Cover Your SaaS: Why You Need to Backup Your Business Applications!

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications are more popular than ever. Almost every company uses at least one SaaS application on a daily basis. The global SaaS market is expected to reach $185.8 billion by 2024, as more businesses move online and adapt their operations to cloud-based software for convenience and a more linear projection of future expectations.

However, most companies operate under the misconception that SaaS providers are who is responsible for the protection and security of their data. In the 2020 IT Operations Survey Report, about 60% of the participants — including IT leaders, IT managers and technicians from small and midsize businesses(SMBs) — believed that their data remains private and secured in the cloud, which is true, but only to an extent. And only one-third of the SMBs backed up their SaaS application data. Not nearly good enough.

There are significant limitations to how much data protection is provided by your SaaS vendor. While cloud service providers do manage your network, OS and application side of things, the companies themselves (you) are responsible for the data housed within the cloud and on cloud applications.

Let’s take a look at some of the top reasons which lead to SaaS data loss for businesses: 

1.       Sheer Human Error – Many users might find themselves in a situation where they have accidentally deleted emails or tons of data permanently. This data often cannot be restored once deleted—not even by the SaaS providers. If you didn’t have it backed up previously, that data will be gone for good.

2.       Malicious Employees – Angry ex or current employees who want to harm their employers can delete important information, making it difficult to recover if not backed up properly beforehand. Access should also be limited to employees who don’t need contact with certain private business or client data. 

3.       Cyberattacks/Ransomware –“Social engineering attacks” such as phishing emails, trick employees into clicking on a link or opening an attachment that allows hackers to gain access to the company network and data. This can prove disastrous since it not only leads to a data breach but also damages the reputation of the company. Employee training is incredibly important when it comes to trusting your staff with conducting business online. If you can’t trust them to know a scam email from a real one, how can you trust them to hold your most important, valuable data securely? 

SaaS Data Backup Is the Ultimate Means of Protection 

Many SaaS providers cannot protect your SaaS data against the threats we’ve mentioned above. In fact, cloud providers like Salesforce or Microsoft 365, for example, recommend the use of third-party backup services, and many compliance regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and more, implore companies to adopt the “shared responsibility” model for protecting their data in the cloud.

According to the “shared responsibility” approach, the cloud provider bears the responsibility of withholding the integrity of the infrastructure itself, while the customer is responsible for the control and access of the data housed within their software, in the cloud.

To best protect all your important SaaS data, you need a backup solution which allows you to:

·        Automate the backup process – Automating your backup procedures ensures that your staff or technicians do not miss backups, if you’re used to doing them manually. Also, data can be backed up daily in the background without disrupting other applications or causing employees to have to stop work.

·        Able to scale up as required – Your backup solution must be able to scale immediately so you do not have to worry about running out of space. Business happens so fast, you need your backup and cloud provider to work just as fast.

·        Immediate restore –You absolutely must be able to restore data quickly in the case of a breach or incident, with 100% accuracy guaranteed, and without any important loss of data.

So, Are You Going to Back that SaaS Up?

Every business must have its own individual backup and recovery strategy in place that can help prepare them for the unexpected. Using the proper SaaS data backup and recovery solution for your business’ personal needs can make the process much easier for you. Can your backup solution fully recover your business-critical SaaS data in a prompt, timely matter without creating costly business downtime or reputation damage? 

Schedule a consultation with us here at Tekie Geek today to talk about your current backup solution, and how our Business Continuity devices can change how you do business forever!