Importance of an Effective Cloud Disaster Recovery Strategy

Importance_of_an_Effective

What Is Cloud Disaster Recovery?

To understand cloud disaster recovery, one must know what disaster recovery is. As the name suggests, it has everything to do with the aftermath of a disaster. Ideally, disaster recovery is the process where organizations prepare for disasters and are fully equipped to recover from them. Therefore, it is undoubtedly an integral part of any business and helps maintain business continuity for any organization. In addition, disaster recovery is focused on securing an organization’s assets. Hence, cloud disaster recovery plans are a group of procedures and measures that ensure an organization is functioning smoothly with the help of dedicated cloud service providers.

Understanding Why Cloud Disaster Recovery Is Important

Business continuity is an essential component for every functioning organization. A business that has a break in functioning due to a disaster can hamper almost everything. This is precisely where a cloud disaster recovery plan comes into action. Using the amount of flexibility available, cloud technologies vastly aid in efficient disaster recovery, irrespective of the intensity of the workloads. With data being stored in a secured cloud environment that is curated to provide high availability, managing and setting it up isn’t a humongous task.

The possibility of your business being affected by a disaster is never too small, and with the current rise in cyber-crime, is it worth the chance? Disaster recovery in cloud computing can help your business deal with ransomware, cyber-attacks, and other such disasters. These are threats that have the potential to completely destroy your files and present your business with a painful downtime.

Most organizations know the value and importance of having an effective disaster recovery plan, and if you don’t have one in place yet, you already have a late start. But it’s never too late to implement effective disaster recovery strategies and benefit from cloud-based solutions.

Understanding cloud disaster recovery benefits:
  • Offers great flexibility
  • Drastically reduces downtime
  • Provides reliability
  • Ensures simplification and efficiency
  • Easy to deploy
  • Highly cost-effective


How to Formulate an Effective Cloud Disaster Recovery Strategy?

With the help of cloud computing, disaster recovery has ideally become just another task that can be taken care of using some simple steps. Before formulating a cloud disaster recovery plan, it is suggested that you look into all the possible threats that might affect your organization. In the event of a disaster, you can figure out how much money will be needed and where your infrastructure is at risk by taking into account all the risk factors.

To effectively formulate a cloud disaster recovery strategy, it is best to follow the steps below:
  • Outline your possible risks and understand your infrastructure
  • Conduct a business impact analysis
  • Parameters of assessment:
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
  • Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
  • Establish a disaster recovery plan based on your RTO and RPO
  • Choose the right cloud partner
  • Focus on building your cloud disaster recovery infrastructure
  • Standardize your disaster recovery plan on paper
  • Constantly test your disaster recovery plan

As data security becomes more important, the global disaster recovery cloud services market has increased dramatically. It is predicted to grow from $4.35 billion in 2019 to $23.3 billion in 2027.88% of enterprises say the public cloud will play a role in their backup plans in the future.


Factors to Weigh While Assessing the Ideal Cloud Partner

Strategic cloud disaster recovery assessment and planning is something that not everyone can take up.Also, why stress on this when you can engagewith a provider with great experience. The right cloud partner should ideally help you conduct a thorough business impact analysis to aid in the familiarization of the potential operational limitations you would encounter during a disaster.

Hence, choosing a cloud partner who is intelligent, pragmatic, and solution-oriented should be of the utmost priority. Such a cloud partner will have all the necessary tools and help you carry out a better assessment of the potential danger to your data.

While formulating the cloud disaster recovery plan, keep in mind:
  • Design your strategy according to your recovery goals
  • Implement control measures
  • Prepare your software
  • Implement your security and compliance controls
  • Use cloud storage as your daily backup routine


Conclusion

In today’s age and time, disaster recovery should be a priority for every organization. While some calamities are unforeseen and highly impactful, successful organizations are always the ones that are capable of getting back up, and this is exactly where a cloud disaster recovery plan comes into action. Once you have assessed every aspect of your recovery strategy, you’d only have to pick the service provider who’s capable of implementing your requirements seamlessly. Once you have all these points in place, your business will be well equipped for almost any possible disaster.

