A Decade Later – The Backup Guy’s New Reality
Remember the fellow in the short-sleeved button-down and tie swapping tape cartridges every hour? In our Business Backups 101 post from July 2014, we painted a picture of that dedicated employee meticulously labeling backup tapes into the night. Fast forward to 2025: the short-sleeved shirt might still be in his wardrobe, but the backup routine and the business landscape have changed dramatically. It’s been just over ten years since that last Bart’s blog on backups, and while some core principles remain the same, the tools and threats around business data backup have evolved in a big way.
In Business Backups 102, we’ll take a look at how backups have progressed since 2014. What’s still true? What new advice does the modern era bring? From the rise of cloud services to the onslaught of ransomware and the realities of remote work – consider this your 2025 update on keeping company data safe.
Why Backups Still Matter (Some Things Never Change)
If you’re thinking “Do I still need to back up my data in 2025?” – the answer is an emphatic yes. The fundamental reasons for backups are just as valid today as they were ten years ago: computer hardware can fail, humans still make mistakes, and Mother Nature hasn’t retired from causing disasters. Your business computers (and now cloud apps) store critical customer records, financial information, documents, and more. Losing that data can be catastrophic – potentially even a company-ending event. In fact, studies have found that downtime after data loss can cost businesses thousands of dollars per minute, and only about 6% of companies that suffer a major disaster with no recovery plan survive beyond two years. The bottom line: regular backups remain your best insurance against irretrievable data loss.
Backups are a cornerstone of any good disaster recovery plan. This was true in 2014 and is still true now. A decade ago we warned that if you kept all your backups on-site (say, on tapes or external drives in a closet) and a fire or flood destroyed your office, those backups would be useless. That hasn’t changed – your backup strategy must account for physical threats by storing data off-site or in the cloud. Whether it’s a burst pipe, a lightning strike, or a regional disaster, having geo-redundant copies of your data means your business can recover. The goal of backups remains the same: preserve your information so you can bounce back from anything, be it mundane hardware glitches or major catastrophes. In short, backups are still an absolute business essential in 2025, as much as (if not more than) they were in 2014.
What’s Changed Since 2014? (New Threats and Trends)
So, what is different in the backup world after a decade? In 2014, we talked a lot about the emerging convenience of cloud backups versus old-school tape. At that time, a surprising number of companies were still relying on tape backup systems – we even cited that 94% of companies were still using tape in some form back then. Cloud storage for backups was the exciting new kid on the block, promising to automate those tape swaps and spread copies of your data across multiple off-site servers. Here in 2025, cloud backup hasn’t just grown up – it’s practically the norm for many businesses. The idea of automatically backing up data to a secure cloud repository (with no human swapping tapes at 2 AM) has proven its worth. Cloud backup services are widespread and easier than ever to use, often running silently in the background and sending you an email report instead of sounding a physical alarm.
The Cloud (Almost) Took Over: For small and mid-size businesses, disk-based and cloud-based backups have largely overtaken tape. External hard drives, network-attached storage (NAS) devices, and cloud backup solutions are common choices for daily backups. Don’t write tape off completely, though – in an ironic twist, the old-fashioned tape cartridge has found a new niche in the 2020s as a reliable offline backup medium that hackers can’t easily reach. Even today, some organizations use tape for secure offline protection against cyber threats and long-term archiving. (Yes, tape drives still exist – they’re just not spinning next to every desk like in the old days.) For most businesses, however, the heavy lifting has shifted to cloud and online systems. Cloud backups in 2025 are typically encrypted, distributed, and often offer point-and-click restore convenience that we could only dream about in 2014.
Ransomware – The Game Changer: Perhaps the biggest change since our last backup blog is the rise of ransomware. A decade ago, malware was a concern, but ransomware has escalated the threat to a whole new level. These attacks encrypt all your files and hold your data hostage – and they’ve hit businesses of every size, not just large enterprises. In recent years, ransomware incidents have exploded, and the costs of recovery have skyrocketed. No company is too small to be targeted. This means your backups are not just for accidental deletions or hardware failures anymore – they’re your best defense against cybercriminals. If a ransomware attack strikes, having up-to-date, clean backups can be the difference between a minor inconvenience and a complete business shutdown. (After all, if you have a safe backup, you can restore your data without paying crooks a dime.)
