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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Neither cloud nor on-premises backup is universally safer or faster for a utility. Choose for each workload by its recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), criticality, connectivity, site risks, security controls, and compliance scope. Cloud can provide geographic separation and managed infrastructure; on-premises recovery can preserve local access when external connectivity or a cloud service is unavailable. For critical workloads, independent copies across failure domains—sometimes a hybrid design—can address risks that either location alone leaves open, but only if the utility can restore from them under realistic conditions.
Backup is only one part of disaster recovery
A backup is a copy of data; disaster recovery is the ability to resume a service. Restoring files alone may not restore a utility’s applications or operations. Recovery can also depend on configurations, identity services, encryption keys, software and licenses, network connections, clean hardware or compute capacity, staff authority, and communications. The order of restoration matters: teams need to know which services must return first and what those services depend on.
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Set an RTO—the target time to restore a service—and an RPO—the acceptable amount of data loss, expressed as the point in time to which data must be restored. A design that protects data but cannot meet a workload’s RTO, or that restores data older than its RPO allows, does not meet that workload’s recovery needs.
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| Decision factor | Cloud backup or recovery | On-premises backup or recovery | Question for the utility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geographic failure | Can place copies in separate regions, depending on the provider’s design and the utility’s configuration. | Requires a separate site or off-site media to avoid sharing production’s local hazards. | Could the same fire, flood, physical intrusion, or other site event affect production and recovery? |
| Connectivity and access | Recovery depends on network access, available bandwidth, provider access, and the ability to recover the account. | Local restores may be possible without an external cloud link, but still depend on local power, infrastructure, and staff. | What can the team restore if wide-area connectivity is unavailable? |
| Administration | The provider operates some layers; the customer retains responsibilities under the shared-responsibility model. | The utility or its contracted operator manages more of the infrastructure and maintenance. | Who can change or delete copies, and are backup privileges separated from production administration? |
| Restore performance | Depends on provider service, region, workload architecture, and network throughput. | Depends on local storage, compute, hardware compatibility, and staffing. | Has a restore test shown that this workload can meet its RTO and RPO? |
| Data location and access | Assess the selected region, contract, data-residency needs, and who controls access. | Physical location and access controls are managed by the utility or its contractor. | Where does protected information reside, and who can access it? |
| Portability | Provider-specific features and dependencies can complicate migration or recovery elsewhere. | Hardware, software, and media formats can create compatibility and obsolescence risks. | Could recovery run on alternate infrastructure if the primary environment is unavailable? |
| Lifecycle effort and cost | Fees and operational effort depend on storage, retrieval, network use, retention, and support. | Requires facilities, hardware refresh, power, protection, staffing, and maintenance. | What does the full lifecycle cost at the required retention and restore scale? |
These are design trade-offs, not guarantees about either model. A provider’s data-center redundancy or durability claims do not establish that a utility’s applications and full service will recover; customer-side architecture and controls matter too.
#1 Best Overall
- Easily store and access 2TB to content on the go with the Seagate Portable Drive, a USB external hard drive
- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop
- To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition no software required
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
Ransomware protection depends on isolation, not just location
A copy on premises or in the cloud is not resistant to ransomware by default, as the UK National Cyber Security Centre explains in its ransomware-resistant backup guidance. CISA recommends keeping offline, encrypted backups of critical data and regularly testing their availability and integrity in a disaster scenario. CISA’s #StopRansomware Guide also advises considering separate cloud environments or other copies outside the affected cloud environment where needed.
- For cloud copies: assess whether compromised production credentials, account recovery paths, or broad deletion permissions could reach the backups. Separate accounts or tenancies, least-privilege access, deletion controls, and immutable storage may help when correctly configured.
- For on-premises copies: assess whether an attacker with production credentials or access to the production network could reach or destroy them. Copies in the same facility can also share exposure to site events or power interruption.
- For either approach: decide which copies need to be offline, encrypted, isolated, or geographically separate based on the threat and site-risk analysis. Immutability is a control, not a guarantee; misconfiguration can create cost, and an immutable solution may not satisfy every regulatory criterion.
