Benefits of Disaster Recovery in Cloud Computing

At just a fraction of the cost that you would have to incur with conventional disaster recovery, cloud computing is also able to offer you multi-site availability even faster recovery times.

What is different in the Cloud?

On the basis of virtualization, Cloud computing takes an entirely different avenue on disaster recovery. The operating system, patches, data applications and even the server are all rounded up and fixed into a virtual server or a single software bundle. In a matter of minutes the entire virtual server can be backed-up or copied to an offsite data center or can also be spun up on a virtual host.

The operating system, applications, data and any patches can be transferred from one data center to another without having to inflict the burden that comes with having to reload each server component. This is possible because the virtual server does not rely on hardware. This can drastically reduce the recovery time since unlike the conventional counterparts that require to be loaded with the OS (Operating System), an application software and then have to be patched to the last configuration before the data can be restored the cloud based option make it faster and easier since all the steps can be overlooked without affecting the integrity of the restoration.

Cloud computing makes disaster recovery much easier and cost effective and the recovery times are much faster. This allows for better outcome in a shorter time frame hence its preference as the ideal option for better business continuity.

With online backup, there is no need for tape backup. The cost effectiveness that is afforded by online back up across the data centers rules out the need for tape backup. It is difficult to justify tape backup given the effectiveness and of cost and procedure as well as online speed recovery.

With Cloud, cold site recovery of data after a disaster is quite antiquated. On the other hand, for the case of the warm sites, the data recovery process is not only fast but also impressively cost effective. The backup of the critical servers can be spun in a matter of minutes whether on a shared or private host platform. This means that the site can be up and running before you incur any significant loses.

Hot site DR is also made very attractive with the availability of SAN-to-SAN (Storage Area Network) which makes it a more cost effective method. With Cloud, one has the ability to enjoy the capability of DR on a multi-site availability without having to incur the cost or the testing challenges that are experienced in the conventional methods. SAN replication offers a variety of incentives to potential users that include the ability of one being able to return to the production site once the Disaster event or the DR test has come to pass as well as the fact that it provide rapid failover.

The ability to fine tune the performance and costs of the DR platform is one the added benefits that come with disaster recovery on cloud computing. This allows the most critical application to get the resources that are key to their running and that of the business through the disaster while tuning down the resources on the applications and servers that are not deemed very critical to the running of the business.

Critical path in DR-Networking

On the onset of the wave of changes that has been raked in to the IT disaster recover through Cloud computing, the critical aspect has been the replication of networks. The critical path of a DR operation now primarily relies on the being able to replicate the reproduction network that is at the DR site which includes the firewall rules, configuration of the VLAN as well as the IP address mapping.

In a bid to get an edge over the market, data center that are smart are offering a full array of disaster recovery services that are aimed at replicating the servers within and across the data centers as well as also replicate network configurations which is aimed at recovering the network as fast as the cloud servers that have been backed up. This ensures continuity of all aspects of the business as you await the wave to pass.