{"id":108589,"date":"2024-02-29T07:38:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=108589"},"modified":"2024-03-20T12:58:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T19:58:03","slug":"cloud-storage-for-higher-education-benefits-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/cloud-storage-for-higher-education-benefits-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud Storage for Higher Education: Benefits & Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Universities and colleges lead the way in educating future professionals and conducting ground-breaking research. Altogether, higher education generates hundreds of terabytes\u2014even petabytes\u2014of data. But, higher education also faces significant data risks. They are one of the most targeted industries for ransomware, with 79% of institutions reporting<\/a> they were hit with ransomware in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While higher education institutions often have robust data storage systems that can even include their own off-site disaster recovery (DR) centers, cloud storage can provide several benefits that legacy storage systems cannot match. In particular, cloud storage allows schools to protect from ransomware with immutability, easily grow their datasets without constant hardware outlays, and protect faculty, student, and researchers\u2019 computers with cloud-based endpoint backups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud storage is also a promising alternative to cloud drives<\/a>, traditionally a popular option for higher education institutions. While cloud drives provide easy storage across campus, both Google<\/a> and Microsoft<\/a> have announced the end of their unlimited storage tiers for education. Faced with changes to the original service, many higher education institutions are looking for alternatives. Plus, cloud drives do not provide true, incremental backup, do not adequately protect from ransomware, and have limited options for recovery.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, cloud storage better protects your school from local disasters and ransomware with a secure, off-site copy of your data. And, with the right cloud service provider, it can be much more affordable<\/a> than you think. In this article, we\u2019ll look at the benefits of cloud storage for higher education, study some popular use cases, and explore best practices and provisioning considerations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Benefits of Cloud Storage in Higher Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cloud storage solutions present a host of benefits for organizations in any industry, but many of these benefits are particularly relevant for higher education institutions. Let\u2019s take a look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Enhanced Security<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Higher education institutions have emerged as one of ransomware attackers\u2019 favorite targets\u201463% of higher education CISOs<\/a> say a cyber attack is likely within the next year. Data backups are a core part of any organization\u2019s security posture, and that includes keeping those backups protected and secure in the cloud. Using cloud storage to store backups strengthens backup programs by keeping copies off-site and geographically distanced, which adheres to the 3-2-1 backup strategy (more on that later). Cloud storage can also be made immutable using tools like Object Lock<\/a>, meaning data can\u2019t be modified or deleted. This feature is often unavailable in existing data storage hardware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Cost-Effective Storage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Higher education generates huge volumes of data each year. Keeping costs low without sacrificing in other areas is a key priority for these institutions, across both active data and archival data stores. Cloud storage helps higher education institutions use their storage budgets effectively by not paying to provision and maintain on-premises infrastructure they don\u2019t need. It can also help higher education institutions migrate away from linear tape-open (LTO)<\/a> which can be costly to manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Improved Scalability<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As digital data continues to grow, it\u2019s important for those institutions to be able to easily scale with their storage needs. Cloud storage allows higher education institutions to avoid potentially over-provisioning infrastructure with the ability to affordably tier off data to the cloud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Data Accessibility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Making data easily accessible is important for many aspects of higher education. From the impact of scientific researchers to the ongoing work of attracting students to the university, the increasing quantities of data that higher education creates needs to be easy to access, use, and manage. Cloud storage makes data accessible from anywhere, and with hot cloud storage, there are no access delays like there can be with cold cloud storage or LTO tape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Supports Cybersecurity Insurance Requirements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s increasingly common to utilize cyber insurance<\/a> to offset potential liabilities incurred by a cyber attack. Many of those applications ask if the covered entity has off-site backups or immutable backups. Sometimes they even specify the backup has to be held somewhere other than the organization\u2019s own locations. (We\u2019ve seen other organizations outside of higher ed adding cloud storage<\/a> for this reason as well). Cloud storage provides a pathway to meeting cyber insurance requirements<\/a> universities may face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Higher Ed Institutions Can Use Cloud Storage Effectively<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways higher education institutions can make effective use of cloud storage solutions. The most common use case is cloud storage for backup and archive<\/a> systems. Transitioning from on-premises storage to cloud-based solutions\u2014even if an organization is only transitioning a part of their total data footprint while retaining on-premises systems\u2014is a powerful way for higher education institutions to protect their most important data.  To illustrate, here are some common use cases with real-life examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LTO Replacement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no surprise that maintaining tape is a pain<\/a>. While it\u2019s the only true physical air-gap solution, it\u2019s also a time suck, and those are precious hours that your IT team should be spending on strategic initiatives. This is particularly applicable in projects that generate huge amounts of data, like scientific research<\/a>. Cloud storage provides the same off-site protection as LTO with far fewer maintenance hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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