Data Recovery Digest

In recent years, more and more companies around the world are beginning to use Software as a Service applications as part of their workflow. This type of software, also referred to as SaaS, allows businesses to harness the power of the cloud by getting their work done online, with popular examples including Microsoft's Office 365 suite and the Salesforce CRM platform.

This sort of technology lends businesses scalable software that can be easily and quickly delivered to a wide range of systems — but it could leave your business in the lurch if backups aren't a priority. Just because the software itself is in the cloud, that doesn't mean that anything it produces should stay there too. Even if the service claims to take care of backups automatically, there are a host of different reasons from concerns of compliance to peace of mind that make SaaS backups no less than crucial.

Backups undertaken by a SaaS provider can be subject to the terms of the service agreement laid out in their contract with your business. In most cases, you're paying for the software and the backup comes as a bonus. This doesn't necessarily mean that the backup won't fit the bill, but it does suggest that it's a secondary concern on the part of the provider. Considering the huge importance of regular, reliable backups in a business setting, it's not worth putting that job in the hands of anyone other than a specialist.

You wouldn't look to a backup specialist for your SaaS needs — and, as such, it's worth seeking out a company that focusses on data backups to make sure the files you accrue through your SaaS use are well protected. Fortunately, there are plenty of services that offer this sort of protection, no matter what type of SaaS your business uses.

The most popular forms of SaaS like Office 365, Google Apps and Salesforce are typically supported by dedicated SaaS backup providers across the board. Spanning can take care of all three, and is used by companies as large as Redfin and Netflix. Its competitor Backupify instead focusses on Google Apps and Salesforce, but offers comprehensive social media backups for services like Twitter and Facebook in lieu of Office 365 support.

Whichever service you choose, the importance of performing backups of SaaS data simply can't be overstated. The purpose of a backup is to restore your business to its normal output as quickly as possible following data loss — it's insurance that keeps your company running smoothly, should the worst happen. Operating without that safety net, or entrusting the proper backups to a company that doesn't treat such work as its primary focus, is a risk that can result in downtime and financial loss, thus simply isn't worth taking.

No matter how much data you need to be backed up, or your budget for doing so, there is an option out there that's right for your business; the only wrong turn you can take is to not treat SaaS backups with the importance that they require.