Backup and disaster recovery in cloud is a relatively new concept. The concept and some of the products and services of cloud-based disaster recovery have great potential and some companies are discovering and starting to leverage cloud services for disaster recovery. It is a smart alternative for companies that may be strapped for IT resources because the cloud services cost depend upon its usage for disaster recovery.
Backup on cloud enables enterprises to store their data on the internet using a storage service provider instead of storing on a physical disk like a hard drive. Enterprise-grade cloud backup solutions are available that typically add essential features such as archiving and disaster recovery.
Having disaster recovery sites in cloud reduces the need for data center space, IT infrastructure and IT resources, leading to major cost reductions. This enables smaller companies to set up disaster recovery options as well that were earlier found only in large enterprises. With cloud computing, disaster recovery becomes much more cost-effective with significantly faster recovery times.
Another advantage of disaster recovery with cloud computing is the competency to fine-tune the costs and performance for the Disaster Recovery platform. Applications and servers that are said to be less critical in a disaster can be tuned down with less resources, however assuring that critical applications get the resources they need to keep the business running as usual through any disaster situation.
The cloud’s pay-as-you-go model benefits users who can turn resources on and off as needed, which is the same in thecase of disaster recovery services that attain resources on demand only after a failure occurs. It can reduce cost, risk and complexity by having one solution with complete protection and recovery capabilities for both physical and virtual servers; select only the machines you want to replicate and reduce the extra costs associated with replicating everything.
While backup and disaster recovery in cloud is still in its innocent stages, looks like it has a great future among both small companies and large enterprises.
Raghuram is a former Happiest Mind and this content was created and published during his tenure.