However, ransomware’s rise has also forced backup strategies to evolve. Attackers know that companies rely on backups, so some ransomware strains now try to seek out and encrypt or delete backup files too. It’s a nightmare scenario: you think you were protected, but find even your backups have been corrupted. This is why modern best practices include keeping at least one backup copy isolated or “immutable” – locked against change. An immutable backup (whether on unchangeable cloud storage or offline media like tape) can’t be altered or wiped by an attacker, ensuring you always have a clean reserve copy of your data. In 2014 we spoke simply about having off-site backups; in 2025 we add that those backups should also be well-secured against tampering. The classic 3-2-1 backup rule (3 copies of your data on 2 different media, with 1 off-site) still applies, but experts now often expand it to a “3-2-1-1” rule – the extra “1” meaning an immutable copy that ransomware can’t touch. It’s a new layer of protection that hardly anyone considered a decade ago.
Remote Work and Distributed Data: Another big change since 2014 is where our data lives and how we work. Back then, a small business might have all its important files on a server in the office, plus a bunch of desktop PCs. Today, your data is likely scattered across laptops, cloud services, and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platforms – especially with the rise of remote and hybrid work. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 massively accelerated this trend. As of the mid-2020s, roughly 58% of American workers are in hybrid or fully remote arrangements. This means employees could be creating and storing business data from just about anywhere – their home office, a hotel, a coffee shop, you name it.
For your backup strategy, a distributed workforce presents both opportunities and challenges. The good news is that cloud-based collaboration tools (think Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, etc.) often have built-in redundancy. The bad news is that traditional on-site backup methods (like a server that only backs up PCs when they’re on the office network) might miss a lot of data. If half your team rarely steps foot in the office, you can’t rely on everyone saving files to an on-premises server or plugging into the local backup drive. Many endpoints are no longer physically in the office at all, which makes purely local backup solutions impractical. The modern approach is to embrace cloud-first backup solutions that protect data directly from wherever it resides. For example, backup agents can run on each laptop to continuously send backups to the cloud, regardless of whether that laptop is in HQ or on a home Wi-Fi. Cloud backup models are inherently remote-friendly – they don’t care if you’re on the company network or not, as long as you have an internet connection. This flexibility ensures that even a distributed team’s data ends up safely backed up to a central cloud repository. In short, the office walls are no longer the boundaries of your backup plan. Your backup strategy must account for data on the move and across the globe, not just data sitting in a server room closet.
Choosing the Best Backup Solution in 2025
Back in 2014’s Business Backups 101, we broke down two main types of backup solutions: physical storage (tapes, external drives, etc.) and cloud storage. Those categories still broadly hold true, but today most businesses use a mix – commonly a hybrid approach that combines local and cloud backups. As you determine the best backup solution for your needs in 2025, many of the same factors we discussed a decade ago are worth considering, along with a few new ones. Here’s a refreshed list of key considerations when evaluating business backup options today:
Security & Encryption: Make sure your backup solution encrypts your company’s data and keeps it out of the wrong hands. Whether your data is in transit to the cloud or sitting on a drive in your office, it should be encrypted so that competitors or “bad guys” can’t read it. Ten years ago, many companies felt physical backups were more secure simply because the data never left the building. In 2025, encryption is commonplace and essential for both local and cloud backups. Also, consider backup security in a broader sense: today’s threats mean you should protect your backups from hackers. Use strong access controls and, as mentioned, consider immutable or offline copies that ransomware can’t delete.
Data Integrity & Recovery Testing: It’s not enough to have a copy of your data – you need a good copy. Regularly verify that your backups are capturing uncorrupted, malware-free data. This was true in 2014 (we advised checking that backups aren’t backing up corrupted files) and it’s even more crucial now. Schedule test restores of your backups periodically to ensure you can actually recover and that the files aren’t broken or infected. Modern backup systems often include integrity checks, alerting you if a backup didn’t complete or if a file was skipped due to error. Pay attention to those alerts! The only thing worse than having no backup is thinking you have a backup, then discovering it’s unusable when disaster strikes.
Cost (Up-Front and Ongoing): Budget considerations never go out of style. Physical backups (like buying a big external drive or a tape library) often have higher up-front costs and ongoing expenses for media (e.g. purchasing new tapes or drives). Cloud backup services usually have minimal setup cost but charge ongoing subscription or storage fees. One change in 2025 is that cloud storage has become quite affordable per gigabyte – but businesses now generate massive amounts of data, so costs can add up if you’re backing up everything indefinitely. Be sure to compare the total cost of ownership for different solutions. Sometimes a hybrid approach can optimize cost: keep recent backups on a local NAS for quick restores, but archive older backups to cheaper cloud storage tiers. Many cloud providers also offer free trials or initial free storage, which can help smaller businesses get started.
