CLOUD COMPUTING AND ITS BENEFITS

CLOUD COMPUTING AND ITS BENEFITS

The Cloud helps to reduce investment in technological infrastructures, optimizes flexibility, mobility, etc. In short, Cloud Computing simplifies use by helping to get rid of the constrains of a traditional computer tool (deploying and updating software, storage space, accessibility of data, etc.). Yet in concrete terms, what exactly is Cloud Computing? Before discussing the top 5 advantages, let’s take a quick look in our good old encyclopedia.

Definition of Cloud Computing:

Cloud Computing a remote service platform used to store information and execute applications. It lets you run services and data online by request via a simple internet connection.

The idea is to forward processing to an externalized infrastructure. It becomes useless to install software locally onto each user terminal or each company server. The features that are useful to a company can all be found online, and computing services only take care of setting up and administering these solutions.

Accessibility and Mobility:

One of the greatest advantages of the Cloud is the accessibility of resources (data, applications, etc.). Indeed, users can access their tools from anywhere, at any time and from any type of device (ATAWAD logic) as long as they are connected to the internet.

Since the data and applications are no longer stored locally, data will always be available, even if you lose access to your desktop or laptop computer. Also, you won’t lose any data in the event of a failure of your serves since the Cloud service provide will take care of backing them up.

Some of the primary services that have found success in the Cloud include email/calendar services (Office 365, Google Suite, Zebra), ERP/CRMs (Salesforce, Sage, Oracle), IaaS services (Infrastructure as a Service, including Amazon Web Service and Microsoft Azure).

Benefits of Cloud Mobility

Cloud technology has pretty much taken the business IT world by storm the last several years (no pun intended). And one of the greatest overall advantages of shifting your business IT approach into the cloud is the powerful mobility that cloud computing provides. But you may not yet realize just how much cloud mobility can change your approach to work.

Greater connectivity

One of the best benefits of cloud mobility is the ability to connect better with other people and information. Cloud technology allows people to access mission-critical data and software from anywhere, anytime.

Any program or document stored in the cloud becomes instantly accessible from anywhere with an internet device. Plus, changes to documents are available in real time to any other employee or client who has the proper system credentials to access them.

BYOD convenience

Another of the often-discussed benefits of cloud computing is the ability to bring your own device (BYOD). The cloud turns any and all of your internet-accessible devices into potential work devices.

Work from a tablet for a presentation. Edit documents from your smartphone last minute before that sales call. Or, save your company big money by allowing employees to work from their own computers and other devices full-time rather than providing costly devices in-house.

Automated updates

Tired of those annoying updates that keep your company IT manager running around crazy? Or worse, a lack of update strategy might have your employees working via programs and systems that have massive vulnerabilities because they need critical updates. Managing updates takes important time away from focusing on your business mission.

With cloud technology, all the updates are handled by the cloud service provider. This means that all your employees work from fully-updated programs and systems all the time. The benefits to your network security alone are hard to overstate.

Flexible workspace productivity

Employees who believe their workplace effectively uses mobile tech are more productive and satisfied at work. It’s true. Untethering employees from their desks (and even the office itself) means giving them more options to get their work done with greater comfort, which can help with employee retention.

The bottom line

There are so many more benefits to cloud technology beyond mobility. Still, mobility’s effects are hard to overstate. IT has potential to bring greater retention, productivity, and convenience to your business’s workflow and IT approach. So what will your business do with all the newfound freedom?

 

Flexibility:

Flexibility in cloud computing

For many years hosting software on premise has served its purpose but technology is evolving and cloud computing is at the forefront of this digital transformation. 77% of enterprises have at least one application or a portion of their enterprise computing infrastructure in the cloud and it is predicted that 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020.

How does cloud computing enable greater flexibility?

Gartner commented that IT leaders should embrace cloud services to ensure the flexibility to enter new markets quickly, anywhere, anytime. Organizations that embrace cloud services can benefit from greater flexibility in many ways.

Firstly, an organization can choose from different service models, including SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, and can deploy software in the public, private or hybrid cloud to meet organizational security requirements, budgets, risk appetite and data protection obligations.

Organizations, particularly those utilizing the private cloud, also have the option to heavily customize applications by selecting from a menu of tools and features to build a solution that works for them.

Cloud services also enable businesses to access software and storage that scales to meet their real-time needs without having to worry about running out of space, as is the case with on premise software.

With public cloud services, organizations can take advantage of the almost unlimited storage capacity and scale up operations with predictable monthly payments reflective of usage.

