Backup as A Service An Emerging Trend in The New Normal: GoFrugal

In an exclusive interaction with Mr. Kumar Vembu, CEO and Founder, GOFRUGAL, Faiz Askari of SMEStreet found some key trends with regards to the evolving IT and technology domain.

• SMB and MSME retailers have just started or increased adoption in technology since the pandemic. Why is it important for them to invest in a real-time data backup solution? 

India ranks second in the world in incidents involving ransomware. The number of organisations that paid ransom increased from 26% in 2020 to 31% in 2021. The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption among SMEs and businesses are generating more data now than ever. It is crucial for businesses of all sizes to encrypt, protect and backup their data regularly.   When valuable business data gets deleted or affected by virus, there is a significant impact to business operations. Impact includes business downtime, orders lost with increased operational costs to get their business back running. 

Most businesses still prefer traditional back-up methods that are highly people-dependent, error-prone, labour-intensive, time-consuming, and skill intensive to back-up and restore correctly. Its time for businesses to realize the benefits of a real-time back-up as a service BaaS that offers fully automated back-up on cloud. As the entire back-up is automated, it is error-free, back-up time is instant and restoration is in a matter on minutes based on the size of data. This is because data is continuously synced to the cloud and is automated. No additional skill, people costs not required.  

• How has the pandemic increased vulnerability for these retailers?

The retail industry has seen massive investments coming in from tech giants since the pandemic. According to a study , COVID has accelerated the digital transformation in retail/e-commerce by 6.1 years, subsequently rising the competition. Competition and ravaging chaos are the roaring threat of ransomware attacks in retail. Hackers attack a business and encrypt their files, threatening to publish their stolen data for a ransom. Apart from locking the business and blocking its operations, data leakage leads to a strained reputation, sullied image and legal complications. Also, data theft results in failed transactions, falling delivery times and fashions a feeling that the business is unsafe and unworthy. Customers shift to competition that’s more secure. Reputation and credibility especially play an integral role in the growth of an SME. 

Security was always a concern for organisations embarking on a digital journey and now it has become a prerequisite to not just secure yourself but also build a competitive edge over contemporaries.

• What are the benefits of back-up as a service and how will it disrupt data back-up methods?

Back-up-as-a-service addresses some of the key challenges existing in the incumbent system and enhances business experience for entrepreneur and his team.

Lowered total cost of ownership: No upfront investment in infrastructure, no skill or expertise required to manage backup. 

In the legacy back-up, owners have to run the software on the interface with the help of a IT professional and is constantly dependent on them for any hassles. Back-up-as-a-service simplifies this by eliminating process. Backing up business information is now as simple as restoring phone data from cloud with a single click! 

Completely automated: The process is automated and once the set-up is complete, there is no additional effort expected from the user. It keeps running in the background. Automating this process also removes room for error and helps the business owner collate valuable insights from data.  It is simple DIY tool that automates the data back-up and restore 

Less time consuming: Data backup is periodic and is done every 3 minutes. This allows the owner to focus on other important decisions and employees to attend to their customers without any ad hock.

Secure and reliable: As data is backed up in a data center, this provides great protection to data and any malware and ransomware. 

100% business continuity: In the event of a breach, restoration is fast and can be done with a single click and OTP authentication. Restoring data can be done by an entrepreneur from any educational background and doesn’t need a IT professional to intervene. Businesses can now enjoy peace of mind as they do not need to worry on data protection. 

• How does GoSecure help retailers to retrieve and secure data?

GoSecure real-time back-up as a service (BaaS) automates and disrupts data backup process by completely syncing it online real-time. This solution helped 2000+ businesses secure their data and 450+ businesses recover data seamlessly. GoSecure takes a measly duration of 30 minutes to retrieve years’ worth of information. A customer of GOFRUGAL from Tirupur was left devastated after a ransomware attack. However, GoSecure helped him retrieve information of 15 years in 30 minutes without any data loss.

More importantly it creates awareness on securing information and gives accountability to the owners. This will contribute in the rise of a generation of cautious business owners. The solution also helps businesses remain on the right side of the law. Be it GST or VAT, statutory law mandates generation and maintenance of electronic records and documents for at least three to seven years. GoSecure helps in maintaining important business information intact and remain statutory compliant.