One of the major risks you will face with managed offsite backup is that there is always the potential for breaching to occur. Even with the fact that most secure data centers are staffed with a security force and have security protocols in place, there is still the potential for a skilled agent to infiltrate the area and access data directly. While the likelihood of this occurring in practice is exceedingly low with offsite backup, the fact is that no amount of security can ever stop this practice entirely.
Another potential threat to your data that even the best data center cannot entirely prevent from happening is widespread natural or manmade disasters. While a managed offsite backup will be able to protect your data from being corrupted or entirely lost due to a power failure or other types of large scale issues that may impact your office space, there are going to be some occasions when even the best data centers may experience issues of their own. While there are generally several backups to any backup data center, there is still the possibility that even the best laid plans may fail.
Another event which creeps around in the periphery of possibility is that a data center may have a rogue staff member. While the likelihood of a spy in the company is almost as remote as having several data centers a great distance apart all suffer from calamities at the same time, it is still possible that there could be data leakage if such an event occurs and such a person passes every screen the data backup company uses. Fortunately, while these are by far the more dramatic and potentially frightening of the possibilities regarding your data, they are as close to impossible as anything can ever be.
There are, however, other potential risks to your data that even the best data center may fall victim to. Even a data center may be hacked at some point, and there may be some undiscovered data removal that the systems administrators do not immediately catch. While every professional secure data center is staffed by trained and experienced professionals, they are still human beings and they are still prone to human frailties and mistakes. As well, given that the entire nature of systems administration is always going to be “playing catch up” with hackers and their constantly evolving methods of illicit data acquisition, there will be times when an entirely new example of malware or method of entry is not immediately discovered before the damage can be done. While unlikely, these events do happen and are possible in a practical context.
Another potential drawback that you will face if you use an offsite data backup company’s services is that you may have to deal with security procedures that your employees may find inconvenient and frustrating. There may be a learning curve associated with such a partnership, and some of your employees may not follow every necessary rule. This can lead to some difficulty in accessing information, and it can also lead to data loss if an employee fails to properly backup a critical piece of data.