5 Best Cloud Backup for Small Businesses in 2020

Livedrive is a reliable cloud backup and sync storage service owned by j2 Global. It is an easy-to-use service that can provide scalable backup storage and all the functionality needed for managing a small business’ backups.

Livedrive has both a web-based interface and standalone apps that are available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. File versioning gives you the ability to go back 30 file versions, which makes it perfect for businesses with multiple members of staff collaborating on documents and projects.  It also saves deleted files for 30 days, which means you can get them back if a member of staff makes a mistake. Plus, it has team folders to enable colleagues to work together – or to allow management to send important files to all members of staff in one go.

Local folders and files can be scanned and updated at regular intervals to ensure your staff back up as often as your business requires it. Those backups are secured both in transit (with TLS 1.2 encryption) and at rest (using AES 256-bit encryption). Plus, Livedrive’s data centers are ISO 27001 certified, SOC2 self-certified, SOX compliant, and protected with 3 layers of physical access security. In addition, Livedrive is fully GDPR compliant. However, please bear in mind that your data is secured server side, and the company could theoretically provide the authorities with access to your data if they compel it to do so using a government warrant. 

The Business Express plan costs just $50 per month and it will provide 2,000 GB of Cloud storage for up to three members of staff. This will allow for backups for those employees across various different devices including PC and Mac backups, and tablet and mobile backups. More members of staff can be added on a flexible basis, with additional costs as you scale up. However, the Business standard plan will allow any company with 10 members of staff to back up 10,000GB of data – which works out at just $16 per person, per month. Overall, we find this to be an extremely effective cloud backup and data recovery service that is priced extremely competitively and is ideally suited to most small business’ needs.

IDrive is a US-based cloud storage company that is ideal for small businesses. It is a fully-featured cloud storage solution with full system disk image backup, true archiving, and the option for end-to-end encryption. The service is available across all popular platforms (Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS) and the apps are super easy to use.

With IDrive, any business can easily backup data from computers, servers, and mobile devices. This ensures that if you lose your data, you can easily restore those files. File versioning ensures that you have 30 previous versions of a file at your disposal – in case a member of staff makes an error or changes something present in an earlier version. 

A centralized web console gives you access to data backups to restore files from anywhere. And, you can create multiple accounts within your storage space and monitor all backups from inside the administrator console. Backups can be retrieved either online or via a physical drive if necessary. Plus, files can easily be synced across various devices and staff members for collaboration.

As with Livedrive, this cloud storage service provides strong encryption for data during transit and at rest (AES 256). However, please bear in mind that data is secured server-side (if you don’t enable Private Encryption Keys) – and they could compel the firm to share access to your data via a government warrant. Thus, you should set up E2EE (it does provide it) if you want to ensure no server-side access to your business’ data.

In addition, this service will ensure that your data is stored on RAID-protected storage devices in multiple locations to ensure it is always recoverable. And IDrive Business can be used by unlimited members of staff on an unlimited number of computers and servers, which makes it superb value for money. It starts at $75 per year for 250 GB of storage and increases depending on how much storage space you want.

ADrive is a cloud storage provider that has an excellent Business plan that starts at $70 per year for 200 GB of storage and goes up depending on how much space you require. It is an excellent choice for any business that requires easy-to-use cloud storage to back up data – but doesn’t have highly sensitive consumer data or valuable intellectual property that they need to backup.

The service includes multi-user accounts, which makes it superb for businesses. And, the range of features available is highly impressive – including apps for all platforms, online file sharing for collaboration between teams, drive mapping and syncing, 24-hour support, oDrive compatibility for ease of access, and SSL encryption for data in transit. It also stores your data in multiple locations to ensure recoverability.

A Drive also supports FTP with TLS, which makes it a great option for any business that is already using an FTP client. It is compatible with any FTP client for both uploading and downloading and it permits the use of AUTH TLS to transfer files securely, as well as the ability to manage SSH keys for secure, automated access. It also supports WebDAV, Rsync, SCP, and SFTP, which makes it convenient for numerous users.

However, please bear in mind that this service does not provide e2ee, which means that your data could theoretically be accessed by members of staff or the government if it is served a warrant. With that said, the privacy policy does clearly state that ADrive will never “view, investigate, manipulate, alter, process, sell, offer for sale, or make independent determination or inquiry into the contents of files stored” unless it is required to by a government subpoena. 

Perhaps the biggest downside of this service is its lack of encryption at rest and the fact that it only has 2 days’ worth of recoverable history that is stored once per day. Thus, if you are constantly editing folders and require file versioning, you will need to look elsewhere. 

BackBlaze is a cloud storage company based in California in the US. It is a service that is scalable and has a superb plan for businesses. It supports backups for servers, Veeam, NAS, and regular computer backups. It also supports file versioning for up to a year’s worth of files, which makes it great for businesses that want to be able to retrace their steps for a lengthy period of time.

The main drawback is that the cost of $60 per year is per user/machine, so this service will probably only be affordable for smaller businesses with fewer members of staff – as you will require an account each. On the plus side, it permits an unlimited amount of storage. 

On the plus side, the service is extremely easy to use and is highly efficient at performing automated cloud backups for your business’ data. It can easily allow you to protect your business data via a centrally managed admin panel. Two-factor authentication is available for all users and data is secured both at rest (AES-128) and in transit (TLS).

It also allows you to maintain usage and access monitoring on all accounts, can provide E2EE for your data, and ensures that all PEK passwords are stored securely (salted and hashed). This ensures that you can use the service within a zero-knowledge framework if you want to.

pCloud is a secure cloud storage that is based in Switzerland – a location that is considered strong on data privacy. The service permits users to back up files to the cloud using end-to-end encryption, which is great news for businesses that want to ensure only they can ever access their data. pCloud is great for teams that need to store, sync, and collaborate on business files with colleagues.

pCloud provides unlimited storage space and permits uploads of any size file, however, you will need to get a quote for your business because it does not provide a standard price (to give you an idea of costs – Premium Plus for individuals costs $95.88 per year and includes 2 TB of storage).

Activity monitoring allows you to check account activity via detailed logs and will let you access any previous versions of your files if you need to (file versioning). Plus, you can organize your employees into teams and set group permissions, and setup hierarchical permissions when required. This gives you a high level of control over the business storage space.