Cloud disaster recovery (cloud DR) is a strategy that involves storing copies of electronic records to the cloud as a means of enhanced security. The cloud version of these documents can help build an effective backup and restoration strategy. The primary use of cloud DR is to offer a business a way to recover data in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster.
Benefits of Cloud DR
There are any number of reasons that cloud disaster recovery is an appealing option in emergency situations. The first of these is that it can be implemented in various ways; in-house, as a service, or partially in-house. This means that a smaller business will have access to well-rounded disaster recovery options, something that might not otherwise be possible.
In addition to that, most cloud providers only charge for storage when it is used, which is based on seat, bandwidth, or capacity. The cloud providers are also in charge of maintaining the infrastructure, so the business doesn’t have to stress about spending money on data center space, network resources, or additional hardware.
Failover and Failback
One thing that cloud disaster recovery provides is the ability for failing hardware or software to be pushed to a different location, so it can still be used. Once the first location is back in good operating order, the workload is moved back where it started. It’s always a good idea, however, for businesses to run tests on things like this on a regular basis with network segments that will not hurt production data.
Your business can choose to fail over applications, data, or even virtual machine (VM) images. Data that is failed over is still available from the cloud via file services. The problem is that it can take a long time for cloud recovery if there is quite a lot of data. However, data from an application can be moved to another application that is running on the cloud, or a VM image with data can also be replicated and accessed if there is a failure on-premises.
Service Level Agreements
A service level agreement (SLA) is essentially a promise from a cloud provider that they will offer what they promise as far as cloud services go. There may be penalties or other recourse available if this isn’t possible, making it less of a gamble to get started with cloud disaster recovery.
Some SLAs will have a guaranteed uptime, along with recovery point and time objectives. So, as an example, a recovery time objective (RTO) might be anywhere from an hour up to a day, depending on what the application is and how important it is for the business. Of course, quicker RTO is often going to be a more expensive option. This might be worth it for essential applications.
Some SLAs also reimburse businesses with some kind of “credit” if there is an outage of a service or a disaster leads to unrecoverable data. The credits are usually good for subscriptions to other services or can be applied toward a bill. The probablem is that these credits may not be enough to make up for the loss of business if there is a major delay. That’s why it is important to know what you are getting into when choosing a provider.
Cloud Disaster Providers
Cloud DR is a great use of the cloud, because it removes the need for a second site for your business. There are hundreds of vendors out there who now offer DR services over the cloud. Some of the most popular include Microsoft Azure Site Recovery, IBM Resiliency Services, Axcient, and SunGard Availability Services.