Cloud Storage Backup for Disaster Recovery

Cloud storage backups can be an important part of a disaster recovery plan. Using Cloud Storage can be an easy and effective way to protect a company and an essential part of a Disaster Recovery Plan. Most businesses use Hybrid Cloud Computing to keep their data onsite and protect their company operations.

Even though businesses spend a lot of money on servers and network devices (technology infrastructure), to improve operations, service, and remain competitive. A scary fact is most companies don’t have an effective method in place for disaster recovery. Unfortunately, owners and managers don’t realize just how dependent their company is on this technology until it is too late. Statistics regarding business failures after data loss are staggering, though most business owners don’t see their company as a potential part of that statistic until they already are.

The majority of business owners do not realize how long their company could be down for something as common as a failed piece of hardware. Most business owners or managers think they have a tape backup or an image (something) that their company can recover to. Sadly, many companies find out too late, that the backup wasn’t tested and failed to recoverrisking the entire company on something that is a trivial cost in comparison to such a substantial negative impact. Often not verifying the backup worked, or that someone took a good backup offsite, or assuming a backup was good and never doing a test restore are all too common scenarios. Tape backup? Think again! Do you realize how long a full restore would take? What if it was a hardware failure, how long would it take to actually get the parts and THEN restore? The point beingmany companies unwittingly jeopardize thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost productivity which can easily, and cost-effectively be resolved.

Because Hybrid Cloud Computing can mitigate these risks, businesses stand to gain a tremendous amount by using Cloud Computing for Disaster Recovery.

Assume the worse did happen (a disaster), and someone broke into your office and took all your equipment, or perhaps your office burned down… What is your next step? Where is your latest backup? Is it a tape? Was the tape drive in the server that is now gone or no longer functioning? Where is the replacement server? How long will it take to get one? (Days? Weeks? … Do they still make that model?) Once you have a replacement server how many hours or days will it take to install the operating system and applications and restore your data to get your business working? Where is your software? Is it lost, burned, stolen too? Now it can be hours, days, or weeks to get back up and running, depending on how well your disaster recovery plan has been thought out, and if your current technology Support Company or internal IT Department hasn’t created one with you, then you may want someone that is more interested in helping protect your company.

Benefits of using Cloud Computing for Disaster Recovery

  1. Cloud recovery reduces the need for expensive hardware such as tape drives, tapes, and storage devices.
  2. Automated offsite backups.
  3. Ability to have access to your data within minutes of a failure.
  4. With a properly structured disaster recovery plan, your company could have the additional ability to have the last backup restored (within minutes) to the Cloud which would allow your server to be recreated (as a “virtual server”), and have your virtual server functional until your local server is replaced.
  5. It doesn’t have to be Cloud Computing and nothing else. Your Disaster Recovery plan could (and should) be a mixture between local images (a type of backup) and your offsite. Hybrid Cloud Computing

    Bottom line: Cloud Computing for Disaster Recovery just makes protecting your company a lot easier and substantially more cost-effective.

    Already a Cloud Computing user and think you don’t need to worry about Disaster Recovery because your vendor does multiple backups for you?
    Another type of disaster that you should plan for is in the event the Cloud provider goes out of business or is unable to operate (there are a variety of reasons that could cause this).

    In this case, you should have additional backup & storage services setup with different vendors, and/or keeping a local copy of your data as well.

    People interested in Cloud Computing for Disaster Recovery, were also interested in:
    Storage – Managed Online Backup Service

    To have a Cloud-based Disaster Recovery Plan tailored for your company, contact us.