A cloud drive is not a backup

More and more people use Drive services (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox…) to keep their documents, photos and important files. The idea is simple: whatever you put in a synced folder is copied automatically to all your connected devices.

Reassuring as that may seem, it is not a real backup.

The dangers of using sync as a backup

Sync is not designed to cope with accidents or human error, especially in shared environments where the risks multiply. A few concrete examples:

• You delete an important file without noticing → it is deleted from the cloud too.
• You edit a document by mistake → the wrong version is synced everywhere.
• Your computer is infected by a virus or ransomware → the corrupted files are uploaded to the cloud as well.
• You lose access to your account (forgotten password, locked account…) → no more access to your files.
• A problem at the provider (breach, missed renewal) → all your files can vanish.

What a real backup solution brings

Unlike simple sync, a backup lets you go back in time, even after a mistake, a deletion or a cyberattack. In particular it offers:

• Retention: files are kept for a set period, even if they are deleted elsewhere.
• Versioning: restore a file exactly as it was at a given date and time.

The Async extra

For every backup we manage, we monitor that it runs regularly and successfully.

How to strengthen your protection

The 3-2-1 rule

Security professionals recommend the 3-2-1 rule, a simple but very effective strategy:

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 different media (for example an external drive and an online backup service)
• 1 off-site copy (in the cloud or another secure physical location)

This covers most risks while keeping your data reliably over time.

Test your backups

Backing up is not enough: the data must be usable when you need it. Test your backups regularly:

• Check integrity: the backed-up data must not be corrupted or incomplete.
• Run restores, partial or full, to make sure the procedure works and that you can follow it quickly in a crisis.

Run these tests at regular intervals (monthly, for example) and after every major change to your IT (new equipment, major update…).

Pitfalls to avoid

Some backup tools cannot properly back up data stored in a Drive service. Your software may report that everything is fine and list your Drive files, while those documents turn out corrupted or unreadable at restore time.