Cloud backup: the complete guide to understand

1 – Cloud backup: essential reminders

Is cloud backup just a trend, or has it become a critical standard for securing organizational data? Is it a true resilience asset for businesses, or yet another unnecessary expense?

Despite its critical importance in any IT system, backup infrastructure and its security have historically received too little attention, until recently. The risks of inadequate or nonexistent backups are numerous and severe: business interruptions, financial losses, reputational damage, loss of customer trust, legal action, regulatory penalties, and liability for organizations or even individuals. These pitfalls can threaten a company’s survival in the short or medium term.

Businesses aren’t the only ones facing these challenges. Local governments, public administrations, hospitals, health agencies, universities, and others deal with the same stakes, data loss, blockage, or theft. That’s why a robust, secure backup strategy aligned with the highest standards is now considered essential for any organization. Organizations should also have a clearly defined disaster recovery plan to ensure rapid response and recovery in case of a catastrophic event.

This need is supported by ANSSI (France’s National Agency for Information Systems Security), which recommends adopting the 3-2-1 backup strategy, including an off-site data copy. An enhanced version, the 3-2-1-1-0 strategy, is widely endorsed by professionals, incorporating data immutability among other features.

Cloud backup fits perfectly into these frameworks. It has become a vital component of any robust backup strategy, significantly enhancing data security through complementary methods. When managed by the right provider, cloud backup also optimizes costs and ensures full budget predictability.

Detailed explanations follow. For both cloud backup for businesses and personal cloud backup solutions, incorporating a well-defined disaster recovery plan and immutable cloud backups is critical to ensuring rapid and reliable recovery. Leveraging cloud backup solutions ensures secure cloud storage and reliable data recovery strategy through features like automatic data backup, compliance and security measures, affordable cloud backup service, and robust data protection policies.

2 – What Is cloud backup and why Is it important?

Cloud backup involves regularly or periodically copying production data and sending it off-site to a specialized cloud service. This enables data recovery and restoration in case of damage, blockage, or loss.

Initially, IT system backups were mainly useful for operational incidents like hardware failures. Today, they are indispensable for protecting businesses and public entities against a growing range of incidents.

Cloud backups are increasingly popular for the following reasons:

• Off-site Security: Protect critical data from disasters (fires, floods, theft) and ransomware by storing it outside local infrastructure.
• Fast Restoration: Access backups from anywhere and restore data with a few clicks if local infrastructure is lost.
• Scalability: Adjust storage space with a single click, avoiding costly hardware purchases or installations.
• Simplified Management: Free your IT team from complex tasks. Cloud backup reduces maintenance costs, allowing resources to focus on higher-value projects.

Cloud backup vs. cloud storage: a note on the differences

While cloud storage can also be used for backups, it differs significantly from cloud backup.

Cloud storage is designed to store files on remote servers, making them accessible across multiple devices, ideal for collaborative work, for example.

In contrast, cloud backup is specifically built to protect against data loss or blockage and facilitate recovery. Cloud backup solutions typically support multi-device backup, cloud storage migration, backup automation, and provide high availability storage to ensure rapid file restoration and PII protection. It creates secure, immutable online copies for quick restoration when needed.

3 – Cloud Backup vs. Local Backup: do you have to choose?

Despite the many advantages of cloud backup solutions (explored further below), the goal isn’t to pit cloud backup against local backup but to understand their complementarity for a more flexible, secure hybrid approach.

As mentioned, ANSSI strongly recommends the 3-2-1 backup strategy:

• 3 copies of the data, on 2 different media, with 1 stored offline.

With the rise in cyberattacks, this has evolved into the 3-2-1-1-0 strategy:

• 1 offline copy must be air-gapped or immutable, and 0 recovery errors during regular testing.

Cloud backup provides an additional layer of protection against accidental changes, deletions, and ransomware attacks. Cybercriminals increasingly target backup infrastructure, which is often less protected.

For optimal security, including ransomware protection, managed cloud services, and comprehensive data archiving strategies, the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) recommends creating two distinct backups:

• One for hardware failures, operational incidents, or natural disasters.
• One for recovery from cyberattacks.

