Best Cloud Storage for Business (The Real Cost and What You're Actually Paying For)

The best cloud storage for most small businesses in 2026 is Google Drive via Google Workspace — it delivers the most capable real-time document collaboration of any platform, a 15GB free personal tier that beats every competitor, AI-powered search that finds files from a description rather than requiring an exact file name, and paid business plans from $6 per user per month that include Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Gmail alongside the storage. If your team already runs on Microsoft Word, Excel, and Teams, OneDrive via Microsoft 365 is the more compelling choice — every Microsoft 365 Business plan includes 1TB of OneDrive storage per user, making it the most cost-efficient cloud storage option in the industry when counted as part of a bundle you are already paying for. For teams working with large creative files — video production, design assets, architectural drawings, RAW photography — Dropbox Business is the specialist choice, with block-level sync technology that uploads only the changed portions of a file rather than re-uploading the entire thing, making it decisively faster than any competitor when working with files that change frequently.

This guide cuts through the headline storage numbers that most comparison articles lead with — "OneDrive gives you 15GB free! Dropbox only gives you 2GB!" — to the question that actually matters for a small business: what does this platform actually cost for a real team of five or ten people once you account for the features you will actually use, the tools you are already paying for, and the collaboration capabilities you need for how your team works day-to-day.

Cloud Storage Is Not What It Used to Be

In 2015, cloud storage was a simple value proposition: instead of keeping files on a USB drive or a local server, you keep them on someone else's server and access them from any device. The decision criteria were straightforward — storage capacity, sync speed, price.

In 2026, the three dominant cloud storage platforms — Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox — are not primarily storage services. They are collaboration platforms that happen to include file storage. The storage itself is a commodity; the differentiation is in everything built around it: real-time document co-editing, version history, AI-powered search and organisation, security and compliance controls, integration with the rest of your software stack, and the administrative tools that let you manage access across a team.

This shift changes how to evaluate these tools for a business. The right question is not "which service gives me the most gigabytes per pound?" — it is "which platform integrates best with how my team already works, and what is the all-in monthly cost when I account for the other tools it replaces or includes?"

The answer varies significantly by your existing software stack, and the real cost table later in this guide shows exactly why.

The Three Things Most Cloud Storage Comparisons Get Wrong

Before reviewing the specific platforms, three common misconceptions distort most comparison articles on this topic:

Misconception 1: Free storage tier size is the most important factor.

Google Drive's 15GB free tier is frequently cited as its primary advantage over Dropbox's 2GB. For a business, this is almost entirely irrelevant. A team of five people generating documents, presentations, and spreadsheets will fill 15GB across the whole team within months. Every business use of cloud storage requires a paid plan — the free tier tells you nothing useful about the value of the business product.

Misconception 2: The tools are equivalent and you should choose the cheapest.

Google Drive and OneDrive have converged in many areas, but they are meaningfully different for specific use cases. Dropbox's block-level sync is not a marketing feature — it is a technically substantive advantage that makes it measurably faster than competitors when working with large files. Google Workspace's real-time co-authoring is materially better than Dropbox Paper for document-centric teams. OneDrive's integration with Microsoft Teams is tighter than any external integration either competitor offers. These differences are real and should drive the decision.

Misconception 3: You need to choose one and use only it.

For example, you might use your free 15GB of Google Drive purely for collaborating on work documents, while paying for a 2TB Dropbox account to securely sync your heavy client video files. Many professional teams use multiple cloud storage services for different purposes — Google Drive for collaborative documents and Dropbox for large creative assets is a common setup in design and media businesses. The question is whether the added complexity of managing multiple services is worth the capability advantage — for most small businesses, it is not. For creative professionals where file sync speed on large assets is a genuine daily productivity factor, it is.

Quick Comparison — Best Cloud Storage for Business

The Real Cost Table — What a Team of 5 Actually Pays

This is the table every comparison article should lead with and almost none do.

Scenario: A real small business team of five people. They need: shared file storage for documents and assets, real-time document collaboration (multiple people editing simultaneously), file sharing with external clients, version history of at least 30 days, and a central admin console to manage access and recover deleted files.

