Occasionally, the data contained in systems should be backed up. The backup intervals should, however, be short enough to capture reasonably recent data (7). In the instance of a disaster that leads to the loss of the systems and the data therein, the organization can easily recover. It can reinstall the system and then load the most recent backup and get back on its feet. Data backup policies should be created and implemented. The policies at the very least should cover the backup storage sites, naming conventions for the backups, the rotation frequency, and the methods for the transmission of the data to backup sites (7).

The following diagram illustrates the complete backup process:

Cloud backups have the advantage of cost, reliability, availability, and size. Since the organization does not buy the hardware or meet the maintenance costs of the cloud servers, it is cheaper. Since cloud backups are always online, they are more reliable and available than backups on external storage devices. Lastly, the flexibility to rent as much space as one wants gives the advantage of storage capacity that grows with demand. The two leading disadvantages of cloud computing are privacy and security.