The cyberattack recovery backup should be stored off-site to minimize risks of physical compromise if hackers access the production site.

Additionally, organizations should consider different types of cloud backups to tailor their strategy:

• Full Backup: Copies all data.
• Incremental Backup: Copies only files created or modified since the last backup.
• Differential Backup: Copies files created or modified since the last full backup.

NIST recommends combining full and incremental backups for enhanced security.

4 – Cloud backup: the benefits

As you’ve gathered, cloud backup integrates seamlessly into a 3-2-1-1-0 strategy with off-site, immutable copies on different media, significantly strengthening data and business security.

The benefits don’t stop there:

Cost Reduction and Budget Control

Instead of unpredictable budgets for hardware purchases, maintenance, physical server security, and HR considerations, cloud backup offers a single, predictable bill, provided you choose the right provider.

Most cloud backups rely on S3 technology, a naturally low-cost solution.

Learn more about our S3 Leviia Storag3 solution and its benefits:

• 100% French
• 3x cheaper than AWS
• No hidden fees
• €9.99 per terabyte

Enhanced Security

Data security is the core mission of reputable cloud backup providers. From physical data center security to multiple layers of cybersecurity, cloud backups offer superior protection.

Key security measures include:

• Performance optimization and performance-enhancing features
• SaaS backup integration and granular recovery options
• AI-driven data management
• Snapshot recovery technology
• Cross-platform access and online data protection
• Enterprise storage solutions ensuring cost-effective backup and data redundancy, Backup immutability (locking)
• End-to-end encryption
• Geo-redundancy
• File versioning

By definition, cloud backup provides continuous data access from any device, enabling faster business recovery and minimizing interruptions and financial losses.

Exceptional Scalability

Cloud backup allows you to scale data protection efforts with a few clicks, freeing you from physical infrastructure limitations. Such solutions provide customizable storage plans, easy setup processes, and performance and scalability tailored to diverse organizational needs, ensuring complete data integrity and geo-redundant storage solutions. S3 object storage further amplifies this, enabling near-infinite data additions at any time.

Ease of Use

Not all solutions are equal, but modern cloud backup interfaces are clear and user-friendly, allowing any user profile to adopt and use them effectively, no need for expert staff.

5 – Cloud backup: the drawbacks

Hidden Costs = Hefty Bills

Cloud backup is often criticized for being expensive. Adopting it as part of a resilient backup strategy involves regular payments based on storage volume.

However, the real issue isn’t just storage costs but hidden or unpredictable fees charged by many providers, such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. These may include:

• Deletion fees
• API request fees
• Egress fees
• Replication fees

Such costs can quickly accumulate and impact your budget. At Leviia, we prioritize fair pricing and transparency: you know exactly what you’re paying upfront, based solely on reserved capacity, no extra fees.

Reduced Speed

A common misconception is that cloud backups suffer from latency, especially when downloading large data volumes. In reality, cloud upload/download speeds often reach 1GB/s and are typically limited only by the user’s bandwidth.

Privacy and Sovereignty

Entrusting data to a third party requires caution. Business backups contain sensitive information: strategic documents, trade secrets, financial data, health records, etc.

Using providers that don’t guarantee confidentiality risks economic espionage, leaks, or data breaches. This is particularly true for U.S.-based providers, where the Cloud Act and FISA grant U.S. authorities broad access to client data, even if servers are located abroad.

For optimal security, choose a sovereign cloud provider:

• A French company
• Subject to French law
• Hosting data in France
• With all data processing partners under French jurisdiction

Choosing providers with cloud compliance certifications ensures adherence to regulatory requirements, fortifying compliance and security across all operations.This is a core feature of Leviia and Leviia Storag3: 100% French, sovereign cloud solutions that effectively protect your data from violations.

Cyberthreats

The rise in cyberattacks naturally raises questions about storing data online and the long-term durability of archives. These concerns are valid, but reputable providers like Leviia invest heavily in continuous monitoring and security enhancements, far beyond what most businesses can afford. This significantly reduces risks while ensuring high-level protection.