Traditional on-premises disaster recovery (DR) entails selecting a DR site, leasing data center space, deploying network and compute infrastructure, and configuring and maintaining the DR solution itself. In this scenario, disaster recovery tasks are typically performed manually; these tasks are time consuming, resource intensive, and error prone.
Disaster recovery in the Cloud offers a complete paradigm shift. Infrastructure, from the data center all the way up to compute and networking, are managed by the Cloud provider. The DR solution then runs on top of that managed Cloud infrastructure, thereby eliminating much of the vast overhead associated with traditional DR solutions.
Cloud computing services are provided on a pay-as-you-go basis and can be accessed from anywhere and anytime. Furthermore, disaster recovery in the Cloud can be automated, making push-button disaster recovery a reality.
Why the Slow Workload Recovery from your Current DR Plan?
With a traditional DR plan, a lot of the work needed for managing the process is manual, requiring the right experts and people to understand the process and execute it. A manual DR process can slow down your workload recovery for many reasons, including:
1. Lack of DR Environment Testing
Traditional on-premises disaster recovery is complex to manage and monitor, with support and maintenance of the physical DR site being costly and time consuming. Testing is often deemed high-risk, because it entails the execution of manual tasks and potentially taking production workloads offline. These factors contribute to a lack of DR testing and an organizational void of understanding in how a failover (switching your workload from the primary site to the DR site) needs to be performed, should an actual disaster occur. Therefore, when a failover is eventually required, it could be the first time that recovery processes required by the failover operation have been executed, which leads to extended failover execution times, potential mistakes, and more downtime as a result.
With Cloud disaster recovery, testing can be done on-demand without affecting your production environment, allowing DR solutions to be tested in advance. This enables the confident execution of failover operations, with minimal downtime.
2. Lack of Automation
With traditional DR, a lot of the work that goes into doing a failover test or an actual failover is manual. This creates the need for staff to be on-hand, that are familiar with recovery processes and are available to execute them on-demand and quickly. Most organizations cannot afford to have their systems offline for the hours (or even days) a manual recovery takes, due to the revenue losses and negative impact to brand reputation that downtime can cause.
Cloud DR provides a cost-effective, performant solution that can serve as the foundation for your business continuity requirements, all while reducing the overall risk of your DR posture. With Cloud DR, failover processes can be automated, minimizing the risks inherent to performing them manually.
3. Expensive Costs for Traditional Recovery
With traditional DR, your organization essentially requires a duplicate environment of your entire production infrastructure, or that production workload, to recover data effectively. Expensive software licenses may also need to be procured, depending on your DR requirements. Unfortunately, not every organization can afford the high costs associated with infrastructure and licensing needed to achieve a reliable traditional DR solution.
Therefore some organizations might spend less for a solution that can’t perform as quickly as production but is still operational but may not be sufficient and result in lost data, excessive downtime, and reduced revenue. With Cloud DR, you have fast failover operations, data loss protection, and minimized time-intensive and risky manual processes during recovery, all while lowering your disaster recovery infrastructure costs.
Creating, testing, and updating a DR plan can prepare your organization for an unexpected disaster and ensure your business’s safety and continuity. A comprehensive DR plan should consider your infrastructure, potential threats and vulnerabilities, most critical assets, and the order of their recovery. The integration of Cloud computing services in disaster recovery allows you to design a DR plan and automate each step of the recovery process while ensuring fast, effective, and cost-conscious service. Moreover, the Cloud provider provides 24/7 support and maintenance of the infrastructure underlying your Cloud resources, such as the physical servers that host your Cloud virtual machines, which will result in your resources having more time to focus on functions integral to your core business.
Enhance Your Disaster Recovery Strategy with the AllCloud DR Quickstart Program
AllCloud’s 4-week Disaster Recovery Evaluation is a quick-start program teaming up with AWS CloudEndure. During the program, our AWS experts focus on ensuring your organization is getting optimal value from your existing infrastructure and has the building blocks for a successful Cloud-based disaster recovery strategy. Contact our experts to get started today!