A M A ZO N W EB SERV ICES

Store and protect

your data in the cloud
A guide and assessment for small
and medium-sized businesses
Contents
Introduction...................................................................... 03

Data growth presents new challenges....................... 04

A more efficient approach to data storage................ 06

Cloud economics............................................................. 07

Is your business ready for cloud data storage?......... 10

Getting started with the cloud......................................11

Advantages of using AWS............................................. 14

Ready to learn more?...................................................... 15

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Introduction
About this eBook
This eBook is intended to help non-technical leaders in small and medium-
sized businesses determine whether they can benefit by using cloud services
to store and protect their growing repository of data.

You’ll Learn:

• What a cloud storage service is and the benefits it provides your business
• How to compare the cost and effort of managing and scaling
on-premises data storage solutions vs. using the cloud
• How to evaluate whether your business is ready for cloud storage
• How to get started with AWS

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CHAPTER ONE

Data growth presents new challenges

If your business is like most others, the volume of data you collect, create, and store is
growing exponentially: a recent study projects that the total amount of data in the world will
nearly triple between 2020 and 20251. Ensuring that your data remains secure, accessible, and
scalable can create challenges for organizations of any size.

Some of the obstacles you might face as your data grows include:

• Dwindling storage capacity: Increased data volume will soon require investments in
additional storage devices.
• Rising costs: Bigger data volumes require bigger investments in storage hardware, which
can inflate your budget.
• Keeping up with IT versions and patches: Falling behind on updates increases your
vulnerability to data breaches and misconfigurations, which can lead to lost revenue. In
addition, having to provide continual maintenance keeps staff from attending to more
strategic business initiatives.
• Outdated, untested, or nonexistent disaster recovery plans and systems: These increase
your risk of unplanned downtime and loss of revenue, customer trust, and brand loyalty.
• More employees working from home: Remote employees may be accessing business data
over the Internet or other network connections that must be secure and high-performing.
• IT personnel shortage or loss: If you’re fortunate enough to have at least one IT expert,
their decision to change jobs or retire could present a hardship.

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DATA GROWTH PRESENTS NEW CHALLENGES

To meet these challenges and position your company for growth and success, it’s
important to establish best practices for storing, backing up, securing, and recovering
your data. The cloud enables you to accomplish all this while lowering costs, streamlining
operations, and enhancing business agility. In fact, research by the analyst firm Gartner
shows that by 2025, 85% of firms will be employing a cloud-first strategy to unlock
exciting new opportunities and stay abreast of their competitors2.

3x 85%
The total amount of data in of firms will be employing a
the world is projected to triple cloud-first strategy to unlock
between 2020 and 2025 opportunities by 2025

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CHAPTER TWO

A more efficient approach to data storage

Historically, businesses have used their IT budgets to overprovision storage and backup capacity.
By buying and installing more than they needed for the foreseeable future, businesses had wiggle
room for growth. But tightening budgets and expanding data demands are making this solution
less feasible. Even the largest enterprises find it difficult to justify buying, testing, and managing
more and more storage devices—which also generate extra costs in terms of power, real estate,
management, and specialized skills—when those resources may go unused.

How, then, can you accommodate future storage requirements economically? Take advantage
of innovations in virtualization and cloud technology.

As you evaluate your options, look for four key attributes in the data storage and protection
solution you adopt as a foundation for the future.

• Highly scalable yet affordable capacity: Seek a solution that can expand quickly to
accommodate data growth without breaking the bank.
• Data backup and failover features: These will minimize business disruption if you experience a
system failure, cybersecurity issues, outages, or other disasters.
• High-performance access to data used every day: Near-immediate response times—
even if data and users are in different locations—are critical for keeping workers productive.
• Centralized policy-setting: The ability to define and enforce security, governance, and auditing
policies for your data all in one place improves your security posture and
simplifies regulatory compliance.

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CHAPTER THREE

Cloud economics
In the cloud, large volumes of storage capacity—and other IT resources, such as
compute services—are available via the Internet. Cloud customers pay for usage as they
consume it. They “rent” storage capacity, for example, to meet changing data storage
requirements. These IT resources are considered “cloud services”.

The cloud services model differs significantly from the traditional IT operating model, in
which businesses buy, integrate, and continually upgrade and manage their own devices
and networks. With the cloud, you simply pay for IT resources as you use them. You
eliminate the equipment, tools, power, and real estate costs associated with building
and managing your own infrastructure. By offloading the management of IT equipment
to the cloud provider, you also free up your staff to tackle more strategic, innovative
projects that can put your data to work for your business.

With cloud services, you pay only for the storage you actually use. Your service responds
to the needs of your business. If you require smaller data volumes during certain periods,
for example, you won’t pay for excess, unused capacity. This provides an affordable way
to unlock new possibilities for business efficiency, growth, and innovation.

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CLOUD ECONOMICS

Business benefits
There are several advantages to using the cloud for some or all your data storage needs.

