It is time to put your IT solutions front and center in your planning. In our neck of the woods, we often encounter natural disasters and we always need to be prepared to secure our business operations. Few types of preparation play a more critical role in business than your network security. Your customers count on you. You want to make sure you are there for them.
Business continuity and disaster recovery have found themselves at the forefront of the minds of business owners because we have all seen how quickly things can go wrong. From the Solar Winds hack to the shutting down of the Colonial pipeline, many organizations realize that no business can assume they are safe from cybersecurity threats. One survey from Gartner found that 76 percent of respondents had at least one incident in the past two years that required an IT disaster recovery plan.
In addition to the threat of hacking, in the last few years, with the global shutdowns that have come with the pandemic, businesses have realized the importance of having a plan to quickly transition all of their files and data to remote access in the event of an emergency. Your information security plan must offer you secure backup regardless of the reason that you need to access your data.
For many businesses interested in improving their plans for secure IT, cloud disaster recovery has become an increasingly popular option. With remote access to backed-up data and files, using the cloud environment has become an excellent solution to security.
Let’s explore what you should know about the value of cloud disaster recovery and what differentiates it from other ways of preserving your data.
What Is Cloud Disaster Recovery and How Does It Work?
Disaster recovery plays a critical role in protecting a business. The State of Enterprise Data Resiliency and Disaster Recovery Report has found that 74.9% of respondents had increased their disaster recovery budgets over the last year. This component of IT management ensures that businesses have access to their critical information and data even if something hinders their ability to access their main network.
When you take this disaster recovery online with the cloud, you have a system that protects all the components of your information. Rather than loading servers with software, the cloud-based system copies the entire server, which includes any applications and data. Since this system of restoration does not include the need for any special hardware, this entire process happens significantly faster.
The data for the cloud recovery system is stored in an off-site data center. The businesses using backups as a part of their IT solutions can then access the information at any time, from anywhere.
Information security: Cloud vs. traditional disaster recovery
When it comes to IT management, many businesses find themselves looking at two main options for their disaster recovery options. On one hand, they have traditional disaster recovery systems. The other option generally lies in cloud-based disaster recovery centers.
One of the first differences that people encounter lies with the requirements. Traditional systems require considerably more hardware that stores the backups. This can quickly become expensive and burdensome. The traditional systems also require greater logistics and coordination to manage backups in multiple locations.
Cloud disaster recovery, however, does not have these requirements and can be managed fully remotely, which can make the process more straightforward and manageable. When you are plagued with natural disasters like we are in the Gulf Coast, this is a particularly effective option.
Traditional systems, on the other hand, are dependent upon server capacity and having a strong connection and sufficient bandwidth that will allow the business to remotely access the backup center. This can create additional complexities that can present challenges for many organizations.
With the cloud disaster recovery system, businesses only pay for the precise services they use. This pay-as-you-go system can help many organizations save money. You also have access to geo-dispersed backups, which ensure your information is safe. Even if one data center goes down, your backups will keep occurring and maintain your security.
Additionally, since the information is stored on the cloud, people can access it from nearly anywhere and at any time. This added convenience makes it easier to access and thereby improves your uptime and recovery time when you do find yourself calling upon the secured data.
IT Solutions: How to Build a Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan
Your cloud disaster recovery strategy needs to address these items:
- Make sure you have a thorough understanding of your infrastructure. You want to have the capacity to create a map of your servers so that you know where things are and what you will want to back up.
- Know where your priorities lie with your disaster recovery. Knowing the level of protection you need will help you better evaluate the type of package you want to invest in. During the process of prioritization, you want to look at how much your business will be impacted by losing files for a particular length of time.
- Build your plan based on the critical nature of your servers. Use the backup plan that will align well with your business goals and priorities.
- Calculate your recovery point objective (RPO). What is the maximum amount of data you can afford to lose?
- Calculate your recovery time objective (RTO). How much time can you be down and still recover successfully?
Learn more about AGJ’s cloud service offerings
How AGJ Can Help You as Your Managed Services Provider
When it comes to keeping your business secure and making sure you are prepared for the threats of the future, you need a disaster recovery plan that will help you move forward with confidence. At AGJ, we have the experience and expertise you need to set up the right recovery plan for your business. Let us help you, so you can be there for your customers.
CONTACT US NOW to get a complimentary cloud computing assessment.
Working in tandem with your team, we will provide a cloud-agnostic, independent report that considers the needs of your organization against currently available cloud offerings. We will provide impartial solution recommendations based on your performance, availability, manageability, and cost goals.