The critical insight: Google Workspace Starter and Microsoft 365 Business Basic are tied at $30/month for five users — but they are not the same product. Google Workspace includes Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Gmail. Microsoft 365 Business Basic includes web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Outlook. For teams that need the desktop versions of Microsoft Office applications (not just the web versions), Business Standard at $13/user/month is required — which brings the five-user cost to $65/month.

For most small businesses where cloud storage is the primary need, the most cost-effective path is whichever productivity suite you are already paying for. Paying for Google Workspace and adding a Dropbox subscription doubles your storage costs for no reason if Google Drive covers your use case.

The 7 Best Cloud Storage Services for Business — Full Reviews

1. Google Drive (Google Workspace) — Best for Collaboration and Google-Native Teams

Google Drive is the best cloud storage platform for teams where real-time document collaboration is the primary daily workflow. The differentiation is not the storage itself — it is the depth of collaboration built into every document. Real-time collaboration is Google Drive's ace. Multiple people can edit the same document simultaneously, and the 15GB free tier outlasts most competitors, and the AI-powered search just works.

The "AI-powered search just works" observation from independent testers is a practical differentiator that matters more than any storage capacity number. Google's search infrastructure — the same technology that powers the world's dominant search engine — is applied to your Drive content. You can find a document from a vague description of what it was about, a phrase you remember writing, or the name of someone who commented on it three years ago. No other cloud storage service has a search capability that approaches this.

Gemini AI in Google Workspace — integrated across Drive, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and Gmail in 2025 — adds AI-powered summarisation, draft generation, and data analysis directly inside the tools your team already uses. A team member who missed a two-hour meeting can ask Gemini to summarise the recording and action items. A finance team member can ask Gemini in Sheets to analyse a dataset and produce a summary with trend observations. These capabilities are included in Google Workspace Business plans at no extra cost.

Google Drive for Desktop syncs your Drive content to a local folder on your computer, making files accessible without a browser and available offline. The sync speed is fast for document-sized files. For large binary files — video, high-resolution images, CAD files — the sync speed is adequate but not as fast as Dropbox's block-level sync technology.

Pooled storage on Google Workspace means the storage allocation is shared across the team rather than per-user. A Business Standard plan gives the team 2TB per user — for a five-person team, that is 10TB of total pooled storage. One team member who stores large video files does not cause others to run out of space.

The honest limitation: Google Drive is weakest for teams that need to work with the desktop versions of Microsoft Office applications. While Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides can import and export Microsoft formats, the conversion is imperfect — complex Excel spreadsheets with advanced formatting or macros often do not convert cleanly. For teams where Microsoft Office compatibility is mission-critical, OneDrive is the better choice.

Google Workspace Pricing:

Google Workspace Pros:

• Best real-time co-authoring capability — multiple simultaneous editors with comment threading

• AI-powered search that finds documents from descriptions, not just exact file names

• Gemini AI across Docs, Sheets, Meet, and Gmail included on Business plans

• Pooled storage model is fairer to teams with uneven storage usage

• 15GB free personal tier — the most generous of the big three

• Best collaboration platform for teams that do not depend on Microsoft Office

Google Workspace Cons:

• Microsoft Office format compatibility imperfect — complex spreadsheets and presentations may not convert cleanly

• Block-level sync not available — slower than Dropbox for large frequently-changed files

• Gmail interface less mature than Outlook for email power users on some workflows

• No zero-knowledge encryption — Google can technically access your files

2. OneDrive (Microsoft 365) — Best Value for Microsoft Teams

OneDrive is the correct choice for the majority of small businesses in the UK and globally who are already using Microsoft products — and the value calculation is decisive. For $6.99, you get 1TB of storage PLUS the full desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. No other cloud storage service comes close to this bundle value.

All Microsoft 365 Business plans include 1TB of OneDrive storage per user at no extra cost. For businesses already paying for Microsoft 365 for email, Teams, and Office — which is a very large proportion of small businesses — OneDrive is already paid for. Adding a separate cloud storage subscription on top of an existing Microsoft 365 plan is almost always a waste of money.