For organisations utilising the private cloud, with careful planning of storage space and power, or utilisation of cloud bursting configurations, operations can also be scaled.

One of the major forces driving digital transformation and cloud software adoption is the need for workforce mobility and it is predicted that by 2020, 70% of all software interactions will occur on mobile devices.

Lastly, one of the major forces driving digital transformation and cloud software adoption is the need for workforce mobility and it is predicted that by 2020, 70% of all software interactions will occur on mobile devices. Cloud hosted applications are enabling organisations and their employees to be more flexible in their work practices as systems and real-time data can be accessed quickly and easily, anywhere, anytime over the internet on devices such as smartphones and laptops.

In addition to greater flexibility, organisations that move critical applications to the cloud can also benefit from, cost savings, competitive advantages and the freedom to focus on core business competencies rather than issues related to setting up and maintaining infrastructure.

This said there can be disadvantages to hosting software in the cloud. To find out more about the different advantages and disadvantages of cloud hosted software and NCC Group’s best practice advice for adopting cloud technology download our Ebook below.

Your company will then become agile and gain flexibility, something that was impossible beforehand since setting these services used to require lots of infrastructures that you had to resize in advance and that weren’t very flexible or not flexible at all.

 

Updating and Scalability:

Another important advantage of Cloud Computing is that your service provider, in addition to taking care of maintenance, takes care of all updates of the service, which allows you and your employees to concentrate more efficiently on your assignments, your jobs, and at the same time, optimize your productivity.

What is cloud scalability?

Cloud scalability in cloud computing refers to the ability to increase or decrease IT resources as needed to meet changing demand. Scalability is one of the hallmarks of the cloud and the primary driver of its exploding popularity with businesses.

Data storage capacity, processing power and networking can all be scaled using existing cloud computing infrastructure. Better yet, scaling can be done quickly and easily, typically with little to no disruption or down time. Third-party cloud providers have all the infrastructure already in place; in the past, when scaling with on-premises physical infrastructure, the process could take weeks or months and require tremendous expense.

Cloud scalability versus cloud elasticity

Cloud providers can offer both elastic and scalable solutions. While these two terms sound identical, cloud scalability and elasticity are not the same.

Elasticity refers to a system’s ability to grow or shrink dynamically in response to changing workload demands, like a sudden spike in web traffic. An elastic system automatically adapts to match resources with demand as closely as possible, in real time. A business that experiences variable and unpredictable workloads might seek an elastic solution in the public cloud.

A system’s scalability, as described above, refers to its ability to increase workload with existing hardware resources. A scalable solution enables stable, longer-term growth in a pre-planned manner, while an elastic solution addresses more immediate, variable shifts in demand. Elasticity and scalability in cloud computing are both important features for a system, but the priority of one over the other depends in part on whether your business has predictable or highly variable workloads.

Why is cloud scalable?

A scalable cloud architecture is made possible through virtualization. Unlike physical machines whose resources and performance are relatively set, virtual machines (VMs) are highly flexible and can be easily scaled up or down. They can be moved to a different server or hosted on multiple servers at once; workloads and applications can be shifted to larger VMs as needed.

Third-party cloud providers also have all the vast hardware and software resources already in place to allow for rapid scaling that an individual business could not achieve cost-effectively on its own.

Benefits of cloud scalability

The major cloud scalability benefits are driving cloud adoption for businesses large and small:

Convenience: Often with just a few clicks, IT administrators can easily add more VMs that are available without delay—and customized to the exact needs of an organization. That saves precious time for IT staff. Instead of spending hours and days setting up physical hardware, teams can focus on other tasks.

Flexibility and speed: As business needs change and grow—including unexpected spikes in demand—cloud scalability allows IT to respond quickly. Today, even smaller businesses have access to high-powered resources that used to be cost prohibitive. No longer are companies tied down by obsolete equipment—they can update systems and increase power and storage with ease.

Cost savings: Thanks to cloud scalability, businesses can avoid the upfront costs of purchasing expensive equipment that could become outdated in a few years. Through cloud providers, they pay for only what they use and minimize waste.

Disaster recovery: With scalable cloud computing, you can reduce disaster recovery costs by eliminating the need for building and maintaining secondary data centers.

When to use cloud scalability

Successful businesses employ scalable business models that allow them to grow quickly and meet changing demands. It’s no different with their IT. Cloud scalability advantages help businesses stay nimble and competitive.

Scalability is one of the driving reasons to migrate to the cloud. Whether traffic or workload demands increase suddenly or grow gradually over time, a scalable cloud solution enables organizations to respond appropriately and cost-effectively to increase storage and performance.

