The Cloud is today the most trusted place to store data, but if a crisis strikes and cloud-hosted data is lost, what can an organization do? A well-thought-out CDR approach can help it avoid such an eventuality. Here, we discuss the best practices to bear in mind when devising a CDR strategy for 2022 to ensure round-the-clock integrity of your data.
Remember when OVHCloud was severely ravaged by fire last year? It took nearly six hours to put out the fire since all four of the company’s data centers were located closely. This disaster significantly impacted cloud services and companies whose entire assets were hosted on OVHCloud servers.
Of course, incidents like these haven’t stopped companies from moving workloads to the cloud. In fact, companies’ cloud appetite has risen dramatically in the previous two years. As more of them utilize public cloud services, hasty advancements and lax security practices have increased data breaches, reported LaminarOpens a new window .
The survey highlighted that more than 50% of security specialists accepted that their company faced an attack in 2020 or 2021. Out of those who fell prey to the attacks, 58% said they couldn’t recover lost data.
Source: LaminarOpens a new window
Know More About Cloud Disaster Recovery & Best Strategies to Adopt
Cloud is often misconstrued as unbeatable due to its virtual property. This is a common misbelief, though. Data is still kept on physical servers even when accessible over the cloud. The same is true for virtual machines. Server failure, natural disasters, or even cyberattacks have caused threats to the security of data stored in the cloud.
So, what should be done to ensure data safety in the cloud?
Here comes the role of a cloud disaster recovery strategy. Unfortunately, data can be lost forever if a well-thought-out CDR strategy is not in place. To build a fallacy-free cloud environment, the companies should immediately activate a CDR plan and adopt the strategies mentioned below while drafting it. Before that, know what CDR is.
See More: 94% of Critical Cloud Assets Can Be Compromised in Just Four Steps: Report
What is cloud disaster recovery?
A disaster is an occurrence that harms the organization’s business continuity or finances. Technical faults or malicious human activities to attack/hack a system can cause a system to fail. They are severe enough to halt or interrupt key company activities for an extended time.
The term “disaster recovery†refers to the process of preparing for and recovering after a disaster.Â
The purpose of disaster recovery strategies is to allow an organization to restore access to vital systems and IT infrastructure post-disaster quickly. Companies generally conduct an in-depth review of their systems and produce a formal document (DR) to obey in moments of emergency to prepare for this.Â
Thus, cloud disaster recovery plans are practices and strategies that assure an organization’s seamless operation, aided by the usage of specific cloud provider capabilities.
Top cloud disaster recovery strategies to implement right away
The dependence on physical infrastructure is reduced with cloud disaster recovery. Outsourcing disaster recovery responsibilities streamlines an organization’s operations. Moreover, a business would not need to adapt or maintain its physical infrastructure for disaster recovery at a remote location. One of the benefits of cloud-based systems is automation, which is one way to decrease human error.Â
Furthermore, cloud disaster recovery is less complicated than disaster recovery on-premise. So, companies may combine and permute numerous recovery strategies without sacrificing the services they demand. Let’s see the best CDR strategies to follow in 2022.
Know infrastructure, mark risks
Before going forward, do the homework. Evaluate the company’s infrastructure, and assess its assets as well as data. This will bring out the possible threats that can damage the company’s vital assets and data. After identifying the threats, draw ways to mitigate the contemplated risks. Once the list of risks is in place, it is time to build an efficient disaster recovery plan that can help to protect the network from potential risks and vulnerabilities and help with the best ways to address these challenges. Risk evaluation is a constant process rather than a one-time phenomenon. If a corporation has a dynamic infrastructure, risk assessment rules must be updated frequently.
Conduct a business analysis
Risks stem in a variety of shapes and sizes. It might be a cloud data breach caused by someone holding encryption keys captive, an unanticipated data loss, or an incident that makes a crucial app inaccessible. A business impact analysis, or BIA, is critical for any effective cloud disaster recovery plan. It aims to identify potential implications if any of the company’s operations are disrupted. The business impact analysis emphasizes the effects of particular workflows being disrupted rather than the causes and chances of their breakdown.
Sketch a DR plan based on RPO and RTO
While drafting the company’s disaster recovery strategy, RPO (recovery point objective) and RTO (recovery time objective) should be the essential parameters. Both of these practices help organizations continue their business affairs without interruption.
While RPO looks after appraising how much data is okay to lose for a company if a failure occurs, RTO, on the other hand, determines how quickly a company can resume operations or rebound from a crisis. RTO also ensures disaster mitigation and recovery practices are in check. Therefore, having RTO and RPO can facilitate choosing an incident management approach that can help companies achieve recovery objectives.
Choose a robust cloud backup solution
Robust cloud-based backup solutions can help organizations avoid paying a ransom to access encrypted data and limit data loss. Each backup solution transfers sensitive data from PCs to remote cloud storage servers that may be accessed through the Internet from anywhere. Companies can rely on a cloud backup solution to keep their data secure and available at all times.
See More: Five Best Cloud Backup Services for Businesses in 2022
Embrace the right cloud partner
Post chalking out a practical and workable disaster strategy, it is time to choose a reputable cloud service provider to assist with the rollout. If there is a need for complete replication in the cloud, consider a few factors before choosing the right partner that suits your business needs. These factors are – reliability, usability, simple setup and recovery solutions, security, and recovery time.
Companies can also go for DRaaS (disaster recovery as a service) offered by medium or small-scale cloud companies. DRaaS becomes a feasible alternative when enterprises lack in-house disaster recovery specialists.Â
Last, but not the least
Once a CDR strategy is built and documented, companies should test it regularly to determine its effectiveness. Tests can evaluate if critical data and apps can be retrieved in a time range that does not impact crucial business activities. Auditing a cloud-based disaster recovery plan can help companies spot flaws or discrepancies in the present disaster recovery strategy in a cloud computing environment. Following the test run, determine what the CDR strategy is missing and how it should be adjusted to achieve the desired outcomes and resolve any difficulties.
Has your organization implemented a CDR strategy yet? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!