The cloud has revolutionized the way we work, with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications becoming increasingly ubiquitous. The convenience and flexibility of these cloud-based tools are undeniable, but it’s easy to become complacent about the safety of our data. We often assume that since it’s in the cloud, it must be secure and redundant. However, as the 2014 Dedoose crash demonstrates, this is a dangerous assumption.
This blog post summarizes the main points of my latest podcast episode. If you’d like, you can listen to it at https://www.backupwrapup.com/dedoose-disastrous-data-crash-lessons-learned
In the episode, we dissect the Dedoose disaster, which resulted in the loss of 2-3 weeks of customer data. Dedoose, a cloud-based qualitative research platform, experienced a service failure that caused them to lose access to both their primary databases and their backups simultaneously. The impact was devastating, with researchers losing countless hours of work.
As we dig into the details of what went wrong, some glaring issues emerge. Dedoose was only backing up their databases once a month, leaving a dangerously long gap between backups. Even more concerning, there are indications that their backup process was overwriting previous good backups, a critical flaw that left them vulnerable to total data loss if a failure occurred during the backup itself.
The lessons from the Dedoose crash are clear: relying solely on your SaaS provider for data protection is a recipe for disaster. While most reputable SaaS companies do have robust DR and redundancy measures in place, it’s ultimately your responsibility to ensure your data is secure. In addition, many of those DR practices are only designed for a complete disaster, not to help you when you do something wrong or suffered a cyberattack. This means implementing your own backup strategy, independent of the SaaS provider.
Best practices for SaaS data backup include:
1. Backing up your data frequently, ideally daily or even hourly for critical information.
2. Following the 3-2-1 rule: Keep at least three copies of your data, on two different media, with one copy offsite.
3. Ensuring your backups are isolated from your primary data to avoid a single point of failure.
4. Regularly testing your backups to verify that they’re working as expected and that you can successfully restore from them.
By taking control of your SaaS data backup, you can mitigate the risk of a Dedoose-style catastrophe. While it may require some additional effort and resources, the peace of mind and protection it provides are invaluable.
The Dedoose crash serves as a stark reminder that the cloud, for all its benefits, is not infallible. It’s up to each of us to take responsibility for our data’s safety. Don’t wait until it’s too late – start implementing a robust SaaS backup strategy today.
Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at S2|DATA, which helps companies manage their legacy data