How to achieve cloud scalability?

Businesses have many options for how to set up a customized, scalable cloud solution via public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud.

There are two basic types of scalability in cloud computing: vertical and horizontal scaling.

With vertical scaling, also known as “scaling up” or “scaling down,” you add or subtract power to an existing cloud server upgrading memory (RAM), storage or processing power (CPU). Usually this means that the scaling has an upper limit based on the capacity of the server or machine being scaled; scaling beyond that often requires downtime.

To scale horizontally (scaling in or out), you add more resources like servers to your system to spread out the workload across machines, which in turn increases performance and storage capacity. Horizontal scaling is especially important for businesses with high availability services requiring minimal downtime.

How do you determine optimal cloud scalability?

Changing business requirements or surging demand often require changes to your scalable cloud solution. But how much storage, memory and processing power do you really need? Will you scale up or out?

To determine a right-sized solution, ongoing performance testing is essential. IT administrators must continually measure factors such as response time, number of requests, CPU load and memory usage. Scalability testing also measures an application’s performance and ability to scale up or down depending on user requests.

Automation can also help optimize cloud scalability. You can determine thresholds for usage that trigger automatic scaling so that there’s no effect on performance. You may also consider a third-party configuration management service or tool to help manage your scaling needs, goals and implementation.

COST SAVING

Cost saving is the biggest benefit of cloud computing. It helps you to save substantial capital cost as it does not need any physical hardware investments. Also, you do not need trained personnel to maintain the hardware. The buying and managing of equipment is done by the cloud service provider.

Requires No Setup Investments:

As opposed to setting up your own IT infrastructure, getting started with the cloud is remarkably cheaper. Running and managing your own servers also means you may come across unanticipated expenditures associated with the management and maintenance of the system.

Since all your infrastructure needs are fulfilled by the cloud service provider for a fixed cost, no upfront investments are involved. Plus, cloud computing is like another utility service. The cloud provider takes care of all the maintenance and you get everything you need at any point in time for nominal costs.

Optimal Hardware Utilization:

Cloud server providers optimize the hardware needs of their data centers, resulting in economies of scale. When you switch to the cloud-based model, the server infrastructure of the cloud provider is shared between your workload and the computing needs of other clients.

Depending on the workload, this will ensure the full utilization of hardware sources. Higher efficiencies resulting from economies of scale mean lower costs to the cloud provider, who will in turn reduce costs.

Energy Savings:

The power consumption associated with an in-house IT structure can be outrageously high, especially when servers run 24/7. Again, this brings us back to the utilization of IT resources. Running an in-house IT system means you may not be utilizing the servers optimally while the energy consumption will keep on increasing.

On the other hand, cloud computing is extraordinarily efficient and consumes less power. Optimum server utilization leads to efficient power usage. With energy cost savings, your cloud provider charges you considerably less for the systems used.

No In-House Team:

If you’ve been managing an IT system on your own, you must be aware of how costly an indoor IT team can prove to be. Wages and salaries for IT personnel tend to be high due to the nature of the roles. High pay scales in the industry are also attributed to shortage of talent. Plus, let’s not forget the costs and hassles associated with hiring and accommodating the team.

With cloud computing, you no longer need to worry about hosting a team to deliver your computing and IT needs. When you don’t have an in-house team, you don’t need to worry about the compensation costs for the staff as well as the benefits. You also don’t need to consider associated expenditures, such as rent for the office space. Moreover, you  don’t have to worry about how things will work if an important staff member temporarily leaves. If you already have IT personnel, have them work on other business areas, such as app development, that have the maximum potentials for cost savings.

Eliminates Redundancies:

Redundancies are a massive problem for in-house IT management. When it comes to managing your systems, you can’t rely on a single hardware to keep things running. There has to be an alternative hardware to keep things up and running if the system crash or fails.

Purchasing additional hardware adds to your overall costs. Plus, they require regular maintenance whether you use them or not. Incurring maintenance costs for hardware without any purpose sounds unnecessary. An inexpensive way to deal with your redundancy requirements is to move to the cloud. Cloud service providers typically rely on multiple data centers and ensure resiliency by replicating your data. Should there be a disaster like a flood, fire, or a system crash, your system will start running again in no time with cloud computing.

Conclusion for Cost Savings in Cloud Computing:

 

Cloud Computing enables you to trade capital costs, such as those associated with physical servers and data centers, for variable expenses. You’re only required to pay when you consume the services. Now that you’re aware of where the savings originates, it’s time to make that crucial change and be innovative. With so many options out there, choosing a cloud service provider can be a daunting task.

