From natural disasters like hurricanes to man-made events such as cyber-attacks, disasters can have a devastating impact on businesses, leaving them vulnerable and at risk of losing valuable data, resources, and even entire operations.
However, with the rise of cloud technology solutions, organizations can now use advanced solutions to keep their data safe and bounce back from disasters. This easy-to-understand guide will go over what the cloud and disaster recovery are before explaining how you can use the cloud to upgrade your backup and disaster recovery initiatives.
What is the cloud?
The cloud is a system of servers that provide users with the ability to host, maintain, access, and edit their data over the Internet. Cloud technology solutions give businesses the freedom to leverage digital resources that are not restricted to in-house servers. Cloud computing is a great solution for companies wanting convenience, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness from their IT.
With cloud solutions, company managers and owners can expand the working space of their businesses, allowing team members to work from anywhere in the world. In terms of backup and disaster recovery strategies, the cloud can innovate an organization’s data protection measures to minimize the likelihood of extreme data loss.
What is disaster recovery in simple terms?
Disaster recovery (DR) encapsulates the processes, solutions, and tools an organization uses to recover its information technology (IT) systems after a disruptive event. Effective disaster recovery mitigates the impact of a catastrophic event on a company’s IT environment, making all vital components recoverable. No matter what technologies make up your organization’s IT infrastructure, you must invest in disaster recovery to ensure your data is safe 24/7/365.
Is there a difference between disaster recovery and business continuity?
Disaster recovery and business continuity (BC) are not exactly the same things. While disaster recovery focuses on restoring critical systems once the disaster has played out, business continuity is about maintaining business operations during and after the event.
Business continuity plans (BCPs) typically involve identifying critical business functions and data, establishing alternative communication channels, etc. Your disaster recovery strategy should inform your business continuity plan.
What is a disaster recovery strategy?
A disaster recovery strategy (DR strategy) is a plan that outlines how a business will restore its IT systems after a disaster. DR strategies typically involve copying data to external data centers, software and hardware inventories, employees’ responsibilities regarding disaster recovery solutions and their processes, etc.
DR strategies provide you with clearly defined steps to help you recover from threats. Without one, you and your team may struggle with recovering your IT tools after a disaster—this can make it easier for your business to fail to meet its recovery time objective (RTO).
Why should companies use the cloud for disaster recovery?
There are numerous reasons why businesses should use the cloud for their backup and disaster recovery needs. They are:
- Quick setups: As cloud technology solutions do not require extensive preparation to integrate with your pre-existing IT environment, they are fast to set up and can begin enriching your DR strategy sooner.
- Allows for frequent, reliable tests: The cloud's usability lets organizations conduct routine DR tests on a regular basis to ensure that strategies and tools are in working order.
- Cost-efficient: Cloud tools are usually offered according to a subscription, making them budget-friendly.
- Accessibility: Cloud platforms support entire organizations, no matter their size. By using the cloud for your backup and disaster recovery strategies, you can ensure that all areas of your business can access and recover data.
- Increased efficiency: With the cloud, you do not have to rely on legacy disaster recovery solutions. Instead, you can use more advanced cloud-based tools to keep data safe and restore networks at faster rates.
How to include the cloud in your disaster recovery initiatives
Creating a disaster recovery strategy is an achievable feat. But implementing the cloud in your DRP can be slightly tricky. Primarily, you want to follow the best practices below to ensure that you correctly deploy cloud technology solutions within your backup and disaster recovery efforts.
- Leverage cloud-based data backups: These solutions allow you to store company information and applications at secure offsite locations, effectively helping to keep data safe. With full backups in place, you can rest easy knowing that you have not lost vital information.
- Create a cloud-centric disaster recovery team: A DR team effectively functions as a group of stakeholders responsible for overseeing the disaster recovery strategy, its creation, and deployment. In the case of the cloud, have the DR team research what cloud technology solutions—from Azure to Google Cloud and beyond—would provide your business with the most value and have them factor it into the strategy.
- Monitor your cloud environment and backup and disaster recovery processes: Ensuring business continuity starts with regularly updating IT solutions and strategies. By making sure that your cloud tools and DR strategy are never out-of-date, you can be sure that your business will survive any storm.
- Invest in a cloud support services provider: Companies such as managed service providers (or MSPs) offer businesses cloud services that cover everything from backup and disaster recovery to migrations. An MSP can help keep your data safe in the cloud, while assisting you in developing a disaster recovery strategy that keeps your business secure and competitive.
Keep your data safe with cloud-based disaster recovery solutions
Disasters can hit your business at any moment. So, it is essential that you have the right processes and tools in place to keep your data safe and your networks salvageable. The cloud experts at Davenport Group specialize in backup and disaster recovery services for US businesses. Contact the team today so they can assess your assets and help you create a disaster recovery strategy that meets your business needs.