Microsoft Teams integration is OneDrive's most practically important business feature. Every Teams channel has an associated SharePoint/OneDrive folder — files shared in a Teams chat are automatically stored in OneDrive and accessible from the Teams interface. For businesses that run day-to-day communication through Teams, this integration eliminates the need to switch between a storage interface and a communication interface. The file is where the conversation about it is.

Personal Vault adds an additional layer of security for sensitive files — a protected folder within OneDrive that requires a second authentication factor (PIN, fingerprint, or face recognition) to access. For businesses storing sensitive client documents, financial records, or personal data, Personal Vault provides an extra security layer without a separate encrypted storage tool.

Windows integration is OneDrive's deepest competitive advantage for Windows-native businesses. Windows Integration: Built natively into Windows 11; it feels like a natural extension of your hard drive rather than a third-party app. Files on demand means you see all your OneDrive content in Windows Explorer as if it were on your local drive — but files are only downloaded to your device when you open them, saving local storage space while keeping all content accessible.

The honest limitation: OneDrive's web interface is functional but less elegant than Google Drive's, and its mobile apps — while improved — are rated lower than Google Drive's in independent user reviews. For teams that primarily access files from a browser or mobile device rather than Windows desktop apps, this is a real usability gap.

Microsoft 365 Business Pricing:

OneDrive Pros:

• Best bundle value — 1TB storage included with every Microsoft 365 plan at no extra cost

• Native Windows 11 integration — feels like a local drive extension, not a third-party app

• Microsoft Teams file integration — files stored alongside team conversations

• Personal Vault for additional security on sensitive files

• Desktop Office application compatibility — perfect formatting fidelity on Word, Excel, PowerPoint

• Files on demand saves local device storage space

OneDrive Cons:

• Web interface less polished than Google Drive

• Mobile apps rated lower than Google Drive equivalents

• Best value only for teams already in the Microsoft ecosystem

• Advanced compliance and security features require Business Premium ($22/user) or E3/E5 plans

3. Dropbox Business — Best for Large Files and Cross-Platform Teams

Dropbox invented the modern cloud storage sync folder concept that every competitor now copies, and it maintains one technically substantive advantage over every competitor: Dropbox's block-level sync means uploading a large video file after minor edits takes seconds, not minutes.

Block-level sync means that when you edit a file and save it, Dropbox uploads only the changed portions of the file rather than re-uploading the entire file from scratch. For a team of video editors who regularly save incremental changes to 2–10GB project files, this difference is measured in minutes per save rather than seconds. For a team working primarily with document-sized files (Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets), the difference is imperceptible.

Dropbox Dash — the AI-powered universal search tool launched in 2024 and expanded through 2025 — is Dropbox's most ambitious product extension. It searches across Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, Slack, Notion, Salesforce, and dozens of other connected apps simultaneously, finding any file or document from a single search interface regardless of where it is stored. For businesses using multiple cloud tools whose content is scattered across different platforms, Dash directly addresses the "where did I put that file?" problem at an organisational level.

Dropbox Replay is a dedicated video review and approval tool built into Dropbox Business — frame-accurate comments on video files, approval workflows, version comparison, and client review links. For video production companies, marketing teams, and agencies that need a structured client review process for video assets, Replay eliminates the need for a separate tool like Frame.io.

Cross-platform consistency is Dropbox's strongest differentiator against the Microsoft-first OneDrive and Google-first Drive. Dropbox also offers better cross-platform consistency and more third-party app integrations. If you work outside the Google ecosystem or need advanced file sharing controls, Dropbox is the stronger choice. For teams where some members use Windows, others use Mac, and external collaborators use various platforms — Dropbox's cross-platform experience is the most consistent of any tool tested.

The honest limitation: Dropbox is the most expensive of the three major platforms per user, and it no longer includes the productivity suite (email, calendar, office apps) that Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 bundle with their storage. At $15/user/month for Dropbox Business versus $12/user/month for Google Workspace Business Standard (which includes Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, and Gmail) or $12.50/user/month for Microsoft 365 Business Standard (which includes desktop Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams), Dropbox is harder to justify unless block-level sync or Dash's cross-platform search is genuinely necessary for your workflow.

