Backing Up Complex Multi-Cloud Environments – 4 Key Features To Look For

Organisations demand a robust solution to backup and restore dynamic, multiple cloud environments. 

From voice services and collaboration software to cloud-based marketing and sales tools, organisations are using an increasing number of cloud solutions to gain efficiencies and streamline operations. As a result, business leaders and IT teams are finding themselves faced with the challenges that come with backing up, testing, and ensuring business continuity within a complex multi-cloud environment. 

The reality is, without an equally dynamic backup solution, the more complex a cloud environment becomes, the more potential there is for security gaps and data loss. Any downtime of mission-critical applications is a serious threat because it results in a loss of significant sums of revenue. Application downtime costs the average organisation $20.1 million globally when lost revenue and productivity are factored into the equation (Veeam Cloud Data Management Report 2019). 

Only with a robust cloud backup system can an organisations truly have confidence in their cloud environment – and can IT resources spend their time implementing solutions that drive real business value instead of keeping up with mundane backup management. 

What should businesses and IT decision-makers look for to ensure an air-tight multi-cloud backup system? 

Here are four key features to look for to optimise your organisation’s backup in a complex multi-cloud environment. 

1. Ability to centrally manage cloud apps and data 

With multiple cloud solutions, each cloud vendor or SaaS provider will have a separate management portal and require unique backup solutions. This can make backup itself time-consuming and inefficient. It can also make it a challenge to recover data when you need it. 

With central management, your business can quickly recover data, which will minimise downtime in the event of a disaster or data breach. 

2. Streamlined compliance 

Depending on the nature of your contract with each cloud vendor, your organisation may have various compliance challenges and requirements to address. As the Australian Cyber Security Centre explains, this isn’t just a cumbersome challenge – it can make risk management impractical. It’s not easy for businesses to verify whether a vendor is always adhering to the governance and security considerations of their contract. Businesses need to stay on top of third-party audits and certifications to make sure a vendor is doing what it needs to guarantee compliance. 

When backing up a multi-cloud environment, look for a solution that addresses backup compliance for you, so you’re not leaving your organisation open to risk. 

3. Efficient and cost-effective monitoring and testing  

In-house DevOps teams are a finite resource for any organisation and many struggle to have the capacity to keep up with the demands of ongoing system monitoring.  

In addition, keeping up with the compliance demands for testing for different failovers and failbacks is becoming an increasingly complex job.  

With the ongoing changes to requirements, most in-house DevOps teams don’t have the capacity for ongoing monitoring or can invest in the specialised skills necessary for comprehensive failover and failback testing. 

This is why a managed backup solution is so critical. When you partner with a service provider that specialises in compliance requirements and testing, you know you can benefit from these expert services without having to take on the high costs of a specialised IT staff. 

4. Scalable cloud environment 

Cloud solutions reduce costs, increase security, and they offer better business continuity and flexibility. In the future, cloud technology is likely to become even more advanced – and vital to your business’s success.  

As you adopt more apps that operate in the cloud, you’ll create an even more dynamic environment – along with the need for a resilient, capable cloud backup solution that can scale with your business. 

 A capable backup and recovery solution for multiple cloud environments 

With hyper-complex multi-cloud environments, today’s organisations demand simplicity and efficient functionality so they can focus on operating their business – not operating their cloud. Our backup and recovery solutions can handle the complex and evolving demands of dynamic cloud environments, freeing up your IT resources and protecting your business from the risks of data loss and downtime.  

Learn more about Nexon’s Multi-Cloud Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution and the business advantages of implementing a resilient backup and recovery strategy.