Make ‘business continuity’ ‘business as usual’ and imbed it into your management routines as decisions are made, instead of an afterthought check off the box exercise later.”

Bobbie Garrett


FAQ

 

What Is a Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan?

Cloud-based recovery plans help the organization recover its critical systems after a disaster and also provideremote access to your system using a secure virtual environment.

 

Why Is a Cloud Disaster Recovery Plan Essential?

When an organization does not have an effective disaster recovery plan, it puts the organization at risk of high financial costs, reputation loss, and an even greater risk of losing clients and customers.


What Are the Benefits of Having an Effective Cloud Disaster Recovery Strategy?

Using a cloud disaster recovery strategy, organizations can benefit from:
  • Cost efficiency
  • ncrease employee productivity
  • Greater customer retention

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At SUCCESS Computer Consulting, we believe every company can succeed. We focus on delivering technology solutions smarter and faster, so you can focus on what you do best. We work with business leaders to ensure technology delivers the best value and is utilized in the most effective way for the success of their businesses today and in the future.

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Available today, the new capabilities in Darktrace/Cloud include: Comprehensive visibility and architecture modelingfor insights into the constantly changing nature of cloud environments. This visibility is constructed dynamically from configuration, network, users and identity and access management (IAM) data. Darktrace establishes patterns of life for cloud resources, identities, and services to understand who has access to what and how. This is critical for detecting anomalies and unknown threats. Universal attack path modelingprovides a dynamic view of where attackers may look to move next. Darktrace brings together real-time cloud data and a deep understanding of your cloud environment with a platform approach that provides insights about risks from other covered areas of the business (e.g., network, email) to highlight potential attack paths and prioritize important assets to secure. Unique real-time and cloud-native threat detection and responsethat provides a dynamic view of known and novel threats within the cloud. Darktrace combines deep cloud attack path knowledge with real-time anomaly and threat detection through cloud-native autonomous response actions, such as detaching a policy from a user or removing a workload from a security group. Prioritized cloud posture managementthat starts by examining cloud configurations against common compliance frameworks. Where misconfigurations are detected, Darktrace provides a prioritized view of what to fix first, based on a risk profile generated from security and business context. Guided steps can be provided to help teams proactively address these before they become a significant issue. Cost discoveryto provide a better understanding of cloud resource allocation. This helps teams contextualize their cloud resources according to security and business priorities. Communication and collaboration capabilitiesto streamline workflows between security teams and DevOps teams. Tickets can be created on demand, teams can communicate directly via messaging platforms, and alerts and anomaly detections can be sent to Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) or Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) products and the Darktrace Mobile app so they can be alerted on the go. Flexible deployment optionsinclude an agentless deployment by default so organizations can be up and running in minutes. Teams can use the dynamic architectural view and risk context to decide where to deploy agents for enhanced real-time actions and deeper inspection. Sykes Cottages, a cloud-native travel agency platform in the UK, has experienced significant growth in the last five years and has relied on the cloud to help them scale throughout this period. "When it comes to cybersecurity, having visibility and an understanding of what you've got and your risks is critical. If I don't know it's there, I can't protect it," said Jonny Mattey, Head of Cybersecurity, Sykes Cottages. "Having a holistic, live view of our cloud environment enables us to work pragmatically and use AI to cut down management time so that we can address security risks and improve our resilience." The new Darktrace/Cloud solution is now available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) through the AWS Marketplace, a curated digital catalog that makes it easy for customers to find, buy, deploy, and manage the third-party software they need to build solutions and run their business. Darktrace and AWS have been collaborating since 2017 to help organizations secure their AWS environments. Darktrace protects AWS environments for organizations around the world including Sunwest Bank and ProPhase Labs. Darktrace is an AWS Security Competency Partner and is part of the AWS ISV Accelerate program. "Security is job zero at AWS," said Paddy Fitzpatrick, Director – Independent Software Vendors, UK & Ireland at Amazon Web Services. "As the threat landscape continues to evolve, the availability of AI-based tools like Darktrace/Cloud on the AWS Marketplace will help customers to gain increased visibility, and respond more effectively to security risks and threats." Darktrace first extended its Cyber AI capabilities to cloud environments in 2016, applying its world class algorithms to granular network traffic. Darktrace/Cloud was recently named Cloud Security Product of the Year for Large Enterprises by Computing Magazine in its 2023 Cloud Excellence Awards. ABOUT DARKTRACE Darktrace (DARK.L), a global leader in cyber security artificial intelligence, is on a mission to free the world of cyber disruption. Breakthrough innovations in our Cyber AI Research Center in Cambridge, UK have resulted in over 160 patents filed and research published to contribute to the cyber security community. Rather than study attacks, Darktrace's technology continuously learns and updates its knowledge of 'you' and applies that understanding to optimize your state of optimal cyber security. Darktrace is delivering the first ever Cyber AI Loop, fueling a continuous end-to-end security capability that can autonomously spot and respond to novel in-progress threats within seconds. Darktrace employs over 2,200 people around the world and protects approximately 8,900 customers globally from advanced cyber threats. Darktrace was named one of TIME magazine's 'Most Influential Companies' in 2021. To learn more, visit http://www.darktrace.com.

