In the past few years, there’s been an explosion in cloud solutions available to SMBs. The cloud technology that had previously only been available to enterprise-level companies was now everywhere, and small- and medium-sized businesses seized the opportunity. And the thinking was, once on the cloud, a business was never going to go down. But the reality is that few cloud-based applications have the level of built-in disaster recovery that’s required to keep a business functional when you need it the most. All it takes a drive to fail, a file to get deleted, or a data center to go down to learn the limitations of the cloud.

For those savvy businesses that do realize the need for layered back-up protection, often the decision comes down to price. But it’s often not that simple, and rather than look at the decision solely from technology product perspective, make your choice based on business processes. Because often one product doesn’t protect all your data and all the infrastructure required to run your business.

When we work with SMBs, we ask plenty of questions about what files and applications are business-critical—where you house your data, how you use your applications, what’s the impact of having the data compromised. And we talk to all levels of employees to get the most complete picture of your business and technology use. Then we can develop a customized Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution—one that often includes multiple products and services from our trusted technology partners.

Don’t get me wrong. The cloud is great, and it’s been a boon for SMBS that don’t have the budget for enterprise-level backup. But taking a few extra steps to secure your data so that your business can be back on its feet after any sort of disaster? That’s priceless.