Dropbox Business Pricing:

Dropbox Business Pros:

• Block-level sync — fastest large-file sync of any cloud storage service tested

• Dropbox Dash — AI-powered universal search across Dropbox and connected apps

• Dropbox Replay — built-in video review and approval workflow

• Best cross-platform consistency — Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android equally capable

• 180-day version history on Business plans — the most generous of the big three

• Strongest external sharing controls — password protection and link expiration on standard plans

Dropbox Business Cons:

• Most expensive per user without productivity suite bundled

• 2GB free tier — the least generous of the three major services

• Dropbox Paper less capable for document collaboration than Google Docs or Office

• Value proposition weakens significantly if your team doesn't work with large files frequently

4. Box — Best for Compliance-Heavy Industries

Box is the cloud storage platform built specifically for regulated industries — healthcare, financial services, legal, government, and any organisation where data governance, compliance certification, and security audit trails are primary requirements rather than secondary considerations.

Box holds more compliance certifications than any other cloud storage service on this list: HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, and PCI DSS. For a healthcare provider that needs HIPAA-compliant file storage, or a financial services firm that needs to demonstrate SOC 2 compliance to enterprise clients, Box's compliance portfolio eliminates a certification process that would otherwise require significant legal and technical work.

Box Governance — available on Business Plus and Enterprise plans — provides retention policies, legal holds, and structured records management that satisfy legal and regulatory obligations for document retention. For industries where destroying a document before a specified retention period is a regulatory violation, and where the inability to produce a document in discovery is a legal liability, Box Governance provides the infrastructure that no general-purpose cloud storage service approaches.

Box Sign (formerly Box DocuSign integration) provides native eSignature functionality directly within Box — clients can sign contracts, NDAs, and agreements without leaving the Box environment, and signed documents are automatically stored and versioned in the correct folder.

The honest limitation: Box's productivity suite (Box Notes) is significantly less capable than Google Docs or Microsoft Office for day-to-day document creation. Box is a file management and governance platform that integrates with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 rather than replacing them. Many organisations run Box for governance and compliance alongside Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for active document creation — a two-platform approach that adds cost but provides compliance coverage neither platform offers alone.

Box Business Pricing:

Box Pros:

• Most compliance certifications — HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS

• Box Governance for retention policies and legal holds

• Unlimited storage on all business plans

• Native eSignature with Box Sign

• Integrates with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 rather than competing

Box Cons:

• Most expensive of the non-enterprise options for standard use

• Box Notes less capable than Google Docs or Microsoft Office for document creation

• Compliance features only justify the premium for regulated industry use cases

• Less intuitive interface than Google Drive or Dropbox for non-technical users

5. Tresorit — Best for Privacy-First and Zero-Knowledge Encryption

Tresorit is the correct choice for businesses where end-to-end zero-knowledge encryption is a non-negotiable requirement — law firms, clinical practices, financial advisers, journalists, and any organisation handling genuinely sensitive data where even the cloud storage provider must be unable to access file contents.

Zero-knowledge encryption means that files are encrypted on your device before upload using a key that only you control — Tresorit's servers store only encrypted data that they cannot decrypt. Even in response to a legal request, Tresorit cannot hand over the content of your files because they do not have access to it. No other mainstream cloud storage service on this list provides this level of encryption by default.

The collaboration experience in Tresorit is capable for business use — shared encrypted spaces (Tresors), version history, guest access for external collaborators, and an admin console for team management. The interface is less polished than Google Drive or Dropbox, and the AI-powered features that competitors have added are not available in a zero-knowledge architecture — AI processing requires reading file content, which is incompatible with end-to-end encryption.

Tresorit Business Pricing:

Tresorit Pros:

• End-to-end zero-knowledge encryption — the strongest privacy protection of any service tested

• GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001 compliance with encryption certifications

• European data residency option for businesses with data sovereignty requirements

• Strong for law firms, medical practices, and journalism organisations

• External sharing with zero-knowledge encrypted guest access

Tresorit Cons:

• No AI features — incompatible with zero-knowledge encryption architecture

• Less intuitive than Google Drive or Dropbox

• More expensive than Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 for comparable storage

• Version history shorter than Dropbox on standard plans

6. IDrive — Best for Multi-Device Backup at Low Cost

IDrive is best understood as a backup-first platform with cloud storage capabilities — it is designed for businesses that need to back up many devices (computers, phones, tablets, NAS drives, servers) under a single subscription rather than for teams collaborating on shared files.

