By Nakivo

11/30/2020
Hidden Costs of Data Backup: Top 7 Tips to Avoid ThemData backup is one of those endeavors that cost companies time, money, and efforts. However, saving on costs is a noble goal every smart and responsible business should pursue. On the other hand, you have to look for ways of avoiding hidden and unnecessary data backup costs.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to look for ways to save you these costs and channel them to other useful projects. Here are seven tips to help you save money on your data backup efforts (see our official website for more on our Hyper-V backup solutions). Keep reading to learn and save more money on your data backup plans.
Virtualize Virtualization is one way of reducing your data backup costs. Virtualizing your environment lets you reduce the number of hardware necessary for storing your data. For instance, you can virtualize your current server into two servers. Moreover, virtual machines save you the amount of storage space you would require to store more hardware. Don’t forget that more hardware requires additional power consumption to store your data.
DeduplicateRedundant data is a costly white elephant in the room. They occupy the space other critical data would have occupied. Also, they consume bandwidth when you keep transferring them to other sites. For instance, transferring two terabytes of redundant information will cost your business time and bandwidth. It also costs your staff time and energy to maintain unnecessary data. Thus, deduplication comes in handy and saves you all these avoidable costs.
Archive Static Data You can also archive static data and save your business avoidable data backup costs. For example, you can store old data you don’t frequently use tapes. Such information might take you longer to retrieve than if you stored it on disks. However, tapes are cheaper in the long-term because, after all, they store your least frequently used data. Thus, the speed of retrieving that data is not a primary priority.
Automate Your Processes Do you still want to save money on your data backup efforts? You should automate your backup processes in every way you can. First, automating the backup process saves you the time you would have spent backing your data. Instead, you and your staff can use that precious time to focus on your core business duties. Second, automation saves you the risk of human error that could cost you money in the long-run. So, automate your backup processes today and reap the benefits of reduced costs.
Avoid Unethical SuppliersEvery business seeks to grow and expand its operations gradually. Also, such growth increases the data volumes a business handles and exchanges. However, this increased data capacity also requires an increased infrastructure to handle it effectively.
If you don’t find an understanding data storage vendor, you could be exploited. Some vendors take advantage of blooming businesses and charge them exorbitantly for additional data storage infrastructure and systems. Fortunately, we still have a few suppliers who don’t exploit young businesses when their data storage needs to scale up.
Therefore, be careful and avoid all exploitative vendors because they can cause you avoidable losses. Obviously, you wouldn’t like to waste all your limited resources in one area when you can invest them in other growth areas. So, look for a vendor who charges you a flat annual fee irrespective of how much data increased or system changed during that year.
Implement Information Life-Cycle Management (ILM)Implementing ILM is another way of saving costs on your data backup efforts. But what is ILM? It’s a technology management philosophy that moves information to less costly systems or eliminates the tech as its value drops. Fortunately, some responsible and responsive vendors offer software and services that assist businesses to implement ILM.
Go Cloud Lastly, you can reduce your data storage costs by moving to the cloud. Cloud technology is cheaper in the long-term. For instance, it offers businesses the flexibility to scale down or up as their needs change. Therefore, exploiting its cost-saving potential can significantly reduce your data backup costs.

There you have it. It’s up to you to use this information to explore these tips and reduce your data backup expenses.