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The Advantages of Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery Featured

The Advantages of Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery "We were on our way to a lookout to photograph activity on the Jones Fire as part of our work for the fire management team. We heard radio traffic about a spot fire that has jumped the road we were traveling on. We drove up to find controlled chaos and very active fire. I jumped out with fire gear on and started shooting. I like this shot because it tells the whole story in one frame."

Disaster recovery (DR) is an essential activity necessary to protect the viability of modern information technology (IT) environments. Organizations need to have verifiable plans for addressing sudden outages so they can quickly restore and maintain access to business-critical systems. Failure to conduct proper disaster recovery planning and testing puts a company at significant and unnecessary risk.

In the IT world, disasters are caused by a variety of natural and manmade factors. Extreme weather events, floods, fires, and ransomware attacks are a few of the most likely reasons a company will be forced to implement its disaster recovery plan. Taking advantage of the characteristics of cloud computing enables organizations to better protect themselves from any kind of disaster.  

Benefits of Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery 

A cloud-based disaster recovery strategy provides customers with substantial benefits in comparison to more traditional plans that recover systems to an alternate on-premises location. These advantages can be the differentiating factors in a business’s ability to successfully recover in the wake of a disaster.  

Availability

One of the overriding benefits of the cloud is its universal availability. All that is needed to access cloud resources is an Internet connection. This fact enables companies to recover their systems anywhere in the world and is a huge advantage over relying on a specific terrestrial data center.  

Extreme weather events and sophisticated ransomware attacks can make it impossible to recover to the physical data center outlined in a traditional DR plan. Companies may have to take radical steps and use cloud resources to recover to a physically distant location or virtual environment. 

Scalability

The ability to scale resources up and down to address fluctuating business requirements is a major advantage of cloud computing. Companies can tailor their cloud infrastructure and services to reflect current needs without over or under-provisioning expensive solutions. Extending this mindset to encompass disaster recovery affords organizations with increased protection and streamlined restoration procedures.  

As primary cloud resources are scaled up or down, the changes can easily be reflected in the disaster recovery plans. When the inevitable disaster hits, the DR plan can be executed with confidence that all critical systems are covered.  

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) 

Many cloud providers offer disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) as part of their solution portfolio. DRaaS involves the replication and hosting of physical or virtual servers by a third-party cloud provider. These systems are available for failover if a business is impacted by a disaster.  

Three DRaaS models enable customers to select the right amount of assistance from the provider. 

  • Self-service DRaaS - In this model, the customer is responsible for planning, testing, and managing disaster recovery. The vendor provides remotely located software and hardware resources for the customer’s use. 
  • Assisted DRaaS - The customer and provider share responsibility for the recovery in this model. This allows the customer to control the recovery of custom applications that may be difficult for the provider to perform. 
  • Managed DRaaS - Customers allow third-party providers to assume full responsibility for disaster recovery in this model. This is a good solution for organizations that lack the in-house technical resources required to perform a recovery. 

The availability of DRaaS solutions makes it possible for businesses of any size to protect their computing environment. There’s no longer any excuse for getting caught unprepared when disaster strikes. 

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 Robert Agar

I am a freelance writer who graduated from Pace University in New York with a Computer Science degree in 1992. Over the course of a long IT career I have worked for a number of large service providers in a variety of roles revolving around data storage and protection. I currently reside in northeastern Pennsylvania where I write from my home office.

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