Is Google Drive’s Backup & Sync a Viable Recovery Tool?
CIOs relying on Google Workspace must go beyond the Google Backup & Sync to ensure their employees’ data continuity. While Google’s suite of apps offers seamless interoperability, it lacks in-depth features, particularly in data backup and recovery. The missing support for critical use cases in Google Drive’s Backup & Sync can lead to significant risks for businesses that depend on this service. In 2019 and beyond, adopting a robust Google Drive backup service is crucial for safeguarding business data.
Why Effective Data Backup Isn’t As Simple As It Used to Be
The risk of data loss due to a crash in cloud-hosted environments is minimal. Google, like other major providers, replicates data across multiple data centers to eliminate single-point-of-failure risks, protecting against natural disasters like fire or floods. Their partnerships with governments also provide an additional layer of security against potential data seizures. However, if businesses are only focused on these disaster scenarios, having data saved both on and off-cloud would suffice.
Yet, a modern backup solution does far more than just replicate data to an external drive. Today, the need for data recovery often stems from business operations rather than catastrophic events. Human error, organizational changes, security breaches, and ransomware attacks are just a few challenges that can leave data managers with pressing questions:
- “When was the data in the state we need it?”
- “How can we ensure the data hasn’t been tampered with?”
- “Where does the data need to be recovered to?”
- “In what format do we need the data recovered?”
These questions underscore the need for a comprehensive Google Drive app data backup solution that can handle complex recovery scenarios.
Let’s Start With The Basics – What Can Google Offer in Terms of Backup?
Google’s Backup & Sync
This is primarily a computer-to-cloud service. This means that whether changes are made to files on the cloud or on a local computer, Backup & Sync mirrors these changes across both versions. Backup & Sync can manage documents, photos, and folders of your choosing, retaining a cloud copy of whatever you select on your local computer and automatically updating changes. However, despite being labeled a ‘Backup’ service, the fact that ‘Sync’ propagates changes across all devices means that deletions or hacks are also synchronized. As Kris Hogh, an executive at Shoosh Monkey, puts it, “While your data is always available, it’s not necessarily safer.”
Google Vault
Google Vault offers some additional features as an archival service, allowing enterprises to set retention rules for data and search through content stored across Google’s main apps. Vault’s export function enables the restoration of a user’s Gmail and, to some extent, Drive contents. However, if an employee accidentally or maliciously deletes their local and cloud data, the recovery options are limited to a 25-day period. This full restore is an all-or-nothing process, where individual file recovery is not an option.
Drive File Stream is a collaborative alternative to Backup & Sync, with a stronger emphasis on cloud storage. User data remains on the cloud, and teams can share and edit the same files. However, it isn’t a true backup solution, as offline copies are overwritten when reconnected to the cloud, offering no safeguard against data loss.
Google Backup on Steroids
Despite Google’s efforts, their native backup options fall short compared to specialized Google Drive backup service providers like CloudAlly. When IT professionals choose a SaaS backup service such as CloudAlly, they gain access to essential functions that Google Drive’s default backup tools lack:
- Unlimited Storage and Retention: Google’s 25-day retention policy for deleted data leaves businesses vulnerable to permanent data loss. CloudAlly Google Workspace backup provides unlimited retention of backups on Amazon AWS storage. This includes Gmail, Shared Drives (Shared Drives (formerly Team Drive), Calendars, Contacts, Tasks, and Metadata backup.
- Point-in-Time Recovery: While Google allows data retrieval within a 25-day retention period, this full restore overwrites the current state of files. In contrast, CloudAlly offers selective, non-destructive recovery of any data, from any point in time, providing a much-needed safety net for businesses.
- Immutable Archive: Users with permissions can alter or delete files in Google’s Backup & Sync or Drive File Stream, making proper version recovery a manual, time-consuming process. CloudAlly ensures that backups are encrypted and protected from accidental or malicious tampering.
- Cross-User Restore: Google lacks a straightforward solution for restoring data from one user to another, especially when employees leave or change roles. CloudAlly’s cross-user restore feature makes managing data continuity seamless and efficient.
- Export in Outlook-Compatible .pst Format: For businesses transitioning to Outlook, CloudAlly backups ensure that archives can be restored in the correct format, supporting a smooth migration process.
Start a free trial of CloudAlly’s Google Workspace backup and never face data loss again.