Automation & Monitoring: The more you can automate your backups, the less human error and labor will be involved. In 2014 we highlighted how cloud solutions can automatically back up files whenever they change – that’s now a standard feature in most backup software. Automation means nobody forgets to run the backup at day’s end, and Bob from accounting doesn’t need to stay late swapping tapes. However, monitoring is the flip side: you must monitor those automated backups to catch any failures or issues. Make sure you have notifications set up (email, dashboards, etc.) to alert you if a backup fails or if storage space is running low. While automation has largely eliminated the nightly tape shuffle, a responsible person should still review backup reports or dashboards regularly – just to ensure everything is working as intended and your data is safe.
Data Distribution & Remote Coverage: Consider where your data lives across your business. If all your critical files sit on a central server, a traditional on-premises backup appliance might handle it. But if your data is spread across many employee laptops and cloud apps, you’ll need a solution that covers those endpoints. As we noted, physical-only backups often require data to be on the local network or device being backed up. Cloud-based backup solutions shine here by backing up each individual computer or cloud service wherever it is. Keep in mind that protecting distributed data might incur additional license or storage costs on cloud platforms (for example, you might pay per device or per terabyte). Still, in the age of remote work, it’s usually worth it. The last thing you want is an employee’s laptop with vital work files never getting backed up because it wasn’t in the office routine. Make sure whichever solution you choose can cover all the places your data resides – be it physical servers, virtual machines, PCs, or cloud applications.
Recovery Speed & Accessibility: Ultimately, a backup is only as good as your ability to restore it when needed. It’s time to think about Recovery Time Objective (RTO) – how quickly you need to be up and running after data loss – even if we don’t call it that by name. For example, if you have a local backup on a USB drive, restoring a failed PC might be very fast (just plug it in and go). Cloud backups might take a bit longer to download, especially for huge data sets, unless you have a fast internet link (or the provider can overnight ship you a drive in an emergency). Weigh the trade-offs: cloud solutions offer convenience and off-site safety, but large-scale restores could be slower than copying from an on-site device. A hybrid approach (local backup for quick minor restores, cloud backup for true disaster recovery) can give you the best of both worlds. Also, consider accessibility: do you want the ability to retrieve a file from your phone or while on vacation if an emergency comes up? Many modern cloud backup services let you log in from anywhere to grab a file – something hardly imaginable with that old tape library in 2014.
By examining these factors, you can determine the mix of solutions that makes sense for your business. For many, a hybrid backup strategy is ideal: for instance, use an on-premises NAS or external drive for fast local backups and a cloud backup service to maintain off-site copies for true disaster protections. The local backup covers you for small mishaps (like accidentally deleted files or quick recovery of a single server), and the cloud backup has your back if something truly calamitous happens (like a fire, flood, or widespread ransomware attack). Also, engaging a reliable third-party or IT partner to help set up and manage backups is still a wise choice – that was true in 2014 and remains true now. After all, backup solutions have grown more sophisticated, and having an expert ensure everything is configured and running properly can save you headaches down the road.
The More Things Change… (Closing Thoughts)
Looking back with a bit of nostalgia: our 2014 backup guy would probably be amazed (and maybe relieved) at how far backup technology has come. He might no longer need to spend his nights tending tape machines, and can instead let cloud automation handle the grunt work while he focuses on more valuable tasks – or gets a full night’s sleep! But even as technology changes, the mission of backups stays the same: protecting your business’s lifeblood – its data – against the unexpected. Ten years later, that’s one thing that hasn’t changed at all.
Is your backup strategy keeping up with the times? If you’re unsure, you’re not alone. The array of backup options can be overwhelming, and the stakes have never been higher with threats like ransomware looming. Many experts agree that crafting a robust backup and recovery plan often requires a mix of solutions and a fair bit of know-how. You might even find that a hybrid solution (combining physical and cloud backups) makes the most sense – and that’s where getting a little help can go a long way. RFX Technologies would be happy to be your guide. We’ve spent the last 2 decades helping businesses large and small upgrade their backup strategies to meet modern challenges. From evaluating the best backup software and cloud services to setting up secure, automated routines and testing recovery scenarios, we specialize in custom IT solutions that keep your critical data safe. Don’t let a decade of new threats catch your company off-guard – contact us today to learn how we can help you build a 2025-proof backup plan that will protect your business for the next ten years and beyond.