How Backup and Recovery Services Shield Financial Institutions?
The financial sector in Nepal is experiencing a digital revolution. As banks, investment firms, and credit unions embrace online services and mobile banking, they accumulate vast amounts of sensitive customer data. This data, including account details, transaction records, and personal information, forms the backbone of their operations. However, a harsh reality lurks beneath this digital transformation: cyber threats are on the rise. Data breaches can cripple financial institutions, leading to hefty fines, reputational damage, and even legal repercussions. In Nepal, where data security regulations are becoming increasingly stringent, robust data backup and recovery solutions are no longer a luxury, but a necessity. This is where Datahub steps in. As a leading provider of data backup and recovery services, Datahub empowers Nepal’s financial institutions to navigate the digital age with confidence. Critical Roles of Data Security in Financial Institutions Financial institutions handle a diverse range of data, including: 1. Customer Information: Names, addresses, Social Security numbers (if applicable), and other personally identifiable information (PII). 2. Account Details: Account balances, transaction history, and investment holdings. 3. Financial Regulations: Records pertaining to compliance with Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) regulations and international standards. Data loss due to a cyberattack, hardware failure, or natural disaster can have severe consequences: 4. Financial Penalties: Regulatory bodies like NRB can impose hefty fines for non-compliance with data security regulations. 5. Reputational Damage: A data breach can erode customer trust and damage an institution’s reputation for years to come. 6. Legal Issues: Data loss can lead to lawsuits from affected customers, further straining financial resources. Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and even internal threats can pose a significant risk. Moreover, data security regulations like the NRB’s “Guideline on Cybersecurity for Payment System Operators” mandate robust data protection measures. This is where data backup and recovery services become crucial. Challenges of Data Protection for Financial Institutions in Nepal Financial institutions in Nepal face unique challenges in safeguarding their data: 1. Complex IT Infrastructure: Many institutions have complex IT environments with multiple systems and data silos. This makes it difficult to ensure comprehensive data backups. 2. Frequent Data Transactions: Financial services involve constant data generation due to transactions, deposits, and withdrawals. Regular backups are essential to capture this ever-changing data landscape. 3. Downtime Costs: Even a brief system outage can translate to significant losses for financial institutions. Rapid data recovery is paramount to minimize downtime and ensure business continuity. How Data Backup and Recovery Services Can Help? Datahub’s comprehensive backup and recovery services offer a lifeline to Nepal’s financial institutions: 1. Automated and Secure Backups: Datahub automates scheduled backups to secure off-site locations, ensuring data is protected even in case of a local disaster. 2. Ironclad Encryption: Data is encrypted both at rest and in transit, adding an extra layer of security against unauthorized access. Datahub utilizes industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption, the same encryption used by governments and militaries worldwide. 3. Disaster Recovery Planning: Datahub works collaboratively with financial institutions to develop a disaster recovery plan, ensuring a swift and efficient recovery process in case of an outage. This plan outlines roles, responsibilities, communication protocols, and recovery procedures for various disaster scenarios. Datahub: Empowering Financial Institutions with Peace of Mind Datahub’s solutions address the specific challenges faced by Nepal’s financial sector: 1. Scalable Cloud Backups: Datahub’s cloud-based backup solutions are scalable and adapt to the ever-growing data needs of financial institutions. As your data storage requirements increase, Datahub’s infrastructure seamlessly scales to accommodate your needs. 2. Minimal Downtime Recovery: Datahub prioritizes rapid recovery, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity during unforeseen circumstances. Datahub’s Point-in-Time Restore feature allows you to restore your data to any point in time, minimizing data loss and ensuring a swift resumption of operations. Regulatory Compliance Expertise Datahub understands the complexities of Nepal’s data security regulations and assists institutions in achieving compliance. Datahub’s solutions are designed to meet the stringent requirements outlined by the NRB and other regulatory bodies. Datahub’s commitment to data security is unwavering. We offer a proven track record of success, with numerous case studies showcasing how we have helped financial institutions around the world overcome data security challenges. We are confident that we can do the same for you. Datahub’s Backup-as-a-Service: A Deep Dive Datahub offers robust, disk-based backup solutions with high redundancy for all our online backup services. Rest assured, your valuable data is securely stored and readily retrievable whenever you require it. 1. Automatic Scheduled Backup: Never worry about missed backups again. Datahub’s automated scheduling ensures your data is backed up regularly, at the frequency you define. This could be daily, hourly, or even more frequently depending on your specific needs and the rate of your data change. 2. Block-Level Incremental Backup: Datahub utilizes block-level incremental backups to optimize storage efficiency. This means only the blocks of data that have changed since the last backup are copied, saving time, storage space, and bandwidth. This is crucial for financial institutions that generate a constant stream of data due to frequent transactions. 3. Concurrent Backups: For added redundancy and disaster preparedness, Datahub allows you to initiate concurrent backups to multiple destinations. This ensures that even if one backup location becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, your data remains safe and secure in another location. You can choose to back up your data to Datahub’s secure data centers in Butwal and Kathmandu, Nepal, offering geographically dispersed redundancy. 4. Backup at Butwal DC / Kathmandu DC: Datahub maintains state-of-the-art data centers in both Butwal and Kathmandu. These facilities are equipped with top-tier hardware, software, and security measures to ensure the utmost protection for your data. This geographically distributed approach offers an extra layer of security and protection, as a natural disaster or localized outage impacting one location is unlikely to affect the other. 5. Point-in-Time Restore: Data breaches, accidental deletions, or system errors can happen. Datahub’s Point-in-Time Restore feature allows you to recover your data to any specific point in time. This minimizes data loss and allows you to quickly restore your operations to the
