Many businesses find themselves at the mercy of an IT system, with downtime and data loss being impossible to avoid on occasion. Companies therefore need to be endowed with the power to get back on their feet and recover from catastrophe as quickly as possible. Without business continuity measures in place, even the briefest of outages can be terminal. Experts recommend that modern businesses should turn to cloud computing for disaster recovery and business continuity and there are plenty of reasons to choose this type of solution to safeguard your firm against the threats that it will face.
How Cloud Computing Helps in Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
But why is the cloud so resilient when compared with more traditional platforms and how can it help to restore functionality when all seems lost?
Averting Disaster
While you may not be able to predict the kind of disasters which may befall your company, it is possible to prepare for them. You can start by assuming that a reliance on a single on-site solution for data storage is unsuitable.
Without the ability to back up your mission-critical information remotely, you will be leaving your company exposed. Cloud services make it easy to store data with a third-party provider, housing it in a dedicated facility far away from your business premises.
If your internal systems are compromised by fire, flood or any other disaster, natural or otherwise, the cloud will be there to pick you up and get you back on the right track.
Even if you do not want to rely solely on cloud storage it can be an advantage, giving you the opportunity to restore information quickly and efficiently after a disaster has occurred.
Assuring Business Continuity
Being able to restore data in the wake of a calamity is really half the battle, because you will also need to make sure that your business can keep operating as effectively as possible, even if access to your office is temporarily unavailable.
Cloud-based services are able to offer impressive business continuity features thanks to its remote nature. As long as you have a device with an internet connection you can access the data and apps that are house on a cloud service.
A company that plans ahead will be able to give employees the ability to work from home or while they are out and about, which means they are not entirely reliant on being able to get into the office to remain productive.
With the cloud you can even switch over responsibility for certain services to a separate site so that another team can take up the slack when one location is hit by disaster.
Affordable Precautions
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the technology is that cloud providers are able to offer disaster recovery and business continuity without charging an arm and a leg for the privilege.
The cloud is inherently flexible and scalable, so no matter what your storage and processing requirements you should find the right solution. Meanwhile, the economic approach delivered by the cloud means that even small businesses can plan for the worst and hope for the best.
It seems as though there is always a major story about businesses being affected by disasters and subsequently being unable to cope with recovery. This is unfortunate for those that are affected, but with the affordable and widely available nature of the cloud there is little excuse to leave your business unprotected.
While there may be those who are unfamiliar with the cloud, or skeptical of its benefits, you can find plenty of evidence that shows just how valuable an asset it can become.
The author, Jamie Garner, is an employee of Daisy Group, who have just launched a new range of cloud computing products.
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