing up to the cloud is a great strategy, particularly for organizations that do not have multiple data centres. However, Hybrid backup enables you to save a copy of your data to a local drive in addition to the cloud. But backup isn’t the whole story, as cloud-based backups can make restores a slow and frustrating process. Through hybrid backups that combine a local backup cache with a cloud backup, restores are less painful, while organizations get all of the benefits of cloud-based backups.

Having your data in the cloud and on a local drive is useful because it enables you to implement the 3-2-1 backup rule.

A hybrid strategy provides a combination of cloud data backup and storage with local backup. Here are the points what makes this a good strategy for the organizations?

• Redundancy: When both cloud and local backup works together, coordinating your data backup, you are ensuring that you can recover specific files, versions of those files, or, in the case of a ransomware attack, fully restore your data set to the last healthy state.
• Disaster Recovery: With a hybrid solution, you have a fully reliant strategy to recover as much as possible, as quickly as possible, and mitigate what might otherwise be complete disaster.
• Real-Time / In-Time File Access: The local side of hybrid backup provides access at file-level granularity from any Internet-connected device, providing access without the burden of an extensive or complex restoration process.
• Restore from the Cloud: If you back up only to the cloud, then you must restore from that cloud over an internet connection. This will usually be fine for a single Word document or Excel spreadsheet.

What about larger files, design documents, or sound and video media? Transferring a few gigabytes may take a while, especially if the internet connection isn’t as fast as you might like. The real problem comes when a lot of data needs to be restored, for example, after someone makes a big mistake and everybody in the office is waiting for that restore. For example Restoring 20 GB of lost Virtual Machines (VM) would take a whole working day, which is quite a large loss of productivity if that is the main file server and nobody can work until it is restored.

• Improved Availability: When disaster strikes, getting quick access to the backed up data is crucial. If you use only D2D or D2D2T your data is probably stored locally within the office or off-site at a third party. This may require physical intervention to initiate the recovery process, which could cause a delay.  With a cloud-based storage solution, the data is instantly available for recovery from anywhere to anywhere. All you need is an Internet connection.

• Better Adherence to Compliance and Security Regulations: Compliance regulations such as HIPAA and PCI all require data to be backed up in a secure manner and available for recovery for given duration of time. A hybrid cloud backup solution allows you to do this. Strong encryption algorithms (e.g. 448-bit blowfish) and the almost infinite capacity and lifetime of data stored in the cloud give you the means to “store and forget”.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure offers a bigger, better, faster, cheaper option that gives you peace of mind and increased flexibility when it comes to data backup and recovery. The whole point of hybrid cloud backup is to utilize the best of both worlds. If you are still a little sceptical, I challenge you to give hybrid cloud backup a go for a few months. This will give you first-hand experience and allow you to assess the benefits for yourself before making a decision.