Security:

               Many organizations have security concerns when it comes to adopting a cloud-computing solution. After all, when files, programs, and other data aren't kept securely onsite, how can you know that they are being protected? If you can remotely access your data, then what's stopping a cybercriminal from doing the same thing? Well, quite a bit, actually.

For one thing, a cloud host's full-time job is to carefully monitor security, which is significantly more efficient than a conventional in-house system, where an organisation must divide its efforts between a myriad of IT concerns, with security being only one of them. And while most businesses don't like to openly consider the possibility of internal data theft, the truth is that a staggeringly high percentage of data thefts occur internally and are perpetrated by employees. When this is the case, it can actually be much safer to keep sensitive information offsite. Of course, this is all very abstract, so let's consider some solid statistics.

RapidScale claims that 94% of businesses saw an improvement in security after switching to the cloud, and 91% said the cloud makes it easier to meet government compliance requirements. The key to this amped-up security is the encryption of data being transmitted over networks and stored in databases. By using encryption, information is less accessible by hackers or anyone not authorised to view your data. As an added security measure, with most cloud-based services, different security settings can be set based on the user. While 20% of cloud user claim disaster recovery in four hours or less, only 9% of cloud users could claim the same.

Insight:

              As we move ever further into the digital age, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the old adage “knowledge is power” has taken on the more modern and accurate form: “Data is money.” Hidden within the millions of bits of data that surround your customer transactions and business process are nuggets of invaluable, actionable information just waiting to be identified and acted upon. Of course, sifting through that data to find these kernels can be very difficult, unless you have access to the right cloud-computing solution.

Many cloud-based storage solutions offer integrated cloud analytics for a bird's-eye view of your data. With your information stored in the cloud, you can easily implement tracking mechanisms and build customised reports to analyse information organisation wide. From those insights, you can increase efficiencies and build action plans to meet organisational goals. For example, the beverage company Sunny Delight was able to increase profits by about $2 million a year and cut $195,000 in staffing costs through cloud-based business insights.

Increased Collaboration:

                                               If your business has two employees or more, then you should be making collaboration a top priority. After all, there isn't much point to having a team if it is unable to work like a team. Cloud computing makes collaboration a simple process. Team members can view and share information easily and securely across a cloud-based platform. Some cloud-based services even provide collaborative social spaces to connect employees across your organisation, therefore increasing interest and engagement. Collaboration may be possible without a cloud-computing solution, but it will never be as easy, nor as effective. 

WHAT IS CLOUD COLLABORATION?

Cloud collaboration is a method of collaboration where multiple individuals may access, review and edit a document in real time. With the document housed in the cloud, it is always versioning, so everyone with access sees changes as they are made.

With cloud collaboration, the days of combining multiple documents and wrestling with outdated versions becomes a thing of the past.

While it can be especially beneficial to businesses with multiple locations or remote employees, cloud collaboration is also an excellent way to work with others in close proximity. Whether they're working on meeting notes or a proposal document, cloud collaboration allows all team members to work together in real time. 

THE BENEFITS OF CLOUD COLLABORATION

This advancement in the way we store and share data has led to a number of benefits that allow us to connect and work collectively as a team – and in an efficient and productive manner. Here are five benefits of cloud collaboration.

1. IMPROVED ORGANIZATION

Illustration of clouds with network pointsWith documents kept in a central, cloud-accessible location, employees can work on a document without having to send an updated version (not to mention trying to keep track of the latest version) to all the necessary team members.

 

2. HIGHER PARTICIPATION LEVELS

Allowing access to projects can lead to higher levels of employee participation. With cloud collaboration, all team members have an equal opportunity to provide input, and it can be done from wherever they are, at any time.

3. IMPROVED ACCESS TO LARGE FILES

Most email servers cannot handle documents larger than a few MB. When dealing with large audio or video files that email servers can’t accommodate, cloud computing solutions have the answer. Because you can provide access to the cloud, where the large files are stored, there is no need to send files. Through the cloud, there is no delay in receipt or distribution dilemmas.

4. REAL-TIME UPDATES

Teams can work on projects without having to be in the same room, or even country. Edits and updates appear in real time and can be accessed by everyone. Any confusion over which version is the latest is eliminated with cloud collaboration.

5. BETTER BRAINSTORMING

The cloud can become a brainstorming forum, allowing ideas to be shared and productive conversations to take place. The cloud is an ideal medium to facilitate better communication between staff and project managers, various team members and other collaborators.

