Login / RegisterHow the cloud is changing your backup strategy
A couple years ago I wrote a post about how the cloud is the “smartest” way to protect your business and personal data. Fast forward two years and I’m still running into organizations that have yet to leverage the power of an off-site backup solution. Many organizations still rely on physical disk or tape within their own data centre to protect their critical business data.
In a recent conversation, I asked: “In the event of a disaster, and you are left with a handful of tapes, how are you going to recover your data and how much time will it take for you to get up and running?” This question was answered with a ghostlike stare and a fumbling of words which translated to “I have no idea.” The cloud is no longer a buzzword; it is a part of most solution architecture conversations and opens economical doors that once upon a time, might have been cost-prohibitive options.
When I talk about the cloud in the context of a backup strategy, I am not just talking about how and where your data and files are stored off-site. I’m talking about the ability to leverage a cloud infrastructure in the event of a disaster. Having your data on a physical backup medium is one thing, but getting your business up and running as quickly as possible is another.
Many organizations cannot justify the capital expenditures involved with introducing high-availability within the environment, which in turn creates multiple single points of failure. With the cloud, you can leverage technologies such as cloud-continuity, enabling your business to restore servers in the cloud within a matter of minutes. What this means is that you not only have access to your business critical files, but you can also seamlessly restore line of business applications, running in the cloud, in the event of a disaster.
Whether it’s a public or private cloud, your backup strategy needs to include one of the two if you want to ensure optimal return to operation times when a disaster strikes. Gone are the days of just storing a tape in a safe off-site and gone are the days where a cloud backup solution is cost-prohibitive. Whether you’re a small or medium-sized business, look to the cloud to provide you with guaranteed uptime, reliability, and scalability when it comes to your backup and disaster-recovery needs.
Martin DesRosiers is the director of managed services for Softlanding Network Solutions, an IT integration services consulting company based in Vancouver.
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