Is your business already seeing the benefits from cloud computing? Are you ready to move your disaster recovery capabilities to the cloud? This article will discuss the benefits of Disaster Recovery as a Service or DRaaS, from removing the need of a secondary site to minimizing recovery time. DRaaS can also help reduce costs, improve testing and reliability. But just because you move disaster recovery to the cloud doesn’t mean you can forget about it. We will also discuss the importance of managing defined Service Level Agreements (SLA) with your service provider.

 The impact of Hurricane Sandy on the east coast has brought disaster recovery for businesses to center stage. Disasters happen; natural disasters, human error, power surges, etc. and they can all affect your data by corrupting it or even wiping it out. If your business doesn’t have a back up available, these occurrences can prove fatal. With the popularity of the cloud many business are looking at cloud services for disaster recovery or Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) to be that back up.

Disaster Recovery as a Service can be an attractive alternative for companies that may be strapped for IT resources. The usage-based cost of cloud services is well suited for disaster recovery where the secondary infrastructure is parked and idling most of the time. Disaster Recovery as a Service can be provided as either a private cloud or a public cloud solution. Having disaster recovery sites in the cloud reduces the need for data center space (IT infrastructure and IT resources), which leads to significant cost reductions, enabling smaller companies to deploy disaster recovery options that were previously only found in larger enterprises.

But disaster recovery in the cloud isn’t a perfect solution, and its’ shortcomings and challenges need to be clearly understood before a firm ventures into it. One of those concerns is the reliability of the cloud provider. It needs to be available to serve your users while a disaster is in progress. Choosing a cloud service provider or managed service provider (MSP) that can deliver service within the agreed terms is essential, and while making the wrong choice may not land you in IT hell, it could make your life difficult for a bit.

Just as with traditional disaster recovery, there isn’t a single blueprint for disaster recovery in the cloud. Every company is unique in the applications it runs and the relevance of the applications to its’ business and the industry it’s in. Therefore, a cloud disaster recovery plan is very specific and distinctive for each organization. There are steps your business can take to avoid the pitfalls of disaster recovery in the cloud.

Don’t Take Anything for Granted

Before signing up for a disaster recovery service make sure you know exactly what is covered by the Service Level Agreements (SLAs). It’s of the utmost importance. By handing over control to the service provider, you need to be absolutely certain it is able to deliver uninterrupted service within the defined SLAs for both primary and disaster recovery instances.

A typical cloud storage SLA articulates precise levels of service and the recourse or compensation that the user is entitled to should the provider fail to provide the service as described. Another normal cloud storage SLA detail is service availability, which specifies the maximum amount of time a read request can take, how many retries are allowed and so on.

Get Clear On Costs

Many cloud-based disaster recovery services charge a regular subscription for back-up operations, and then additional fees when there’s a disaster and recovery required. That keeps the company from spending too much when the service isn’t needed, but it can cause confusion if costs aren’t thoroughly researched. The SLA should also define compensation for users if the specifications aren’t met. Cloud storage service providers usually offer a tiered service credit plan that gives users credits based on the discrepancy between SLA specifications and the actual service levels delivered.

Keep Geography & Planning in Mind

Make sure the facility housing the back-ups isn’t close enough to be affected by the same incidents as the company. Also, get an idea of the geography of the providers other customers. The better spread out their customer base is the better. It shows that conflicts might be unlikely.

Some disaster recovery vendors oversell their services, assuming that not every customer will have a disaster at the same time. To avoid potential conflicts, find out what vendors do to make sure they have enough resources for everyone.

Don’t Assume Perfect Reliability

Like all things, nothing is 100% reliable. Disaster Recovery venders should test their services before companies sign up. They should verify how those tests are conducted and how often.

Finally, the cloud greatly extends disaster recovery options, yields cost savings and enables disaster recovery methods that were not previously possible; but it does not change disaster recovery fundamentals. All businesses should have a solid disaster recovery plan. Test it and train users on it to make sure if the unthinkable happens that your company is prepared.

RiverMeadow Software Inc. develops industry-leading software that automates the migration of physical, virtual and Cloud based servers (live and as-is) into and between public, private and hybrid clouds. Our enCloud^TM SaaS is a rapid cloud onboarding and disaster recovery solution developed specifically for Carrier and Service Provider Clouds. Without agents or downtime the enCloud service dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of cloud migration and disaster recovery, enabling Service Providers to quickly, easily and cost-efficiently deliver the benefits of cloud elasticity to enterprise and SMB customers. info@rivermeadow.com.

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