Many companies and business individuals keep their data stored on cloud services such as Dropbox. As much of this data is sensitive to the company’s or individual’s business and security, protecting this data from being deleted is critical to the continued success of the company.

Let’s say that you are a small business owner. You utilize the data storage capabilities of Basecamp and Dropbox. You like the fact that you can use Dropbox to collaborate with your employees and clients on company projects, the easy file/data storage and sharing capabilities and the organizational project features of Basecamp.

Since you sync your Dropbox with your PC, you can sit back and relax, knowing that all of your important, sensitive data is safe, right? 

Well, not quite. Many people confuse synchronization provided by Dropbox with backup, thinking it will protect them from data loss and in many cases it can. But there are several situations where it can be compromised.

Perhaps you had to fire an employee (or contractor) recently and he has access to company passwords. He can login to Dropbox and Basecamp and wipe every bit of data completely clean. Synchronization did not help in this instance as the employee had access to both of these cloud services. Even changing the passwords on all of your accounts may not help as the employee may know enough about you and the company to be able to use social engineering methods to change the passwords and/or gain access the services.

Or let’s say a thief breaks into your home/office/car and steals your laptop. This actually happens a lot more than you may think. This thief decides to get on your laptop and see what he can mess around with. He finds he is able to log on to Dropbox and Basecamp and can even remotely destroy your data (including deleting data from Dropbox trash). He may decide that just for fun he will delete all the data: and deletes will be propagated to all computers sync’d with this Dropbox account. Again, synchronization will not help protect the data. So what’s the solution?

You need synchronization AND backup to fully protect your data.

And that is what we at cloudHQ provide. Our service provides syncing capabilities for nearly all cloud services. But cloudHQ goes a step farther by adding a complete data backup plan to protect your data from accidental and malicious deletion. So how exactly does this work?

You can setup cloudHQ to replicate all your accounts to a Google Drive account that is completely separate from the company’s profile. Different name, different passwords, different authorization methods- it will be a completely separate “security realm.” The reason for this- this Google Drive account will not be able to be accessed by your employees. It will not use authorization, such as security questions, that are related to the company or are something that an employee or hacker could figure out easily. This account will not be able to be accessed via typical social engineering methods because all the security and authorization information will be different. So when someone gains access to the other company accounts-  Basecamp and Dropbox, and deletes all the company data on these accounts, cloudHQ still has an ace in the hole- the third account that no one else is able to access. This account will keep all of your company data safe and secure from hackers, disgruntled employees or thieves that happen to steal your laptop and gain access to your accounts. (Even if hacker gets access to cloudHQ, he will not be able to permanently delete data since APIs which are used by cloudHQ cannot permanently delete your data).

As you can see, file synchronization and backup are quite different. Synchronization will protect your data up to a certain point but if you want full and complete data protection and security, you need a backup plan in place. cloudHQ gives you the best option as they provide both synchronization and backup services to help you keep your data safe and your company running smoothly with no interruptions or loss of important files, documents and projects. cloudHQ is offering a free trial so you can check out just how useful this service is and how beneficial it can be for your company for free! Start protecting your data with cloudHQ and get peace of mind starting today.