Difference Between Backup-as a-Service and Disaster Recovery
Do you think Disaster Recovery (DR) and Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) are the same? Since they are frequently used interchangeably, it is understandable if you believe they are the same. However in reality they differ in terms of focus, scope, and implementation. To help you figure out the key differences between them we will be exploring in detail the difference between “Backup-as-a-service” and “Disaster Recovery” in this blog. Let’s embark on our journey towards understanding them. Importance of Data Whether it be Backup-as-a-service or Disaster Recovery, they play a role in the protection, safety, and recovery of data. So, before we directly jump into understanding Backup-as-a-service and Disaster Recovery, let’s discuss the importance of data first. Besides land, property, and others, data is one of the most valuable assets that a company owns these days. You might find it interesting to know that around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day. With the increase in the creation of data, concerns about the security and safety of data arise. There are several reasons that cause data loss. Human error, hardware failures, malware and cybersecurity threats, and even natural disasters are some of the major reasons. No matter what the reason for data loss, companies can face significant losses due to it. Loss of data may lead to financial loss to non-financial loss such as reputation damage and operational disruption. Taking this into consideration it’s of utmost importance for companies to take data protection and management seriously. Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery (DR) Moving ahead let’s now get into understanding Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery. In this section, we’ll understand what they are and how they help organizations in relation to data. What is Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS)? Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) is a cloud-based service model in which the data of an organization is backed up on a remote cloud-based server or data center. What differentiates it from traditional data storage is that the entire BaaS service is provided by a third-party BaaS service provider. Traditional data backup involves in-premises storage of data using external hard drives, tape drives, or dedicated servers. In contrast, BaaS involves the backup of data to a remote, cloud-based server. The BaaS service provider is the one that is responsible for maintaining hardware, software licenses, and cloud infrastructures for the backup of data. Explore the comprehensive Data Backup strategies and their Best Practices! Importance and Benefits of BaaS There are chances that your organization might be exposed to data loss risks. As discussed earlier, human error, malware, cyber-attacks, and other unforeseen events can cause data loss. In case of data loss, having a backup of data can be vital for continuing the operation of organizations. Here are some of the importance as well as benefits of BaaS in such cases, Explore the Importance of Backup Services! What is Disaster Recovery? Disaster Recovery (DR) is the process that includes the process and strategies that an organization implements to resume and maintain critical business functions and operations in case of disruptive events. Businesses can face outages due to multiple disruptive events. Disruptive events are caused due to human induced disruptive events such as user/admin error and ransomware attacks. Natural disruptive events such as tornadoes, floods, or landslides. And also due to technological failures such as hardware and software failures. Importance and Benefits of Disaster Recovery I understand you might be thinking why is disaster recovery needed when Backup-as-a-service itself is capable of backing up and recovering data? But in reality, if any disruptive events occur due to any unforeseen causes, it will impact the operation of the entire organization. The backup and recovery from BaaS alone will not be able to resume the entire operation of the business. While backup and recovery are important, Disaster recovery is a plan and strategy that organizations will need for instant and swift resumption of operations. So, here are some of the importance and benefits of Disaster Recovery, Key Difference Between Backup-as-a-Service and Disaster Recovery Moving ahead, it’s finally time for us to know the difference between Backup-as-a-service and Disaster Recovery. So, let’s find out the key differences between BaaS and DR. 1. Purpose: The primary purpose of Backup-as-a-service is to keep the data backup of the organization safe and secure. It involves safekeeping data from several risks of data loss such as human error, cybersecurity attacks as well as natural disasters. On the other hand, the purpose of Disaster Recovery is to be ready with a strategic plan of action that an organization plans to implement in case it is exposed to any disruptive events. It involves a plan to prepare an organization for instant and swift resumption of operation after the occurrence of unforeseen disruptive events. 2. Scope: The Scope of Backup-as-a-service is limited to storing, safeguarding, and recovering an organization’s data in the event of data loss. In contrast, the scope of Disaster Recovery is wider in comparison to the Backup-as-a-service. Disaster Recovery involves a plan and strategies an organization will require in the event of disruptive events. It encompasses an entire plan of action that will answer how, who, and what will an organization do after facing disruptive events to resume its operations instantly. Disaster Recovery not only is limited to the recovery of data. It involves the recovery of systems, applications, and infrastructure to ensure continuity of business operations. 3. Recovery Objectives: The recovery objectives of both BaaS and DR involve the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Let’s get to know about them and how these differ, i. Recovery Time Objective (RTO): Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the maximum acceptable amount of time for an organization to recover its data and restore its network, application, and systems. ii. Recovery Point Objective (RPO): Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable amount of data that an organization can lose after recovery from unforeseen disruptive events. Backup-as-a-service (BaaS) is limited to storing, protecting, and recovering the data of an organization. Since BaaS only includes recovering individual files,
