Today tech start-up BackupLABS emerges from stealth mode to launch its secure automated backup for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud applications.
BackupLABS offers a simple, always-on solution for protecting the data that businesses store on SaaS platforms and at launch will provide integrations for Trello, GitHub, and GitLab. Protection for Notion, Jira, Asana and more apps will be available soon.
BackupLABS customers can rest safe in the knowledge their data on these platforms are securely encrypted and can be restored within minutes in the event of data loss or a security incident.
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“…we assume no responsibility or liability for Your Data, and you are solely responsible for Your Data and the consequences of submitting and using it with the Cloud Products.”
Benefits:
- Automatic daily backups
- Set-up complete within minutes
- Rapid restores with granular recovery
- Protection against accidental deletion, nefarious users, viruses, ransomware and provider issues
- Ensures compliance with ISO 27001, SOC2 certification and cyber insurance requirements
- Enterprise-grade 256bit AES encryption
- Audit logs for record of backups
- ‘Zero-knowledge’ policy – employees have no access to data
- Data protection regulation compliance with HIPAA, EU GDPR, UK Cyber Essentials Plus
- Securely hosted and stored within Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Founder and CEO Rob Stevenson developed the idea for BackupLABS in 2021, as the pandemic drove a shift to remote working and businesses increased their adoption of SaaS services. Having delivered backup solutions for small-to-medium businesses since 2004, Stevenson put his years of expertise into offering SaaS backup and has ambitions to be the main provider of SaaS app protection worldwide.
There are numerous benefits to choosing SaaS services over traditional on-premises software – quicker installation, services accessed from multiple locations, and subscription models make payments more manageable. But the added convenience comes at a price: SaaS providers are not required to protect user data. It’s the SaaS industry’s dirty little secret – the ‘Shared Responsibility Model’ stipulates that while the provider should ensure the uptime and availability of their service, responsibility for the backup of customer data rests solely with users.
SaaS platforms set this out in their terms of service. Atlassian (which acquired Trello in 2017) is explicit about where its responsibility for user data begins and ends1:
“…we assume no responsibility or liability for Your Data, and you are solely responsible for Your Data and the consequences of submitting and using it with the Cloud Products.”
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Xero’s Terms of Use2 lay the details out even more starkly:
“We really try to minimise any downtime, but sometimes it’s necessary so we can keep our services updated and secure. You also may have occasional access issues and may experience data loss, so backing up your data is important…
36. Data loss: Data loss is an unavoidable risk when using any technology. You’re responsible for maintaining copies of your data entered into our services…
37. No compensation: Whatever the cause of any downtime, access issues or data loss, your only recourse is to discontinue using our services.”
Stevenson explains: “Users need to be aware of the trade-off involved in choosing SaaS apps over on-premises software: providers are simply not obliged to ensure customer data is backed up. The data stored on SaaS apps is often a business’s most valuable asset, so it absolutely must be protected – and the best way to do that is to implement external backup.”
Data loss of any kind – whether through accidental or malicious deletion, hardware failure, power outages or cybersecurity incidents – can prove catastrophic for businesses. Not only does data loss interrupt an organization’s everyday activities, it causes financial losses and can lead to reputational damage. Businesses must also provide proof of backups to insurers and for auditing purposes such as ISO 27001 and SOC2 certification. They cannot therefore afford to neglect their data security obligations.
Most major backup providers focus on the leading SaaS platforms such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, but the amount of critical data stored on apps like Trello and GitHub is growing as more diverse online tools are adopted. Having external backup in place for SaaS data can therefore make the difference between a business surviving a data breach or having to close completely.