How Data is Lost in the Cloud

There’s a common misconception that everything in the cloud is backed up. However, while Amazon, and Google have disaster recovery plans for the data they store on their servers, is that the only way you think you’ll be affected by data loss? It’s more likely that an employee is going to delete something they end up needing two weeks later than the possibility of all of Google’s servers being destroyed by a tornado.

In fact, SaaS applications usually aren’t the responsible party for your data loss, but they aren’t built to protect you against accidental or malicious actions either. In other words, if the data loss is your fault, you’re out of luck in most cases unless you have your own backup solution.

How Can I Lose Data?

Data loss has serious implications for businesses affected. The Cloud Security Alliance listed the Top 9 Cloud Security Threats and rated Loss of Data as the #2 most severe threat, up from #5 in 2010. For businesses that sustain data loss, statistics show that 60% of those companies will be out of business within 6 months of the disaster.

• Accidental deletion and user mistakes: More often than not, data is deleted only for the user or organization to later realize that it is actually still needed. A collaborator might accidentally delete a shared project, or you might delete a scrapped project and then later learn it is starting up again. Information can also unknowingly be overwritten or corrupted by users and third party apps

• Overwriting data: SaaS applications hold large amounts of data that are constantly added to and updated. Overwriting data is a common problem that occurs when large data sets are imported into the application via bulk uploads or when integrated third-party applications are used to manage the data inside the base SaaS application

• Malicious actions: People often delete data before they quit if they suspect they are going to be fired, or to spite a boss or coworker they are angry at. Hackers can also be the culprit, surpassing security systems to delete or corrupt data. Whether internal or external, untrustworthy people are a reality.

To learn more about common misconceptions about cloud applications, the causes of data loss, how you can prevent loss, check out our eBook: Making the Case for Cloud-to-Cloud Backup.