What will happen if you lose access to your computer or the hard drive gets corrupted? Can you say that your business operations won’t be affected? The mere thought of such a thing happening can trigger anxiety. After all, data is the most vital component of running a business smoothly, so you need to keep it safe. When it comes to keeping your data safe, nothing can beat cloud data backup.

What is the cloud?
Before you start storing your data on the cloud, you must understand what it is and its benefits. The cloud allows you to store your data online securely. Anyone with permission can access and share this data anytime and from anywhere, and the service was created keeping multiple users in mind. Plus, the cloud offers many advantages, like more bandwidth, low operation cost, improved accessibility, easy recovery, convenient collaboration, less time-consuming, added security, and unlimited storage space.

Before the cloud, businesses had to rely on expensive servers, network bandwidth, external hard drives, and office storage spaces to store data. Additionally, hiring experts to install the required devices and other storage services would most often burn a hole in their pockets. Now, businesses can easily store their data on the cloud without investing thousands of dollars in buying expensive devices or hiring experts.

Why should you use the cloud to store data?
Data is in a vulnerable state when it is stored on-site. Whether stored in a filing cabinet or on a computer hard drive, you can lose access to your data in a moment.
Various factors can play a role in wiping your data clean. Depending on your office location and situation, these factors can range from theft and extreme weather conditions to computer malfunction or viruses. So, the most secure place to store your data is off-site, and this is where cloud data backup comes into the picture. Storing your data on the cloud allows you to access it anytime, anywhere without any hassles. Plus, the data is safe even if your computer is damaged or a virus infiltrates it.

Top cloud backup services you can opt for
Now that you understand the purpose of cloud backup services, let’s take a look at the top service providers you can choose from:

• Nextiva
  Nextiva offers cloud data backup and storage so that you can conduct your business from anywhere, anytime with voice, video conferencing, text messaging, sales CRM, helpdesk, and much more. The cost-effective VoIP service provider provides excellent uptime and reliability and comes with personalized onboarding and implementation support for outstanding customer experience. Nextiva’s powerful team collaboration and customer management tools enable smooth work from home, and the monthly starting cost is $17.95 per month per user, which varies depending on the number of users and term length.
• Backblaze Business Backup
  Backblaze provides easy and reliable cloud backup services for your business to safely store all the important information on the registered devices. With Backblaze, you can get automatic and continuous backup of all your user data for just $60/year per computer. It offers services like central administration and unlimited storage. Another notable feature you get with Backblaze is hard drive restoration, wherein Backblaze will send you a hard drive with all your data anywhere in the world. Additionally, client-side encryption and 30-day rollback ensure data protection.
• Carbonite Safe™
  This is an ideal choice for small businesses and offers reliable and easy data protection and recovery with cloud data backup. Carbonite Safe™ is easy to install and use, and it uses advanced encryption to ensure that your data is secure in transit and storage. The plans start at $6 per month billed annually, and the cost varies depending on the number of computers. With this provider, you get services like ransomware recovery, remote file access, and much more.