CLOUD COLLABORATION SERVICES

DROPBOX

While most well-known as a free consumer service, Dropbox for Business allows employees to sync files from various devices and work from anywhere — as long as they have an internet connection. With enhanced security features, Dropbox helps ensure data is protected at all times.

M-FILES

M-Files enables teams to collaborate efficiently and securely. Whether you're looking to collaborate with coworkers, suppliers, partners or another group, M-Files allows you do do it in a unified, managed way. With built-in collaboration tools, M-Files makes co-authoring simple.

MICROSOFT ONEDRIVE

OneDrive is designed for businesses, enabling them to access, share and collaborate on all their files, from anywhere. With features that connect all your files across Microsoft 365, Microsoft OneDrive enhances collaboration while maintaining visibility and security controls.

 

TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL CLOUD COLLABORATION

Cloud technology is very beneficial for businesses, especially where collaboration is concerned. The ability to communicate and share via cloud computing can enhance the quality of work produced and decrease the amount of time it takes to complete projects. Here are a few helpful hints that make collaboration successful – with or without the cloud (the cloud just enhances their functionality)

Keep Your Team Organized

It’s important to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Organization is an integral part of cloud collaboration. Without it, not even the cloud can improve the success of your project.

Delegate Tasks

Don’t try to handle everything as a group. Delegate tasks to individuals and ensure everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing and the expectations and deadlines.

Centralize Communication

Having a single application and process for cloud computing communication management is extremely helpful. You can then track discussions, invite participants and document project progress.

Whether you’re a small business owner or part of a large corporation, cloud technology is definitely worth considering. According to a survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan, companies investing in the cloud generally experience a 400 percent ROI. In addition to the benefits listed above, this statistic makes the cloud worth researching, at the very least. Learn more about cloud computing with our free Cloud Capabilities eBook.

Quality Control:

                              There are few things as detrimental to the success of a business as poor quality and inconsistent reporting. In a cloud-based system, all documents are stored in one place and in a single format. With everyone accessing the same information, you can maintain consistency in data, avoid human error, and have a clear record of any revisions or updates. Conversely, managing information in silos can lead to employees accidentally saving different versions of documents, which leads to confusion and diluted data.

Disaster Recovery:

                                  One of the factors that contributes to the success of a business is control. Unfortunately, no matter how in control your organisation may be when it comes to its own processes, there will always be things that are completely out of your control, and in today's market, even a small amount of unproductive downtime can have a resoundingly negative effect. Downtime in your services leads to lost productivity, revenue, and brand reputation.

But while there may be no way for you to prevent or even anticipate the disasters that could potentially harm your organisation, there is something you can do to help speed your recovery. Cloud-based services provide quick data recovery for all kinds of emergency scenarios, from natural disasters to power outages. While 20% of cloud users claim disaster recovery in four hours or less, only 9% of non-cloud users could claim the same. In a recent survey, 43% of IT executives said they plan to invest in or improve cloud-based disaster recovery solutions.

What is cloud disaster recovery?

Cloud-based storage and recovery solutions enable you to backup and restore your business-critical files in case they are compromised.

Thanks to its high flexibility, the cloud technology enables efficient disaster recovery, regardless of the type or intensity of workloads. The data is stored in a secured cloud environment architected to provide high availability. The service is available on-demand, which enables organizations of different sizes to tailor DR solutions to their needs.

As opposed to traditional solutions, cloud-based disaster recovery is easy to set up and manage. Businesses no longer need to wast hours on transferring backup data from their in-house servers or tape drives to recover after a disaster. The cloud automates these processes, ensuring fast and error-free data recovery.

Always be prepared for with proper data security

As companies continue to add new hardware and software applications and services to their daily processes, related security risks increase.  Disasters can occur at any moment and leave a business devastated by massive data loss. When you consider how much they can cost, it is clear why it makes sense to create a data backup and recovery plan.

Disaster recovery statistics show that 98% of organizations surveyed indicate that a single hour of downtime can cost their business over $100,000. Any amount of downtime can cost a business tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands in man-hour labor spent to recover or redo the work lost.  In some cases, an 8-hour downtime window can cost a small company up to $20k and large enterprises in the tens of thousands.

Considering the figures, it is clear why every second of service or system interruption counts and what is the actual value of having a disaster recovery plan in place.

