Best Cloud Backup Solutions for Small Business

No small business is so small that it doesn’t need backup protection using cloud computing. And for most SMBs, a cloud-based backup service using a public cloud provider offers an ideal combination of security and convenience.

The reason that these backup are so essential to cloud security are numerous. In addition to cyberattacks, disasters like fires, floods and extreme weather can also necessitate restoring from backups. And far more mundane occurrences, like a hard drive crash or simply mistakenly deleting an important file, are much more manageable when you have a good backup process.

If your company doesn’t have a large IT team, one of the easiest ways to make sure you are protected is by using a cloud backup service. These cloud-based options get your data off-site, where it is far less likely to be affected by the same disasters that might be affecting your primary location. They are also extremely easy to set up and most are very affordable.

Still, you want to do your homework and make sure that you are selecting the best vendor for your needs. Here are some tips that can help:

Tips on Selecting a Cloud Backup Service for Your Small Business

• Allocate an appropriate budget. If your company is relatively young and/or small – and very focused on lowering cloud costs – you might be tempted just to choose the cheapest provider. Or even worse, to go without backup protection. However, if you weigh the potential costs of not being able to access your files and applications for an extended period of time or, potentially worse, losing valuable data, you will probably realize that you can’t afford not to have a good backup solution in place.

• Understand that most consumer backup and syncing services are not good enough.The service you use to back up your home PC probably is not what you need to back up your business systems. You don’t only need backup protection for your laptops, you also need to be able to get your servers and applications up and running after an outage, and you might also need to protect data that resides in cloud-based services like Salesforce or Office 365.

• Don’t pay for features you will never use. On the flip side, you also don’t want to get stuck paying for enterprise-level services that don’t provide any real value for your circumstances. You probably don’t have to have immediate failover to a full secondary data center facility or complicated management tools designed for organizations with thousands of employees.

• Look for an easy-to-use, convenient solution. Many small businesses have a very small (or even non-existent) IT team. That means you need a solution that doesn’t require regular manual intervention. The best options are those that allow you to “set it and forget it.” Your cloud backup solution should also have centralized management capabilities that allow you to check the status of the entire company’s backups.

• Make sure your vendor offers strong security, including encryption. As already mentioned, small businesses make tempting targets for cyberattackers. Any backup service you choose needs to encrypt data in transit and at rest and enforce strong passwords, at a bare minimum. You should also double-check to be sure the provider meets any applicable compliance requirements, such as HIPAA and PCI.

Jump to:

• Acronis
• Backblaze
• Carbonite Cloud Backup
• Cloudberry Lab/MSP360
• Crashplan
• Druva
• iDrive
• SolarWinds Backup
• SOS Online Backup
• Veeam

Acronis

Value proposition for potential buyers

Acronis serves more than 5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses in 145 countries worldwide. It offers online backup solutions for individuals, small businesses, enterprises and service providers. Its primary cloud backup service for small business users is called Acronis Backup, and it also offers several other backup products and services. It has won multiple awards and gets very high reviews from analysts and users.

Key values/differentiators:

• Acronis can backup data from any type of environment — physical, virtual, cloud or mobile.
• Because the company also offers cybersecurity technology, it is able to incorporate some security features into its online backup services, including ransomware protection based on machine learning.
• Thanks to its simple design, you can deploy Acronis Backup in just three clicks, and the company promises that you will be able to restore data within seconds after a disruption.
• Acronis Backup also incorporates blockchain features designed to prevent attacks on archived files.

Backblaze

Value proposition for potential buyers

If you are looking for low-cost backup protection, Backblaze might be for you. It has a very large customer base that includes both consumers and businesses, and it also offers low-cost cloud storage. It has more than 750 PB of data stored on its servers, and it has won several awards. However, this service is just for individual PCs, not for servers or data stored in the cloud.

Key values/differentiators:

• Backblaze is very transparent about its simplified pricing model, which runs just $60 per computer per year for business users, with no throttling or pricing tiers (although pricing is slightly different if you prefer to pay by the month or for two years in advance).
• To protect against ransomware, Backblaze includes 30-day rollback capabilities, which should restore systems to a point before they were infected.
• The service supports single sign-on through G Suite or Microsoft Office 365.
• If you need to restore your data from a physical hard drive, Backblaze will send a drive anywhere in the world, and it will refund the cost of the drive after you return it.

Carbonite Cloud Backup

Value proposition for potential buyers

Popular with consumers, Carbonite also offers a range of cloud backup services for small businesses. These include Carbonite Safe (for organizations with up to 25 computers), Carbonite Server (for servers), and Carbonite Endpoint 365 (for endpoints and Office 365 data). The company offers low-cost, easy-to-understand pricing that starts at $24 per month for small business plans, plus a free 30-day trial. Carbonite users also get peace of mind from knowing that the service protects more than 1.1 million customers.

