Understanding Cloud Disaster Recovery
In the modern world, data is an invaluable asset. Technology keeps finding new and innovative ways to share and store data securely. One of the most important elements in IT infrastructure for data security is the cloud.
Since its creation, the cloud has been a convenient, secure, and useful tool to store data and host critical infrastructure. Since then, the cloud has opened up doors to make life much easier. Disaster recovery in cloud infrastructure is one of these doors. Let’s take a closer look at what cloud disaster recovery is.
What Is Cloud Disaster Recovery?
Disaster recovery is the process of maintaining the functions of a company in the event of disruption. This means that your business can keep running smoothly even through a disaster.
What’s categorized as a disaster can include, but is not limited to:
- Natural disasters
- Cyber-attacks
- Server failure or damage
- Human error
- Utility outages
- Workforce disruptions
All these events can interrupt the workflow of your company and result in data loss or damage. Disaster recovery in the cloud refers to the use of cloud infrastructure to back up data, services, applications, and more.
Unlike traditional data centers for disaster recovery services, the cloud has changed the game by reducing downtime and eliminating the need for legacy infrastructure. Cloud offers immediate and efficient backup services within minutes instead of days.
Why Is Disaster Recovery in the Cloud Important?
When business is disrupted, a steady and fast solution is needed. In a dynamic and fast-paced world, disaster recovery solutions need to keep up. A cloud disaster recovery solution is efficient enough to meet those standards.
Cloud disaster recovery helps to ensure business continuity by offering rapid data restoration from backed-up versions to either on-premises or cloud environments.
Some of the key benefits of disaster recovery in the cloud include:
- Automated Functions – Cloud disaster recovery can automatically and seamlessly ensure data recovery and applications run smoothly through the cloud so you don’t miss a single day’s work.
- Reduced Expenses – Cloud disaster recovery solutions are not only cheaper in comparison to traditional DR solutions, but they also reduce the costs of the construction of on-site data centers and backup while saving you money on hardware maintenance, worker fees, and utility bills.
- Effective Scaling – Another great advantage of working with the cloud is the freedom to scale your infrastructure however you need – saving both money and time.
- Improved Security – Unlike traditional disaster recovery solutions, using the cloud ensures an added layer of cybersecurity and protection for your data.
- Higher Availability – During disasters, power cuts, and more, the cloud disaster recovery solution is always available and ready to go.
- Simplistic – An on-site disaster recovery solution might be more complex and difficult to manage whereas a cloud disaster recovery is simpler and easier to use.
- Flexibility – Disaster recovery on the cloud can be done within a matter of minutes and over multiple geographical locations.
According to Statista, a 2021 survey showed that organizations worldwide anticipated a move toward cloud-based data storage as part of their business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
While almost a third of the respondents reported using cloud Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solutions in 2022, over half anticipate using it by 2023. This is matched with a predicted decline in the hosting of secondary data on-site.
Cloud Disaster Recovery Approaches
Cloud disaster recovery gives your company the boost in efficiency, security, and convenience it needs to survive disruptions without loss or damage. However, there are different ways that one can approach cloud disaster recovery:
Disaster Recovery from Cloud
In this approach, the cloud is used to store the backup data then data is recovered from the cloud after the disaster. Essentially, it’s copying all the files and relevant data to the cloud to use if the system fails. This is a simpler, more effective, and less expensive option. However, it can go wrong if the on-premises IT infrastructure is unavailable when disaster recovery needs to take place. If the disaster incident affected your infrastructure – like a fire damaging the servers – the disaster recovery backup won’t work.
Disaster Recovery to Cloud
The next approach involves backing up data on-premises but recovering the data on virtual machines and databases running in a cloud platform. This means the physical on-site infrastructure doesn’t need to be up and running.
Instead, your disaster recovery process will be through the virtual environment in the cloud. This can be dangerous as well as the data backups on-premises then risk being affected by the disaster.
Cloud-to-Cloud Disaster Recovery
The last approach we’ll consider is cloud-to-cloud disaster recovery. This is having your cake and eating it too. Cloud-to-cloud works by storing backup data in the cloud and recovering to the cloud at the same time.
Using this approach, the virtual machines in the cloud will make use of data from cloud-based backups when a disaster disrupts on-site operations. While ensuring that both the data and infrastructure are not affected, this approach also ensures rapid disaster recovery and business continuity due to being cloud-based entirely. However, this approach will cost a lot more than the others as it requires you to maintain both backup storage and backup infrastructure in the cloud.
Disaster Recovery Plan Through Managed Cloud Services
The concept of disaster recovery might seem daunting for a growing business. Some large enterprises also setups disaster recovery data centers across various geographic locations. There are many options and things to consider before investing in a disaster recovery solution suited to your needs.
This is why a Managed Cloud Service provider is the best option for your company. There are new challenges that a business faces when switching to a cloud infrastructure. Some of these cannot be handled alone.
Using a Managed Cloud Service provider can help ease this transition and also seamlessly ensure the best cloud disaster recovery plan for your company.
A disaster recovery plan outline the procedure and protocols during a disaster to ensure business continuity and reduce data loss. This plan guides you and your employees on the disaster recovery journey and ensures optimum restoration.
A good Cloud Managed Service provider will have a disaster recovery plan for your business in place. Some of the benefits of choosing a managed cloud service provider for your disaster recovery needs include:
- An articulate and well-executed disaster recovery plan that considers every angle.
- Data protection and the assurance that your disaster recovery will work at every turn.
- The best expertise, skills, and minds come together to tailor a solution for your business.
- The confidence that your brand image and reputation will not be tainted by data loss or damage after a disaster.
Sangfor’s Managed Cloud Service caters to all these needs and so much more. With a new approach between public and private clouds, the platform offers superior disaster recovery capabilities. Adding on to its elite compute, storage, network, backup, hybrid cloud, endpoint security, assessment service, and managed security services.
The Sangfor Managed Cloud Service provides users with distributed Cloud Data Center and dedicated resource or data security, full-stack security protection, and a new security responsibilities model combined with proactive and professional 1-on-1 expert services. The platform gives customers all the convenience and flexibility of a public cloud combined with the security, control, and professional service of a private cloud. This makes it the best Managed Cloud Service approach for most small to medium-sized enterprises. Watch below video to learn more about Sangfor Managed Cloud Service and its benefits for DR.
For more information on Sangfor’s cybersecurity and cloud computing solutions, visit www.sangfor.com.
