Does your Disaster Recovery Plan Include the Cloud?

In years past, companies have relied on multiple data center locations to act as their main disaster recovery (DR) systems and data in case of disaster. This has generally worked well for those companies that have planned and tested their DR systems and plans appropriately.

In recent years organizations have been looking for more robust solutions for disaster recovery than storing their data in separate data centers. With the growth in popularity, functionality and capabilities of cloud technology and cloud vendors, CIO’s and IT Managers began to investigate the use of public, private and hybrid cloud systems for disaster recovery solutions.

It’s taken a while for many companies to feel comfortable with the cloud as a platform that is an integral part of their business systems, but most CIO’s and IT professionals have come to terms with the capabilities and impact of cloud technology. While secondary sites still dominate the disaster recovery planning for organizations, cloud deployment of disaster recovery solutions continues to grow. With a cloud DR deployment, companies can ensure geographic diversity for their data and cloud DR can allow a company to use multiple cloud vendors to ensure diversity of networks and systems for building a very robust disaster recovery plan.

Cloud-based disaster recovery makes a lot of sense, but there are still plenty of people worried about moving to the cloud for their DR. Many people get hung up on a few old myths (e.g., downtime doesn’t cost that much, disaster recovery means long-term contracts,  etc) that keep them from moving their disaster recovery systems and plans to the cloud while others believe their on-premise DR systems and plans will work just fine.

Cloud-based DR can provide an enormous amount of value to an organization. In the event of a disaster, a cloud-based system can help a company recover quickly and efficiently. Not only can data be stored safely and reliably in the cloud but systems and applications can be replicated in the cloud to allow the organization to bring their systems online quickly after a disaster.

Many clients that I work with have cloud-based disaster recovery systems in place or they’ve put them on their roadmap for the coming years. They’ve been able to look past the myths about the cloud and cloud-based DR and see the value. They see the benefits of the cloud for disaster recovery and have started shifting their disaster recovery planning and budget initiatives to the cloud.

From my experiences talking with CIO’s and other IT leaders, there’s quite a lot of interest in cloud technology these days. Many companies are looking at cloud-based disaster recovery for their next iteration of disaster recovery. Thankfully, people are starting to move past the concerns and myths about the cloud and are seeing it for what it is: a great platform for building agile, flexible and cost-effective solutions for their business.

What about your organization? Does your disaster recovery plan include the cloud?

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