Cloud is more than a buzzword today. With cloud being in earlier stages of the technology adoption curve, many early entrants are tensed about whether cloud will provide the projected benefits. Various players are using various components of cloud as per their application, platform or infrastructure requirements. This post presents a very interesting perspective recently about using cloud infrastructure for disaster recovery (DR) / business continuity planning.
Let us consider the 4 step DR process:
1. Enablement: Ensuring that data and all the necessary applications are ready to get transferred to the DR site.
2. Testing: Test the DR plan and develop a mechanism to measure success.
3. Cutover documentation: Process of moving to the DR site if disaster strikes.
4. Returning back to the normal production infrastructure: Process to move back from DR site to normal production site.
Now, investing in a DR site is a capital expenditure that a company incurs. What if, DR mechanism needs to be implemented by SMBs or start-ups where data is critical. They won't have the luxury of incurring a capital expenditure like the fortune 500 companies. Cloud (IaaS) comes in handy to them. As long as these companies follow the above 4 steps of BCP/DR accurately by collaborating with their cloud vendors, these small companies can have DR in place with their operational expenditure and also realise significant cost savings.
Let us look at Help At Home for example. Help At Home, Inc. is a home care agency committed to enhancing the quality of life for our clients and providing a viable alternative to living in a nursing home or long-term care facility. Using a cloud solution for BCP/DR this company managed to save $140,000 in three years time frame. Also, restoring in the cloud is much quicker than other disaster recovery scenarios.
