A Good Preventative Step Ahead of Ransomware
by Rob Boirun for drivepop.com
Glacier is a new low cost archival backup storage service and is a good preventative step to get ahead of Cryptolocker.–PC Pitstop.
In August 2012, Amazon Web Services launched its own storage service to offer low-cost data archiving and backup. Amazon Glacier allows its users to store large or small amounts for as low as $0.01 per gigabyte per month. However, with such a low price, people are bound to question whether or not this service is worth their time and money. We took the confusion out of getting setup with Glacier by offering this service in our new DrivePop CryoStow Archival backup service.
The Perks of the Service
According to Amazon, Glacier offers its users the following advantages.
Low Cost
At $0.01 per gigabyte per month, Glacier is less expensive that any in-house disk product. What makes it even more pocket friendly is that it doesn’t come with upfront capital commitments or additional operational expenses. Everything is included in the price, so you’ll be saving by paying for the storage you use.
Data Security
Amazon Glacier ensures the security of your data through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). The service also encrypts data at rest through Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit symmetric keys. To further ensure that the data is protected from all eyes, you can exercise access control through AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). The latter is designed for organizations and helps them create and manage multiple users as well as establish resource-based access policies.
Durability
The service promises 99.999999999% annual durability for an archive. This is possible since the service stores data at different locations and on multiple devices within each facility. You may find it interesting to know that data is stored automatically across multiple facilities before you see the “SUCCESS” message displayed after uploading your archives. However, that’s not all what Amazon does to ensure the durability of Glacier. The service performs regular data integrity checks and can self-heal itself when needed.
Easy Access
One aspect that makes Glacier compelling is the ease it offers smaller organizations. Small and medium businesses usually send their tapes to a data warehouse once every week to save up courier costs. By going for services like Glacier’s, businesses will be able to automatically backup and duplicate their data for a fraction of the cost.
Flexibility
Glacier can easily accommodate your growing or diminishing storage requirements. Amazon doesn’t limit the amount of data you can store and its archiving service automatically scales up or down depending on your needs. The online retail store also offers you flexibility in the form of storing data according to region. The service, which is known as Amazon Glacier Region, allows you to meet different criteria such as your country’s regulations.
Simplicity
Amazon Glacier is so simple that you can forget about administrative operative burdens. You won’t have to worry about complex planning activities that consume a lot of time and risky hardware. In addition, you won’t be forced to carry out storage media migrations since you can store your data on Glacier for as long as you need.
Ease of Use with Amazon Web Services
Users of Amazon Glacier can easily move data between this service and Amazon Simple Storage Service with the help of data lifecycle policies. Amazon Web Services’ Import/Export also allows speedy movement of data.
The Downside of Glacier – Article continued here
This excerpt is shared with permission from Rob Boirun.
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Note to PC Matic users: Because PC Matic’s security, called Super Shield, uses a white list and a black list, you are protected from ransomware, but you have to make sure Super Shield is properly enabled.
Video: Step by step instructions for how to install and enable Super Shield.
