Onsite Storage Backup: This form of backup resides within the physical confines of the business itself, making data recovery quick and easy. The shortcoming of onsite backup, however, is just that: it’s onsite. On the rare occasion that a true disaster strikes and damages the physical location of the business—whether it’s a hurricane, flood, fire, earthquake, theft, etc.—onsite storage is also lost. Many small businesses discovered this too late during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Some lost data that to this day has yet to be recovered … and may never be.

Offsite Data Backup: Some businesses in areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy didn’t lose any data and were able to reopen as soon as their offices were renovated or re-established in a new location. These businesses had some form of a cloud backup solution, which stored their data backup offsite and out of harm’s way when Sandy struck. While the cloud helped ensure these businesses were able to get their data back after their local copy had been destroyed, it’s not always the fastest option for recovery.

Business Continuity: The onsite backup allows businesses to recover data rapidly in the event of a small, localized data interruption such as a hard drive crash or broken server, while cloud backup provides ultimate protection if something happens to the business location. By offering both solutions, hybrid cloud backup can cover all eventualities and ensure the most effective solution for business continuity.

Data Redundancy: In a hybrid cloud solution, data is stored locally and then replicated to the cloud. This provides the added security of having data storage in two locations, so data is backed up and available when and where it is needed.

Flexibility and Scalability: Having data stored locally can be handy, but space is usually limited. Employing a cloud backup solution avails a business of unlimited storage resources—as the company’s volume of data grows, the amount of storage it uses can grow with it without additional infrastructure investments.

Reduced Cost: While a hybrid cloud storage solution does require a business to invest in some infrastructure, there is significantly less capital investment needed than if a full-blown onsite storage solution were implemented. Future investments are also forestalled because there is less need to expand the hardware required to store locally when data is stored through an online data backup service.