Key values/differentiators:

• Carbonite boasts award-winning support that is available every day.
• Data is encrypted by 128-bit or 256-bit encryption.
• Database backup, application backup, image backup and bare metal restores are available for customers with a server plan.
• Business plans also offer FERPA, GLBA, and HIPAA support.

Learn More about Carbonite

Cloudberry Lab/MSP360

Value proposition for potential buyers

Cloudberry Lab is in the process of changing its name to MSP360, which reflects the company’s expertise in providing backups for managed service providers. That MSP expertise carries over into its SMB products, which protect endpoints, servers and cloud-based data in SaaS applications. The company also gives organization the ability to choose where their backup data resides — in one of the major cloud providers’ data centers or local storage.

Key values/differentiators:

• The service supports all major platforms, including Windows, Linux, macOS, VMware and others.
• 256-bit AES encryption keeps data secure, and the Windows product also includes built-in ransomware protection.
• Customers can choose to use a mix of on-site storage and cloud-based storage for their backups, if desired.
• The service can also backup cloud-based apps like Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365.

Crashplan

Value proposition for potential buyers

If you are looking for a low-cost cloud backup service that supports servers as well as individual PCs, Crashplan offers a good alternative to Backblaze. This service was designed specifically for SMBs, so its features, like simplified management, automated reports, dedicated support and easy-to-understand pricing, are often a good fit for smaller organizations. The service has won numerous awards, as well as being featured on several “best of” lists, and it offers a free one-month trial.

Key values/differentiators:

• Simplified pricing costs $10 per month per computer or file server, with unlimited storage included.
• Copy data to a local external drive at no additional cost.
• Protect your data with 256-bit AES data encryption at rest, configurable security settings and tools to achieve HIPAA compliance.
• Choose to backup data continuously or on a schedule that you customize.

Druva

Value proposition for potential buyers

Druva is designed for organizations that run a lot of cloud workloads. Its Druva Cloud Platform backs up IaaS, PaaS and SaaS data, as well as desktops, mobile devices, data centers and remote offices. It promises to lower users’ total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 50 percent.

Key values/differentiators:

• Pricing is based on consumption, so businesses pay for what they use and have the ability to scale up or down as needed.
• Dashboards allow you to easily view and manage backup across all your cloud-based, on-premise and mobile systems.
• The platform incorporates data forensics and predictive analytics to help spot any security issues.
• Druva leverages AWS infrastructure to provide scalability, reliability and security.

iDrive

Value proposition for potential buyers

Winner of multiple awards, iDrive promises enterprise-class features for small business at a very low price. Costs are based on the amount of storage space you use, and the company boasts exceptionally fast backups that don’t require a lot of network bandwidth. It gets very high ratings from analysts and customers.

Key values/differentiators:

• Pricing for iDrive Business starts at $74.62 per year for 250 GB of storage.
• 256-bit AES encryption with a user-defined key keeps data secure.
• The service offers snapshots, versioning, and true archiving that doesn’t delete data until you tell it to do so.
• It includes both file sync and disk image backup capabilities.

Learn More about iDrive

SolarWinds

Value proposition for potential buyers

Although better known for its IT monitoring and management tools, SolarWinds also offers a backup service for businesses. Best for larger SMBs, it has many of the features common in enterprise solutions, but with prices starting at $2,995, it is still affordable for some small and medium-sized businesses. It aims to take much of the complexity out of backup while still providing reliable service.

Key values/differentiators:

• SolarWinds offers unified backup for physical and virtual servers.
• Built-in compression and deduplication minimize space requirements and speed backups and restores.
• Status dashboard makes it easy to check on backups and spot any problems.
• SolarWinds Backup runs on a private cloud for added security.

SOS Online Backup

Value proposition for potential buyers

SOS claims to be “the world’s most secure online backup.” And despite its advanced features, it remains extremely affordable with SOS for Business plans starting at $29.99 per month. SOS pioneered many security and privacy features that have become standard, and it continues to lead the way in this area. It also gets very positive reviews in the press and from customers.

Key values/differentiators:

• SOS offers military-grade, multilayer encryption designed to keep data completely private.
• Unlike most other services, SOS never deletes files; they remain available forever on the service.
• The service includes support for mobile devices.
• SOS also does not place any limits on file sizes or file types.

Veeam

Value proposition for potential buyers

As a leading cloud data management vendor, Veeam has earned numerous awards and industry accolades. It has a lengthy list of industry partners and supports all the major platforms. It has more than 343,000 customers around the world, including Royal Caribbean Cruises, Telecom Italia, the Vancouver Canucks and many others. It offers multiple online backup products, including Veeam Availability Suite, Veeam Backup and Replication and Veeam Backup Essentials.

Key values/differentiators:

• Small businesses can start with Veeam’s Backup and Replication services and move up to the full Availability Platform as they scale.
• Veeam supports multiple physical, virtual and cloud environments, including backing up data stored in SaaS applications.
• The platform is both simple to use and very flexible.
• Veeam promises excellent reliability.

Comparison Chart: Cloud Backup Services for Small Businesses