If disaster strikes, causing inoperable systems in your business, it can be a long road to recovery. You may find that you lose customers and revenue. You may also find that you have many expenses to fix systems, lost time, and tons of overhead expenses. This is why having an excellent disaster recovery plan in place is essential for any business.
With traditional computing, everything from the computer network, software, servers, cables, and data can experience problems which lead to replacing or expensive repairs. This can also lead to lots of time spent rectifying the situation, which in itself can be a loss of money. Thankfully, cloud computing has made this easier in recent years. We’re going to look at the many benefits of disaster recovery in the cloud.
Conservation of Resources
A business or organization that is using the cloud for recovery doesn’t need to have a second data center, which often is only useful when a disaster hits. Companies who choose a duplicate data center may have it on their own or go through a third-party or co-location center that hosts other businesses, as well.
A third-party option is an improvement from on-premises, as the business isn’t required to maintain an additional center. However, systems are also going to be shared with other businesses if a disaster happens in a particular area. It can also be difficult to keep hardware compatibility maintained.
Using a cloud disaster recovery option takes care of these problems. It also offers an attractive price tag in many cases, it doesn’t require the massive capital investment that a new data center would.
Entire Server Backup
Creating a backup of an entire server is easy when using the cloud. Through virtualization, you can take a server (including the applications, patches, operating system) and put it on a virtual server. That can then be copied or backed up somewhere offsite.
In addition, the virtual server has no need for hardware, so it can be transferred to another center without reloading every piece of software. This helps to reduce the recovery time when it matters most, especially when compared to non-virtualized options. What may have taken days to recover on-site may only take a few minutes using the cloud.
Quick Response
With the cloud, a business can more quickly respond after a disaster, sometimes in only minutes. Cloud orchestration and automation tools can even automate the recovery process from within the cloud itself.
Without automated tools, it’s possible that recovering will require scripts, manual intervention, and other tasks that IT must focus on. Disaster recovery can take longer than was expected and it’s possible that data will still be lost.
Choosing the cloud allows organizations to recover the most critical data only, which helps to reduce costs. This can give the business more time and less cost when compared to recovering on-premises.
Flexibility
When choosing the cloud, a business doesn’t need to choose a location for their recovery facility and then stress that it could also be hit by disaster. With a cloud disaster recovery plan, facilities can be moved quickly to entirely different locations.
In addition, a company only needs to pay for the data they use at any one time. This lets businesses choose data crucial to recovery, reducing costs at a time when capital may be at a minimum.
Despite the flexibility inherent in the cloud, a business can’t just set up a plan and then assume all is well. Plans should be tested on a regular basis, perhaps quarterly. Utilizing products that simulate tests or even do pretest checks are extremely helpful and can ensure the best results.