Read More

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Business Wire | November 03, 2023

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Read More

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Avanade | November 06, 2023

Avanade launches an AI-based platform, "Avanade Cloud Impact", to unlock up to 50% of cloud spend. The platform generates insights on IT estate risks and opportunities by analyzing cloud consumption patterns. Avanade offers a free cost optimization workshop to clients interested in adopting an AI-first approach. Avanade, a leading Microsoft solutions provider, launches a new platform, ‘Avanade Cloud Impact’, designed to help businesses establish an AI-ready digital core and unlock funding for innovation. The platform uses AI and machine learning to analyze industry, business, and technical data sources, providing tailored modernization insights for companies on their cloud journey. It has already saved Avanade clients up to 50% of their cloud spend. The platform works by analyzing cloud consumption patterns and comparing them with various data sources to generate insights on a wide range of risks and opportunities across an IT estate. These insights can include modernization recommendations and cost-benefit analyses. Avanade Cloud Impact can deliver information about data egress cost spikes, application redesign options, and achieve up to 50% cloud cost savings while quantifying sustainability benefits, all without the need to make any code changes. Andrew Stahel, Regional Applications and Infrastructure Solution Area Lead, Avanade Australia, emphasized the importance of AI in today's business environment and the need for businesses to rethink what the cloud can do for them. He expressed excitement about the potential of the Avanade Cloud Impact platform to help Australian businesses harness the true potential of AI by strengthening their digital core. Merrie Williamson, CVP, Azure Infrastructure, Digital and App Innovation, Microsoft, also expressed enthusiasm about the new platform and its ability to provide deep insights and recommendations that accelerate value for Azure customers. While Avanade's new platform, ‘Avanade Cloud Impact’, promises to unlock up to 50% of a business's cloud spend and provide tailored modernization insights, it does come with potential drawbacks. The platform's effectiveness is heavily dependent on the quality and accuracy of the data it analyzes, and incorrect or incomplete data could lead to misleading insights. Additionally, there may be a learning curve associated with understanding and effectively utilizing the insights generated by the platform. Furthermore, the platform might not be suitable for all types of businesses, particularly those with unique or complex cloud consumption patterns. However, the benefits of the platform are significant. It can lead to substantial cost savings and help businesses make informed decisions on their cloud journey. The use of AI and machine learning allows the platform to handle large amounts of data and provide comprehensive insights. Plus, Avanade offers a free introductory cost optimization workshop, providing additional support for businesses adopting an AI-first approach.

Read More

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