Cloud disaster recovery

Terry Storrar at Leaseweb UK examines an era of resilience in IT Strategy

 

In all its various forms, disaster recovery (DR) has been a cornerstone of every effective IT strategy for over half a century. From its roots in the 1970s, DR technology has evolved to keep pace with changing tech trends and organisational priorities. Today, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing at a rapid rate.

 

Given the current range of disruptive and existential risks organisations face, that’s hardly surprising. What should raise eyebrows, on the other hand, are the findings of one piece of industry research which revealed only 54% of respondents had DR plans in place.

 

However, the pressure to prepare for the risks associated with cyber-attacks, data breaches and a whole host of unforeseen events is constant. Organisations looking at their options have some important choices to make to deliver the best possible blend of protection, performance and cost.

 

In most cases, the ideal solution will depend on a number of key factors, including the size of the organisation and its IT estate, the scope and experience of the IT team and, quite clearly, each unique set of cyber-security and data protection needs. 

 

To balance what can be competing issues relating to scale, flexibility and cost, many organisations are turning to cloud-based technologies. More specifically, cloud DR is a solution whereby critical data is stored virtually at a secondary location. In the event of a crisis, users can draw on these capabilities to recover data or continue technology and business operations in the cloud.

 

Cloud DR: what can it offer?

Compared to the wide range of other DR options out there, however, what advantages does cloud DR offer? There are a number of important areas to consider in the technology decision-making process:

 

1. Cost control

Disaster recovery is one of those investment decisions that doesn’t yield a direct and quantifiable return – until something bad happens. Generally speaking, it only proves its worth when the user is facing a crisis and it’s at this point when executives view it as money well spent. This mindset aside, however, cloud DR offers some important financial benefits.

 

As many IT leaders will be already aware, cloud-based technologies help avoid the upfront, capital costs associated with traditional tech. And because users only pay for the resources they consume on a pay-as-you-go basis, it can work out as a much more cost-effective model than often seen with over-specified traditional solutions.

 

2. Scale and flexibility

The scale and flexibility of cloud-based extends to more than cost – it’s also about tailoring DR technology choices around storage, network configuration and the use of virtualisation. The point here is that cloud DR promotes flexible customisation at a granular level so users can create a strategy that meets their unique needs.

 

This also proves its worth when organisations find they need to scale DR capabilities – up or down – to meet changing needs. Across the entire cloud industry ecosystem, this has become one of its most important and compelling propositions and in the DR context, it helps overcome the inefficient use of resources associated with traditional infrastructure strategies.

 

3. Geo-redundancy

Geo-redundancy is the ability to replicate data at multiple geographic locations – a capability that, in the event of a disaster – can prove invaluable as it enables the user to recover data, quickly minimise downtime and meet vital business continuity objectives. As a result, geo-redundancy is fast becoming an important factor in the design of DR solutions, and the cloud is a huge and proven enabler.

 

4. Multi-cloud resilience

Incorporating multiple cloud services for disaster recovery, often referred to as multi-cloud strategy, further enhances an organisation’s resilience. It offers diversification that minimises dependency on a single provider, reducing the impact if one cloud service suffers an outage. Multi-cloud users can distribute their data and services across multiple providers, ensuring operational continuity and effectively mitigating risks.

 

Additionally, a multi-cloud strategy allows businesses to tap into the unique advantages of different providers, aligning technology better with specific requirements or regional regulations, enabling them to tailor a DR strategy that fully meets its unique needs.

 

5. Avoiding the pitfalls of legacy technology

An often-overlooked aspect of DR planning is the management of legacy software and systems. Old and outdated technologies can pose significant challenges, not least due to the potential for compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities. In contrast, cloud DR solutions often offer options for incorporating legacy systems, either by facilitating their migration to the cloud or by providing virtualised environments where these systems can operate securely and effectively.

 

Looking ahead, the growing adoption of AI-powered technologies is also bringing new and exciting innovations to the cloud DR market. In particular, AI will enable DR to become more pre-emptive in its capabilities, to learn from past incidents and predict future threats (and how to respond to them) with more accuracy.

 

For those organisations that are focused on creating the most effective DR strategies, cloud-based solutions will continue to offer an effective route to building confidence to face today’s business and technology risks head-on.

 

---

 

Terry Storrar is Managing Director at Leaseweb UK

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com