Should You Make Cloud Part of Your Data Protection Strategy?

Posted November 21, 2017

In Cloud, Cyber Security, IT Planning, Microsoft Azure

Although many organizations hesitate to make the move to cloud because of security concerns, in most cases those concerns are overstated. Cloud environments can be as secure or more secure than on-premises data centers, and some, like Azure, hold certifications needed for compliance with industry standards like HIPAA.

In fact, rather than cloud being a threat to your data security, it’s far more likely that cloud offerings can help enhance your data protection strategy.

Cloud Services for Data Protection

There are many different offerings in cloud, with three of them most relevant to providing data protection:

Storage as a Service: SaaS uses cloud storage as an off-site location for data storage.
Backup as a Service: BaaS provides a mechanism for backing up data to the cloud.
Disaster Recovery as a Service: The most full-fledged cloud-based data protection strategy, DRaaS offers cloud support for the full backup and recovery process, including backup storage and virtual servers to support processing in case of an outage.

Using these cloud-based storage, backup, and disaster recovery services provides several advantages. The cloud means they scale automatically, without investing in spare capacity prior to need. Cloud providers offer automation support for backup and recovery, reducing the risk of errors and letting systems be recovered more rapidly.

The backups to the cloud can either be simple file copies or full virtual machine (VM) backups. With VM images stored in the cloud, recovery can also take place in the cloud. This is faster than transferring data across the network to bring up a secondary site. There are other considerations that need to be addressed, including security and end-user access to the cloud instance. It’s also possible to have a live backup instance running in the cloud, allowing the fastest recovery.

Choosing the right backup and data protection strategy begins with an evaluation of your needs. Not all data requires the same level of protection, and both technical and financial considerations should be factored into the decision-making process. Although using multiple backup strategies introduces some complexity to the recovery process, using a tiered approach is likely to be the overall most cost-effective solution.

Is your organization struggling to implement an effective disaster recovery strategy? Prescient Solutions’ experienced team works with clients to understand their needs and build comprehensive data protection strategies, including cloud-based disaster recovery solutions. Our monitoring services ensure that your disaster recovery solution will be invoked as soon as there’s an outage at your primary site, minimizing your downtime. Contact us to learn more about how our services can help you protect your data and your business.