Disaster Recovery in the Cloud

How Does Disaster Recovery in the Cloud Work?

Disaster recovery in the cloud works by replicating an organization’s critical data and IT infrastructure in a cloud environment. A cloud-based storage model allows businesses to continue operating with little to no downtime during a disaster, even if hardware gets lost or damaged.

In a cloud environment, information is continuously updated and backed up to multiple data centers, which enables employees to quickly retrieve files over the internet. Service providers manage the cloud infrastructure, while organizations use dashboards and APIs to orchestrate and manage disaster recovery.

Advantages of Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery

While both on- and off-premises solutions have their benefits, disaster recovery in the cloud is often the best choice for businesses. Here’s what you can expect with cloud-based disaster recovery:

Affordability

Disaster recovery in the cloud is an affordable way to ensure business continuity in an emergency. Organizations pay for storage and services while a third-party cloud provider maintains the hardware and infrastructure. That means your business doesn’t need to invest in a secondary site or dedicated data center to store information.

In addition to removing upfront costs associated with private data storage, disaster recovery in the cloud continues to be affordable over time. Service providers perform ongoing maintenance and invest in data security, and you pay a predictable and consistent fee. If you scale your services up, you don’t have to budget for new servers or hardware—just the increased service fee.

Scalability and Flexibility

Scaling up data storage can be costly and time-consuming with on-premises disaster recovery. As your business grows, you need additional servers and staff to maintain a right-sized disaster recovery solution. Cloud-based disaster recovery enables your business to scale quickly without surprise costs. You can simply purchase more storage space as needed.

Disaster recovery in the cloud also gives you the option to restore data on-premises or access it over the internet. If your employees are displaced due to a disaster, they can continue working from other locations. Additionally, since cloud providers store data across multiple locations, you won’t risk losing your data permanently if the same disaster affects your data center.

Quick Data Recovery

Cloud-based applications and software continuously backup your data, making it easily accessible if disaster strikes. As long as you and your employees have an internet connection, you can recover data almost immediately and continue operations. Automated disaster recovery processes can do the heavy lifting for your business so that employees don’t have to manually restore data.

Security

While on-premises data storage is often seen as more secure, cloud providers use robust security measures to protect organizations’ data and comply with regulatory standards. Cloud providers keep your data safe and your business operational using:

Data encryption
Access control
Frequent data backup
Data recovery testing
Geographic redundancy

Access to Emerging Technologies

New and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, can help facilitate disaster recovery in the cloud. These tools can simplify and expedite disaster recovery by automating many of the processes included in a disaster recovery plan. AI and machine learning can also help detect performance issues before a disaster strikes, so cloud providers can continuously mitigate data risks.

Disaster recovery in the cloud also makes it easy for organizations to simulate an emergency and test their business continuity plan. You can quickly determine if any roadblocks could impact business operations and work with your cloud provider to fine-tune your disaster recovery plan.

How to Implement Disaster Recovery in the Cloud

If you’re ready to move your disaster recovery to the cloud and improve business continuity, creating a thorough plan is essential. Here’s how to implement cloud-based recovery:

Assess your data and risks: Identify how your data is currently stored and the elements of your IT infrastructure that are critical to your business operations. Identify the largest risks to your business in a disaster scenario that you need to address in a disaster recovery plan.
Choose a technology partner: An IT provider can help create and implement a customized cloud disaster recovery plan for your business. Choose a partner with extensive cloud experience and a track record of successful disaster recovery.
Define your goals: Before solidifying a plan, determine your recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). These indicators outline how long your business can go without an IT resource and how much data loss you can tolerate after a disaster. Then, identify the most critical applications and files that should come first during a disaster recovery situation.
Create your disaster recovery plan: Work with your technology partner to develop a cloud recovery plan for different disaster scenarios. Outline roles and response times.
Test and evaluate your plan: Perform a simulated disaster scenario and test if your disaster recovery plan meets your objectives. Make changes as needed to ensure business continuity if a real disaster strikes.

LISS Technologies takes a comprehensive and proactive approach to cloud disaster recovery, so you can get back to business in no time.

Learn How We Do It

Experience the Benefits of Disaster Recovery in the Cloud

Are you ready to minimize risks, lower costs, and shut down your on-premises data center for good? LISS Technologies can help you leverage the power of cloud-based disaster recovery. We help you outline a thorough data backup plan, develop or fine-tune your disaster recovery strategy, and spring to action when it matters most.

Contact us today to discuss how disaster recovery in the cloud can improve business continuity for your organization.