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Disaster Recovery for Businesses - How Secure is Your Data?

Published on 10 September 13

Jamie 2

When it comes to mission-critical data in a business environment, the question of its security relates not only to how well protected it is from illicit outside access, but also whether or not it is stored in a manner which is resilient enough to withstand the litany of disasters which could and inevitably will befall an IT system at some point. For most businesses, the ability to recover quickly after a disaster is key to the long term survival of the organisation. A lack of continuity planning can leave even the most successful firms floundering and downtime of just a few days will usually put a permanent end to operations.

The relationship between disaster recovery and data storage is important, particularly since modern businesses have an ever-increasing reliance on digital information and dealing with the mounting pressure of bytes and bits might be too much for an internal storage system to bear. In order to ensure that disaster recovery can be achieved efficiently and cost-effectively, many companies are turning to the cloud. There are various providers and platforms available which can help business to overcome the issues of disaster recovery and promote total data security, both in a digital and physical sense. Here is a look at how cloud computing is making business continuity more affordable.

Transcending Geography

When it comes to data storage the biggest limitation of hosting everything in-house is that your business' future will be entirely dependent on the ongoing integrity of this on-site infrastructure.

Disasters of all kinds can compromise internal IT setups, with fires, floods and human error all having the ability to disrupt and destroy. Even if you have physical backups of vital data, if it is all housed in the same place then the indiscriminate nature of many catastrophes will still have the same effect.

With cloud-based data storage, a whole host of redundancies are put into action, the first of which is that you will of course have your information kept at a facility which is geographically remote from your office or place of business. Reputable cloud providers will not only have data centres that are designed to resist the worst effects of common disasters, but will also have the ability to store your information at several facilities in duplicate form so that even if one location is compromised, there will still be the opportunity to restore information from elsewhere.

Rather than keeping your eggs in one basket when it comes to data, it is better to replicate them and store them in a number of different places so that you have enough failsafe solutions to ensure that seamless continuity is achievable.

Digital Security

While natural disasters are a big concern for businesses because of their random and unpredictable nature, man-made calamities also need to be considered and are, in theory, far more likely to occur.

The data generated by businesses has innate value, both to the company itself and to third parties. Whether it is competitively relevant corporate information or the private data of customers, businesses have a legal and financial responsibility to keep it out of the hands of anyone inappropriate. Some companies which have yet to adopt the cloud may have the misconception that this type of off-site IT system is fundamentally less secure than one which is based within the bounds of the business itself, but this has often proved to be false.

While individual businesses may not have the resources at their disposal to rebuke the advances of cybercriminals, which in many cases may be persistent and perpetual, the same is not true of cloud storage providers. Data which is stored in the cloud will be protected against everything from direct incursions to DDoS, ensuring that it can be accessed by those who have the legitimate right to do so, while keeping interlopers from getting in for a rummage. In the event of a security breach, a cloud storage provider is also much more likely to actually be able to detect it and find a fix than a business in the same position.

Again it comes down to resources and the kind of expertise that is available, because a cloud provider will have a strong incentive to keep data safe and accessible, while a business may see this as one of many peripheral concerns which can only receive a portion of employee attention.

Hardware Resilience

IT outages can be catalysed by a variety of causes, which means that business continuity may be compromised without giving the business in question any means to respond. Power outages and component failures are common issues that could send uptime on a nosedive and make it impossible for employees to act productively, so turning to the cloud may be a good way of sidestepping such issues.

Reliable cloud providers will have data centres that not only have backup power supplies but are also designed with redundant components which can account for any breakdowns or malfunctions. In addition the constant monitoring of staff at such centres means that hiccups can be patched as they arise, no matter what time of the day or night. For businesses, a fault that develops outside office hours may not be noticed until the start of the next working day, by which point it may cause hours of IT problems and downtime that could be costly.

Managing Costs

It should be obvious to any savvy business that the cost of planning for continuity and recovering from disasters can easily be offset by the expenses that would be incurred if an emergency occurred and there was no kind of plan in place. However, deciding to take a hit on continuity planning as a preventative measure does not mean that a firm has to resign itself to paying through the teeth to make data more resilient and secure.

Procuring, installing, maintaining and upgrading an on-site storage solution is expensive and, until the dawn of the cloud, was a necessity. But with remotely hosted platforms which are entirely scalable and offer the chance to lower the cost of IT, firms can begin to find a more financially justifiable route to security.

That is not to say that the cloud should be seen as a simple solution to the disaster recovery needs of businesses, because it is important to think carefully before adopting this type of platform and assess how best to implement in the specific set-up of your organisation. Whatever approach is deemed to be most appropriate, the important thing to remember is that disaster recovery planning is essential and with cloud storage it can be easier to attain than you might think.

This blog is listed under Cloud Computing Community

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