![]() “It has very practical day-to-day uses.”Įxperts also say BaaS is a practical option for schools because it puts responsibility for maintenance and updates on the provider, not the school. “It has been handy when files get deleted, or we need a previous version, or we need to restore a server,” he says. Jiggens says his district has used BaaS in the past, not for ransomware or a cybersecurity risk, but for routine engineering and maintenance. You need to manage the files, folders and systems that are included, and you need to verify that the backups are operating.” For example, you still need controls over access to the backups. “Shifting some workload to another resource can help, but it doesn’t absolve you of the responsibility to manage the system. “There is not a single school district that doesn’t feel they’re understaffed that goes without saying,” Dumke says. Is BaaS Useful for K–12 Schools?īaaS can be particularly useful for K–12 schools, where IT teams may not have the personnel or resources needed to efficiently oversee data backups. It’s about protecting your backup as well,” she says. “It’s not just about having a backup of your data. We are also seeing attackers destroy data out of spite or frustration.”Īs ransomware attackers grow savvier, King says, the “safety net” that BaaS provides schools is more important than ever. “Paying ransom does not guarantee the recovery of your data. “The ability to restore data to a known good point in time, such as prior to an attack, is critical,” he adds. Having BaaS means that, in the event backed-up data is needed, access to it “can get us up and running, so we can be operational in a couple of hours,” Dumke says. ![]() Jiggens says his school district has adopted a hybrid solution to BaaS, which includes a combination of on-premises backups and a BaaS provider that stores backups in the cloud. This data, and access to it, is the district’s lifeblood, King says. Schools store sensitive information, including identifying information for students and staff, payroll data and more, which could be compromised and disrupted by a cyberattack or natural disaster. LEARN MORE: Is cloud storage safer than on-premises databases? Why Are Data Backups Important? “It takes it out of your hands and puts it in theirs,” Jiggens says. With BaaS, you pay a company or service provider to back up your data, says Rick Jiggens, a cybersecurity engineer with the Auburn School District in Washington state. In that case, the existing solution creates a backup and then, on a regular schedule, migrates the backups to offsite storage.” “Alternatively, BaaS could be part of a larger on-premises backup solution. “In general, an agent or client software is installed on the host device, and scheduled tasks are created that transfer the data to an offsite location,” he says. Functionality varies depending on the system, Dumke says. ![]() The service often is remotely managed, offers encryption and validation, and maintains version history. BaaS is a blanket term for a service that provides online or cloud-based backups, saysīen Dumke, information systems manager for the Hortonville School District in Wisconsin.
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