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In order to effectively back up all of data and resources with cloud disaster recovery, organizations need to craft a disaster recovery (DR) plan beforehand. This way, they will know exactly what to do and what to back up, and will save a lot of time and resources for the organization. However, there are some tips and techniques that organizations need to know before embarking on the cloud disaster recovery journey.
How to Get Started with Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan
A cloud disaster recovery plan helps organizations to protect their mission-critical data and resources in the event of a disaster, ransomware, unplanned downtime or other negative events, and, of course, data loss.
Cloud adoption is growing all over the world and cloud computing is becoming a very popular option for DR. Cloud disaster recovery can include a simple file back-up in the cloud or a complete replication ready to take over production duties of the enterprise.
One thing to note when implementing a cloud disaster recovery plan is that organizations must consider a wide range of factors, which include providers, management, and security. These factors will help you decide if cloud disaster recovery is right for your business and how to effectively set up a successful cloud disaster recovery plan.
What to Do Before Setting up a Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan
A good cloud disaster recovery plan is key in controlling the costs during the time the organization suffers downtime. It is also key in quickly and efficiently restoring data.
Not having a good cloud disaster recovery plan – or a cloud disaster recovery plan altogether – is like being stranded without a GPS. You do not know where you are and how long it will take you to get back home.
One important thing to do before mapping out your cloud disaster recovery plan is to look at your DR budget. This way, you will have a clear idea of what you can afford, rather than just going for the most expensive solution in the market.
The next step is to identify and prioritize data, applications, and various services into three categories, which are: critical, important, and ancillary.
You need to find out exactly how long these applications and services can be down for before it negatively impacts the business. In other words, how much downtime can you sustain?
When devising your cloud disaster recovery plan, make sure it is possible to restore data in many situations, which may include a single system loss, multiple node failure, or a complete main data loss. This way, you will be ready for all situations and scenarios and will be able to recover data no matter what the reason may be.
Which Cloud Disaster Recovery Vendor Should You Choose?
Choosing the cloud disaster recovery vendor mainly depends on the use case and the budget of the organization. Due to high demand, many vendors in the market offer numerous features and services in their cloud disaster recovery solutions. However, it is not always necessary to choose the best big vendor in the market, as while these big vendors may offer better services and benefits – such as allowing you to choose in which region your data is stored – the difference in cost is a lot, which must be taken into consideration, especially for small businesses.
There are also smaller vendors in the market that offer lower rates than bigger vendors, but obviously, the services and benefits will vary. Again, choosing the vendor mainly depends on the use case and budget of the organization. If your budget allows, choose the best possible vendor; if you are a small business, then a small vendor is your best best.
Another thing to note is that most vendors offer subscription-type payments, which means that you can easily unsubscribe from a vendor if their services are not satisfactory or don’t suit your use case. Vendors also typically allow you to start small and pay for only the services that you need, then you can easily scale up more services if needed in the future.
What Are the Best Practices for Managing a Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan?
Crafting a cloud disaster recovery plan and choosing a vendor is not enough – maintaining a cloud disaster recovery plan is equally important, as without this, your cloud disaster recovery plan might not offer efficient DR.
First, make sure to know the location of both your physical and virtual servers and who exactly needs access to them in order to restore service. There is nothing worse than trying to figure out who will access servers at the time of recovery. This only slows down the recovery process.
Next, make sure your cloud disaster recovery plan meets your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and your Recovery Point Objective (RPO) goals. Otherwise, you will suffer a lot of unnecessary downtime – more than your business can sustain.
Lastly, you should regularly test your cloud disaster recovery plan. Rapid testing allows you to handle and resolve any issue that might come during recovery, allowing you to fix it before actual recovery of data is needed. This is also a great way of testing whether your cloud disaster recovery plan is working properly or not and whether it is secure or not.
Conclusion
In order to avoid data loss and ensure efficient recovery of data, crafting a cloud disaster recovery plan is a must. It not only ensures efficient recovery of data but also makes sure that everybody knows their roles and what processes should be followed during and after a disaster.
By following the tips and best practices mentioned in this blog post, you can craft a reliable and efficient cloud disaster recovery plan for your business that works best with your workload and is also easy on the IT budget.