IDrive backs up unlimited devices under one account, which is rare. Phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, even NAS drives from Synology and QNAP all connect to one subscription. For a small business with ten devices across five employees — two computers each plus their phones — IDrive's pricing structure is significantly more cost-effective than per-device backup tools.

The first-year pricing is notably aggressive — often discounted by 70–90% for the first year, making it one of the cheapest entry points to managed cloud backup available. The renewal rate is higher, but still competitive for the multi-device backup use case.

IDrive Pricing:

IDrive Pros:

• Unlimited device backup under one subscription — the most cost-effective for multi-device businesses

• External drive and NAS backup included — rare for cloud backup services

• Physical data transfer option (IDrive ships a drive for initial backup of large datasets)

• Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup included on Business plans

• AES-256 encryption with private key option

IDrive Cons:

• Backup-focused rather than collaboration-focused — not a replacement for Drive or OneDrive

• Web interface dated compared to Google Drive or Dropbox

• First-year discount creates misleading initial cost impression — check renewal pricing

7. pCloud Business — Best for Lifetime Storage Option

pCloud's unique differentiator in the cloud storage market is its lifetime storage option — a one-time payment that provides permanent storage without a recurring subscription. The pCloud Lifetime plan for individuals provides 2TB of storage for approximately $399 as a single purchase. For businesses with a preference for CapEx over OpEx, or for entrepreneurs who want to eliminate a recurring storage cost permanently, this option has no equivalent on any other mainstream cloud storage service.

The business plan provides standard annual pricing with 1TB per user, collaboration features, and a team admin console. The encryption add-on — pCloud Encryption — adds client-side zero-knowledge encryption for an additional monthly fee, providing Tresorit-level privacy at a lower base price.

pCloud Business Pricing:

pCloud Pros:

• Lifetime storage purchase option — no recurring subscription for individuals

• Client-side encryption add-on for zero-knowledge privacy

• Competitive price point for business plans

• Based in Switzerland — strong privacy jurisdiction

• Video streaming with up to 5TB file size limit

pCloud Cons:

• Less integration ecosystem than Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox

• Smaller company — higher long-term business continuity risk than the big three

• Collaboration features less mature than Google Workspace or Microsoft 365

• Lifetime option only available for personal plans, not business

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule — What Cloud Storage Is Not

Every cloud storage review should include this section, and almost none do.

This is why you should always follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule: Have 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media formats, with 1 copy stored off-site (in the cloud). Never rely 100% on the cloud without a local backup.

Cloud storage is not a backup. It is synchronised storage — which means that if an employee accidentally deletes a folder, that deletion syncs to every connected device. If ransomware encrypts files on a local machine, the encrypted versions can sync to cloud storage, overwriting clean versions (depending on your version history settings and timing). If your Google or Microsoft account is compromised and an attacker deletes your files, the deletion propagates.

Cloud storage protects you from: hardware failure (your laptop dying), theft, local fire or flood, and accessing files from multiple devices.

Cloud storage does not protect you from: accidental deletion (beyond the version history window), ransomware (if it syncs before you notice), account compromise with deletion, and data corruption that syncs before detection.

What a complete data protection strategy looks like for a small business:

• Copy 1: Working files in cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox)

• Copy 2: Automated daily backup to a second cloud service (IDrive, Backblaze, or the cloud storage provider's own backup tool)

• Copy 3: Periodic backup to an offline or off-site physical drive — either a NAS device that is not connected to your main network, or a physical external drive stored off-site

Version history on your cloud storage platform is your first line of recovery for accidental deletions. Business plans on Dropbox (180 days), Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 all include meaningful version history. But version history is not the same as a true backup — it only covers files within the platform, not your entire device, and it has time limits beyond which recovery is not possible.

