Many people underestimate the options that cloud computing can offer. When people hear the term “cloud computing” they usually associate it exclusively with your data being stored elsewhere instead of on-premise.
However, this term is a category that includes other solutions, the main one being DRaaS.
“43% of respondents are getting started with hybrid cloud to improve their disaster recovery capabilities”, according to a recent IDG market survey.
So how does cloud disaster recovery differ from traditional disaster recovery?
1. Cost
Traditional disaster recovery systems in the form of archival storage and server backups can require expensive secondary data centres. These costs, as well as additional ongoing maintenance, means that, for SMEs on a budget, the result is an often unsuitable compromise between what’s needed and what’s affordable.
With the cloud, both upfront and operating costs of disaster recovery are lower than with traditional systems. Put simply, outsourcing your storage of data and applications results in fewer staffing, configuration and maintenance expenses.
2. Security
Data that is backed up on tapes and taken off-site by a member of staff on a regular basis, as is common with traditional disaster recovery, is at considerable risk of loss, theft or damage. For instance, the data transfer might go wrong (even if delivered safely, the failure rates of these traditional backup tapes can be as high as 40% when reading from a different drive than originally written from) or the person responsible might forget to back up the data entirely.
Shockingly, 44% of disasters are caused by hardware failure and 32% are down to human error. New technology is providing an opportunity for businesses to change that. By moving disaster recovery to the cloud, data is encrypted and backed up in a remote data centre automatically, on a regular basis. This is not only quicker than physically transferring data but more secure as the data never leaves the office, eliminating the risk of damage, loss and human error.
3. Speed
A conventional disaster recovery requires the physical transfer of data, such as a disk or a tape. This is a slow process, wasting valuable productivity time. Equally, lengthy reconfiguration of software and re-establishing operations within the business can take days or even weeks, posing dangerous levels of disruption.
With a cloud-based solution, retrieval, delivery, and replication of data are automatic. There is essentially no need to ‘recover’ data as it is already there! Also, as important data is secured and accessible off-site, employees can continue to work from alternative locations in the event of an on-site disaster.
4. Flexibility
When businesses grow, so does the amount of data they generate. This can lead to a shortage of storage space and high expenditure for additional hardware. Businesses with a limited budget might, therefore, be forced to compromise their disaster recovery and backup solution.
With the cloud, businesses are able to scale capacity to mirror their growth. This reduces the need to purchase additional hardware like new servers as data is stored externally and facilitates flexible operations without any extra cost.
Atlas Cloud offers DRaaS powered by industry-leading Zerto. It is a cost-effective managed service from the UK’s leading virtualisation specialist. In the case of an outage or disaster, Atlas will make your data and desktop environment available quickly and efficiently, providing a holistic recovery solution.
As a managed service, this enables you to focus on the operational aspects of the disaster whilst we recover your IT systems.
If you’re interested in implementing a DRaaS solution within the cloud, contact us to find out more.