• Eliminate capital expenses: The cloud requires no investments in storage equipment

or other hardware. The cloud provider absorbs the responsibility of buying, updating,
managing, and expanding your storage infrastructure. You also offload associated
power, cooling, real estate, and staffing expenses to the cloud provider. Companies
that use AWS services say they save 31 percent on average compared to running
infrastructure onsite. 3
• Scale rapidly: In the cloud, you always have access to greater volumes of storage
and backup capacity. This flexibility also lets you address seasonal and other
spikes or dips in IT usage. You can grow or shrink your storage infrastructure
dynamically to accommodate new requirements, and your usage-based payment
model adjusts accordingly.
• Save time: Since you don’t have to procure, test, and deploy new equipment, a
comparison of on-premises and cloud storage alternatives should account for the
value of the time you save on setting up and maintaining equipment. You could also
add these savings to the value you place on achieving business goals faster, such as
accelerating your time to market or improving a customer service process sooner.
• Improve remote worker support: Cloud data can be distributed so it’s in close
geographic proximity to your employees for high-performance experiences that
mirror accessing data over a local network at the office.
• Gain resiliency: Cloud providers operate many large data centers in multiple
geographies worldwide. They can store your data in two or more diverse locations
with redundant, hot failover capabilities between them, so your data is always
available when you and your users need it.
• Realize the full value of your data: Your data is your most valuable asset. Bringing
your data into the cloud opens opportunities for integration with emerging
technologies in fields like machine learning, automation, and AI. These tools will
enable your business to take full advantage of your data so it can help drive growth
and create new value for you.

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CLOUD ECONOMICS

A level competitive field

You might have heard about how large, well-known corporations are benefiting from
cloud services. But the cloud’s advantages aren’t exclusive to these enterprises.

The cloud is a great equalizer that provides businesses of all sizes in any industry with
affordable and immediate access to the same cutting-edge technology, regardless
of IT budget. Again, you simply pay for what you use. According to TechAisle, these
are among the reasons that the cloud has become the number one IT priority for
companies with under 1,000 employees.4

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CHAPTER FOUR

Assessment:
Is your business ready
for cloud data storage?
When assessing how cloud data storage and protection might be beneficial, it’s helpful
to take stock of your current business situation and how you anticipate it changing.
Check next to each of the following statements that applies to your organization.

I’d like to reduce my data storage costs. Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA).
I need to gain business agility
(e.g., get to market faster, serve Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
customers more efficiently).
Federal Information Security
It’s hard to find time to spend on Management Act (FISMA).
business strategy because daily
US Federal Risk and Authorization
operations are allconsuming.
Management Program (FedRAMP).
My business has a growing number
of home or remote workers that California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
need IT support.
Other (specify):
It’s important that we increase
our resiliency to disasters, outages, My company finds it difficult, expensive,
and cyber attacks. or both to maintain compliance with one
or more of the above mandates.
It’s likely that I’ll soon need to hire
additional IT staff with specialized My company is required to archive
skills to manage growing data volumes certain business or customer records
and/or more storage devices. for several years.

My business is required to comply My business stores 15 terabytes

with one or more regulatory mandates of data or more.
(check all that apply):
Business data at my company is growing
The European Union’s General Data at 10 percent per year or more.
Protection Regulation (GDPR). My business supports 20 or more
Payment Card Industry Data Security employees/data users.
Standard (PCI DSS).

If you checked any of the above, cloud services can help you realize your business goals,
manage data growth, improve data security and resiliency, and accelerate innovation.

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CHAPTER FIVE

Getting started with the cloud

1. Get expert support

With AWS, help is always close at hand for planning and managing your cloud migration.
We have thousands of AWS Partner Network consultants available to provide you with
exceptional service—no matter your budget. We also offer a free, comprehensive library of
self-paced training courses and a range of skill certifications, workshops, and immersion days
to help you and your staff learn how to make the most of your AWS Cloud services.

2. Begin with cloud storage

Storage is the simplest, most logical place to gain experience using the cloud, particularly for
data that isn’t used every day. This could include backup data and data that must be archived
for policy, compliance, or other reasons. Once you have a cloud storage account, you can easily
direct any or all of your data to the cloud for storage.

With cloud storage, you automatically meet the storage industry’s “3-2-1” best practice
guidelines for backup protection against data loss and, in turn, lost revenue. The 3-2-1 rule
centers around maintaining at least three copies of your data, two of which may be on-
premises but on different devices, while you store at least one copy off-site (in the cloud). Cloud
providers store your data in a different geolocation than your office or data center; should
your primary site fall off-line, cloud backup automatically begins serving users, keeping your
business functional and thriving.

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GETTING STARTED WITH THE CLOUD

3. Decide what data to store in the cloud

A common way to get started with cloud storage is to back up existing data or to archive data you
access infrequently to the cloud. As a rule of thumb, most companies use 20 percent of their data
once a day or more. This critical data requires a cloud service with the fastest access performance
available. However, for the 80 percent of data that sits unused most of the time, you can opt for a
more economical cloud storage service.

If you elect to use the cloud for both types of data, you’ll divide your data into groups based
on access frequency and performance requirements, then match each group to the appropriate
service and pricing tier offered by your cloud provider.

