Why cloud storage isn’t a backup

If your files are in Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or Box, they’re already stored more reliably than most businesses could manage on their own. The providers keep several copies across several data centers, and a failed disk is something you’ll never hear about.

So it’s reasonable to ask why you’d need a backup at all. The short answer: those copies protect the files from the provider’s problems. They don’t protect the files from yours.

Sync copies mistakes too

Cloud storage is built to keep every copy of a file the same, everywhere, as quickly as possible. That’s exactly what you want when a colleague edits a spreadsheet. It’s exactly what you don’t want when:

• someone deletes a folder they thought was theirs
• a file is saved over with the wrong version
• ransomware on one laptop encrypts a synced folder
• a sync client gets confused and removes files on every device at once

In each case, the service does its job perfectly. The change reaches every copy, and all of them are now wrong.

Trash and version history help, up to a point

The providers know this, which is why they offer a trash folder and version history. These are genuinely useful, and they’re the first place to look when something goes missing. But they have limits worth knowing:

• They expire. Deleted files and old versions are kept for a set period, which depends on the service and your plan. A deletion nobody notices for a few months may be past recovery.
• They live in the same account. Anyone who can delete your files can usually empty the trash too, whether that’s a careless click or someone who has taken over the account.
• They depend on keeping the account. If the account is locked, suspended, or belongs to someone who has left, its history goes with it.

What a backup adds

A backup is a second copy that the first one can’t reach. It lives somewhere else, under different credentials, and changes in your cloud account don’t flow into it.

That separation is the whole point. A good backup of cloud files should:

• be independent: stored outside the cloud account, with access that account doesn’t control
• never copy deletions: a file removed at the source should stay in the backup
• keep earlier versions: when a file changes, the old copy should survive
• run on its own: a backup that depends on someone remembering to do it won’t get done
• be checked: a backup job that reports success isn’t proof the data is there

The 3-2-1 idea, applied to the cloud

A long-standing rule of thumb says to keep three copies of important data, on two kinds of storage, with one copy somewhere else. For cloud files, the provider’s internal copies are one strand of that. An independent backup, in separate storage with separate keys, is the part that covers everything happening inside your own account.

Where Vaultelix fits

Vaultelix is that independent copy. It backs up Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, S3-compatible storage and SFTP servers on a schedule, into storage created only for you. Files deleted from your account stay in the backup, earlier versions are kept, and every backup is watched. You can read how it works, or get in touch to talk about your setup.