Cloud computing gives businesses an opportunity to rethink mission critical IT practices, but it may be a particularly good fit to create a disaster recovery strategy for your organization.
Companies often make the mistake of assuming that data backups are the same thing as disaster recovery, and that they don’t have to take any special measures for disaster recovery because all their information is stored in the cloud.
That is a mistake.
Disaster recovery is a solution for recovering data in case of information breach or another adversary attack, as well as recovering all the hardware lost in the disaster, and returning everything to a normal state so that you can resume your operations.
In case of a disaster, whether your business is able to continue its operations depend on the ability to replicate your data and systems. The recovery plan will highlight how to prepare for a disaster event, what the IT team will be responsible for, and what company-wide measures should be taken to ensure operations can be resumed.
Disaster recovery will also feature the steps for adapting to a disaster event with a road map that restores data and systems while minimizing negative impact on the business. With the average cost of downtime estimated to be $336,000 an hour, it’s no wonder companies are giving more consideration to disaster recovery plans.
Also, apart from the cost associated with downtime and halt of operations, businesses may also lose reputation and customers because of the expectation of its services being available 24/7/365.
Keeping your head above water
The best way to prevent disaster or ensure recovery in post-disaster situations is to take advantage of cloud solutions that make it their jobs to help you recover and minimize the negative impact of a disaster on your company operations. Data center services from RedIT demonstrate that a single company can provide businesses cloud solutions as well as data recovery plans. The company says that having a well-thought-out disaster recovery plan can be the difference between total failure in face of an adverse event or business-as-usual.
Disaster recovery means different things to different businesses: from hybrid cloud backups to availability of colocations. And the needs of every business are different. However, the ultimate goal is to ensure operations resume as normal when an unexpected event occurs – and there are several ways to get there.
Reliable solution providers help businesses determine the best strategy based on their risk tolerance whether a disaster recovery plan is being considered for in-house infrastructure, colocation or the entire cloud. Some companies can also save you the expense of additional equipment, by delivering a disaster recovery plan through their managed cloud services.
A rule of thumb is to place your disaster recovery plan in the hands of those who have partnered with digital realty to maximize the potential geographic discovery by providing access to premium disaster recovery options without forcing businesses to work with more than one provider.
Don’t wait till an even occurs to start thinking about disaster recover solutions, because it may be too late for your business to recover. Those companies that have prepared for man-made and natural disasters can have a piece of mind, and continue to provide services to their companies, and this ‘business as usual’ provides a competitive edge.