Even if you’re unfamiliar with your data access patterns, there are cloud storage options
that deliver automatic cost savings when those patterns change. These services dynamically
move your data to the most cost-effective storage option, with no performance impact or
operational overhead.

4. Sign up for an account and estimate monthly fees

When you sign up for a cloud storage account, you’ll connect with someone who can provide
guidance about what specific services and pricing tiers to use. The right choice accounts for your
expected data volume, how frequently you access data, and other factors. Most services are
priced by usage. If you have an initial estimate of the volume of data you’d like to store, back up,
or archive in the cloud, you can calculate what your approximate monthly cost will be.

At AWS, for example, the sales team can help you create and secure your account and set up
your AWS interface into the AWS cloud environment. You can also set up services yourself using
documentation and tutorials supplied by AWS or get a recommendation for an AWS Partner to
help you. Businesses that opt to use a partner are usually looking to simplify operations and often
lack the time or expertise to learn about which services to use on their own.

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GETTING STARTED WITH THE CLOUD

5. Prepare your data

It’s common for businesses to store unnecessary amounts of redundant data. Before you move
your data to the cloud, revisit your backup and archive policies and possibly revise them. This
step could enable you to clean up your dataset and reduce its volume, saving you both time and
money as you move data to the cloud for storage.

6. Migrate your data

Once you’re on board with a cloud service and have identified the data you want to store in the
cloud, it’s time to migrate your data to the cloud for storage. The time it takes to complete your
data migration depends on your volume of data and which method you choose for to move it.

7. Protect your data and applications

A data backup strategy is essential to making sure your company can withstand, recover, and
minimize the impact of a security breach, outage, or disaster. You should define which data
to back up, how often to back it up, and a way to monitor backups and recovery processes to
make sure they work when needed. You can use the AWS Backup cloud service, for example, to
protect both the data you store in AWS and data you store on premises, as well as AWS Elastic
Disaster Recovery for protecting and recovering on-premises and cloud-based applications. In
addition, centralization and automation of policy-setting and data management enable you to
minimize data loss and comply with regulatory and business data security and privacy rules.

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CHAPTER SIX

Advantages of using AWS

Businesses in all industries and of all sizes can extend their onsite storage, backup, and
archiving to AWS. AWS offers the industry’s most extensive range of cloud storage services
to accommodate any business data. When you work with AWS, you benefit in several ways.

• Real savings you can see and measure: • Optimum cloud security and
Using an AWS cloud service reduces resiliency: AWS meets the stringent
costs by an average of 31 percent (over requirements of the world’s most
five years) 5 while increasing efficiency. security-sensitive organizations. AWS
Because every business is different, we participates in many security assurance
offer free tools and calculators to assess programs and regulatory certification
your own company’s costs and measure programs, and we apply our substantial
your migration return on investment expertise to protecting your data. AWS
(ROI). These tools eliminate guesswork further reduces the risk of unplanned
and help you identify new savings outages, data loss, and inaccessibility
opportunities. by maintaining data centers all over
• Capacity that grows as you need it: AWS the world with automatic backup and
automatically adjusts cloud capacity to failover procedures in place. Businesses
meet demand while only charging you for using AWS report reducing unplanned
what you use. In this way, we make sure downtime by an estimated 69 percent
you have space to grow without paying compared to operating their own
for more than you need. We constantly storage solutions.6
monitor activity to balance loads,
automatically scaling storage up or down
to meet fluctuations in demand and to
reduce costs.

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Ready to learn more?
Cloud data storage and protection services from AWS let you build a future-proof
foundation for storing, backing up, archiving, and securing your growing data.
The on-demand, limitless availability of AWS Cloud storage capacity gives you
operational agility and economies of scale that aren’t possible when building your
own IT infrastructure.

Spending the time and money to procure, test, deploy, and manage on-site
equipment could put your business at a disadvantage, particularly if your competitors
have adopted cloud-flexible capabilities. Cloud services free up time and resources for
business innovation. They also allow you to affordably weather the unpredictability of
market conditions, supply chains, and seasonal economic patterns with resources that
are always available when you need them. These are the reasons that cloud migration
is the number one IT priority in smaller businesses.

AWS is here to support you wherever you are in your cloud journey. Let us help you
drive business growth, affordably scale your operations, and serve employees and
customers in new, more reliable ways.

Learn more about cloud storage or contact an AWS expert.

1. Statista, “Volume of data information created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide from 2010 to 2025”, June 2021.

2. Gartner, “Gartner Says Cloud Will Be the Centerpiece of New Digital Experiences”, 2021.

3. IDC, “Fostering Business and Organizational Transformation to Generate Business Value with Amazon Web Services”, Feb 2018.

4. TechAisle, “2021 Top 10 SMB - Business Issues, IT Priorities, IT Challenges”, 2021.

5. IDC, “Fostering Business and Organizational Transformation to Generate Business Value with Amazon Web Services”, Feb 2018.

6. Nucleus Research, ”Understanding the Value of Migrating from On-Premises to AWS for Application Security and Performance”,
June 2020.

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