What Happens When an Employee Leaves — The Cloud Storage Offboarding Question

Most cloud storage articles never address this, and it is one of the questions small business owners most frequently encounter in practice.

Google Workspace: When you delete a user account, you are prompted to transfer their Drive files to another user before deletion, or the files are moved to a recovery window (30 days by default). Files in Shared Drives are not affected — they belong to the organisation, not the individual user. This is why Shared Drives (rather than individual Drive accounts) are the recommended storage location for business content on Google Workspace.

Microsoft 365 / OneDrive: When a user account is deleted, their OneDrive content is preserved for 30 days (configurable up to 180 days) before permanent deletion. The administrator can access and transfer the content during this window. SharePoint document libraries — the business equivalent of Shared Drives — belong to the organisation and are unaffected by individual account deletion.

Dropbox Business: The admin console allows content transfer from a departing user's account to another team member before the account is deactivated. Team folders remain accessible after account deactivation. The recommended practice is to transfer content ownership before deactivating the account rather than relying on post-deactivation recovery.

The practical recommendation for all platforms: Store business-critical content in team/shared spaces rather than individual user accounts — Google Shared Drives, Microsoft SharePoint document libraries, or Dropbox Team Folders. Content in individual user accounts is at risk of loss or inaccessibility when that user leaves. Content in team spaces belongs to the organisation regardless of individual account status.

Which Cloud Storage Platform Is Right for Your Business?

Choose Google Workspace (Drive) if: Your team collaborates heavily on documents in real time, you value AI-powered search and Gemini AI across productivity tools, and you are not dependent on Microsoft Office desktop applications. The $6/user/month Starter plan is the best-value entry point for collaboration-focused small businesses.

Choose Microsoft 365 (OneDrive) if: Your team uses Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint regularly, or if your business already pays for Microsoft 365 — in which case OneDrive is included at no extra cost. The $12.50/user/month Business Standard plan includes desktop Office applications, 1TB storage, Teams, and Exchange.

Choose Dropbox Business if: Your team regularly works with large files (video, design assets, photography, architecture files) where block-level sync speed is a daily productivity factor, or if you have a cross-platform team that collaborates with external clients who use a variety of tools. The $15/user/month premium is justified when file sync speed is a genuine bottleneck.

Choose Box if: Your business operates in a regulated industry (healthcare, legal, financial services) where HIPAA, FedRAMP, or SOC 2 compliance is a client requirement or a regulatory obligation. Box's unlimited storage and governance features are specifically designed for this use case.

Choose Tresorit if: You handle client data where even the storage provider must be unable to access file content — law firms, clinical practices, financial advisers, or any organisation handling genuinely sensitive personal or confidential data. Zero-knowledge encryption is Tresorit's non-negotiable differentiator.

Choose IDrive if: Your primary need is backing up many devices — all employee laptops, phones, external drives, and servers — under a single subscription. IDrive is a backup platform, not a collaboration platform, and is best used alongside rather than instead of Google Drive or OneDrive.

Final Verdict

Cloud storage is one of the few software categories where the right choice for most small businesses is obvious once you answer one question: what are you already paying for?

• Already paying for Microsoft 365? → OneDrive is included. Use it. Do not pay for a separate cloud storage service.

• Already paying for Google Workspace? → Google Drive is included. Use it. Do not pay for a separate cloud storage service.

• Paying for neither? → Choose Google Workspace Starter at $6/user/month if collaboration is the priority, or Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $6/user/month if Office compatibility matters. Both include cloud storage, email, video meetings, and a complete productivity suite.

• Working with large creative files daily? → The block-level sync premium for Dropbox Business at $15/user/month is justified by the productivity time saved on large-file workflows.

• Operating in a regulated industry? → Box for compliance certifications; Tresorit for zero-knowledge encryption.

• Backing up many devices? → IDrive for multi-device backup under one subscription — use this alongside rather than instead of your primary cloud storage.

Whatever you choose, implement MFA on every account immediately, store business-critical content in team/shared spaces rather than individual accounts, establish a version history policy that covers your compliance requirements, and maintain at least one separate backup that satisfies the 3-2-1 rule. Cloud storage protects your data from hardware failure. A complete protection strategy protects it from everything else.