Isolation has to be meaningful in practice: compare credentials, administrative planes, locations, connectivity, and restore paths. A hybrid label alone does not prove independence.
Rank #2
- Easily store and access 5TB of content on the go with the Seagate portable drive, a USB external hard Drive
- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop
- To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition software required
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
Choose by workload, especially for operational technology
Do not treat enterprise IT recovery and restoration of operational technology (OT) or bulk electric system (BES) control functions as interchangeable. A general cloud recommendation does not establish that a workload is operationally suitable for cloud or compliant with applicable requirements. Evaluate business IT, non-regulated systems, and BES/OT systems separately, against their service requirements and dependencies.
NERC’s September 2023 BES Operations in the Cloud white paper frames cloud use as a workload-specific decision. It identifies availability, latency, throughput, criticality, redundancy, failure rate, and recovery time as relevant requirements, and discusses controls such as redundant communication paths, private networks, and multi-region cloud. For larger or critical systems, it describes multi-region or hybrid failover as options to evaluate, including cloud-hosted and on-premises servers in primary/backup configurations. This is evaluation guidance, not a blanket endorsement of moving grid operations to cloud.
Rank #3
- Easily store and access 1TB to content on the go with the Seagate Portable Drive, a USB external hard drive.Specific uses: Personal
- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop. Reformatting may be required for Mac
- To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition no software required
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
A practical way to select a design
- Classify the workload. Identify its service criticality, data, dependencies, regulatory category, and consequences of interruption. Separate IT and OT/BES recovery decisions rather than applying one location rule to every system.
- Set recovery targets. Specify the RTO and RPO for each service. Identify the restoration sequence and the compute, network, identity, keys, software, licenses, and people required at each stage.
- Map failure scenarios. Consider loss of the production site, power or wide-area connectivity, a cloud provider or region, an administrative account, or a recovery copy. Identify shared risks between production and each copy.
- Choose copies and controls. Decide which copies belong on premises, off site, or in cloud, and how to separate their locations, credentials, administrative access, and connectivity. Consider portability and data-residency obligations along with the ability to retrieve and restore at the required scale.
- Validate the whole recovery path. Confirm that the utility can access the copies and restore services—not merely that backup jobs report success. Record results, gaps, responsible roles, and changes needed to meet the targets.
Check which requirements apply to the utility
FERC says its authority over bulk electric system reliability includes approving mandatory cybersecurity reliability standards, and that NERC is the certified Electric Reliability Organization that developed the CIP standards. FERC’s cyber and grid security overview describes that role. NERC’s CIP standards catalog identifies CIP-009-6, Cyber Security — Recovery Plans for BES Cyber Systems, and CIP-011-3, Cyber Security — Information Protection, as mandatory subject to enforcement.
That does not mean every utility, backup, or cloud service has the same CIP treatment. Applicability depends on entity registration, system categorization, and the specific requirement. Have compliance staff check current NERC and Regional Entity materials for the workload and entity in question; a choice of storage location is not itself a compliance determination.
Rank #4
- Easily store and access 4TB of content on the go with the Seagate Portable Drive, a USB external hard drive.Specific uses: Personal
- Designed to work with Windows or Mac computers, this external hard drive makes backup a snap just drag and drop
- To get set up, connect the portable hard drive to a computer for automatic recognition no software required
- This USB drive provides plug and play simplicity with the included 18 inch USB 3.0 cable
- The available storage capacity may vary.
Test service restoration and incident coordination
Test the recovery scenario that matters: whether authorized staff can reach a usable, intact copy, rebuild or access the required environment, recover dependencies, and restore in the planned order within the workload’s targets. Include loss of the relevant network, account, site, or provider where those are plausible failure conditions. CISA recommends regular tests of backup availability and integrity; its guide also advises prioritizing restoration of critical services.
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Recovery plans should define roles and authority, reporting, external communications, containment, and evaluation. FERC and NERC staff’s 2020 summary of utility cyber incident response and recovery practices draws on interviews with experts from eight electric utilities of varying sizes and functions. It highlights trained teams, baselining, containment planning, exercises, and learning from incidents. It is not evidence that one backup location outperforms the other.
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