Cloud recovery helps businesses bounce back from natural disasters, cyber-attacks, ransomware, and other threats that can render all files useless in an instant.  Just by minimizing the time needed to take workloads back online, it directly lowers the cost of a system failure.

Although most companies and their IT departments are aware of the risk, few make an effort to implement disaster recovery until it is too late. Now, let us take a more in-depth look at how it can translate into business benefits.

Benefits of a cloud-based disaster recovery solution

One of the most significant advantages of cloud-based options over standard disaster recovery management is their cost-efficiency.  Traditional backup involves setting up physical servers at a remote location, which can be costly. The cloud, on the other hand, enables you to outsource as many hardware and software resources as you need while paying only for what you use.

When considering the cost of disaster recovery, it is essential to think beyond the actual price of the solution.

Just think about how much it would cost not to have it.  Small companies can choose a service plan that fits their budget.  The implementation of data management does not require any additional maintenance costs or hiring IT teams. Your provider handles all the technical activities, so you do not have to worry about them.

Another benefit of cloud-based technology is its reliability.  Service providers have data banks to provide redundancy, which ensures maximum availability of your data.  It also makes it possible for your backups to be restored faster than what would be the case with traditional DR.

The workload migration and failover in cloud-based environments can take only several minutes. With traditional recovery solutions, this time frame is usually longer since the failover involves physical servers set up in a remote location. Depending on the amount of data you need to back up, you can also choose to migrate data in phases.

Cloud backup services offer a high degree of scalability. Compared to physical systems, cloud backup is virtually endless.  As organizations grow, their systems can grow with them. All you need to do is extend your service plan with your provider and get additional resources as the need arises.

Failover and failback capabilities in the cloud

When it comes to business-critical data, cloud data backup and recovery provides the most reliable business continuity and failback option.

During a data outage, workloads are automatically shifted to a different location and restarted from there. This process is called failover, and it is initiated when the primary systems experience an issue. After the issues on the original location are resolved, the workloads are failed back to it. This is done using professional disaster recovery and replication tools, which are available from the data center and infrastructure-as-a-service providers.

Although failover and failback activities can be automated in the cloud, businesses should regularly run tests on designated network locations to make sure there is no impact to live or production network data.

When establishing the data set in a disaster recovery solution, you can select data, virtual machine images, or full applications to fail over. This process may take a while, and this is why organizations need to discuss every step of it with their data center provider.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

Part of a cloud disaster recovery plan might include DRaaS disaster recovery as a service. It is designed to help organizations protect themselves against loss of critical business data.

These disaster recovery solutions require a business to help them understand what they need from their service.

A business might identify a general pool of data they need to be backed up, how often it should be backed up.  Further, companies should determine the level of effort required to invest in backing up the data during disaster recovery.  Once a company clarifies the requirements, they can look for DRaaS providers to suit their needs.

How cloud computing backup and recovery is evolving

With cyber attacks and system failures becoming more commonplace, companies are increasingly turning to disaster recovery in the cloud.

As the demand grows, providers continue improving their offerings. Recent reports suggest that the market for backup and DR cloud services is on the rise with a growing number of solutions being offered to companies of different sizes.

The increase in demand also illustrates a greater awareness of their value. Cyber attacks and system failures are occurring on a daily basis and businesses are justifiably concerned about the safety of their data. They need an option that can protect their data in a diversity of scenarios that are putting their daily operations at risk.

Studies have also found that the principal cause of downtime is the power outage.  This means that no matter how many copies you have of your files in-house, they can all be lost if the power goes out.  With cloud-based DRaaS, your data is saved remotely with reliable power sources.  In most cases, cloud services distribute data to different power grids ensuring sufficient redundancy.

Many older services included physical backups at offsite locations.  Offsite backups are expensive and inefficient as they involve duplicating physical equipment at another location or having a combination of on-premises and physical backups.

Cloud Service Level Agreements

Service level agreements (SLAs) hold cloud computing disaster recovery providers responsible for all maintenance and management of services rendered. They also include details on recourse and penalty for any failures to deliver promised services.

For example, an SLA agreement can ensure disaster recovery providers reimburse their clients with service credit in the events of a service outage or in case data cannot be recovered in a disaster. From there, customers can use their credits toward their monthly bill or from another service offered by the DR provider even though these credits will not make up the entire loss the business experiences in delayed cloud recovery.

An SLA also includes guaranteed uptime, recovery point, and recovery time goals.  For example, the latter can be any set time from an hour to 24 hours or more depending on the amount of data to be backed up and recovered. More specifically, this is defined in terms of RTOs and RPOs, which are essential concepts in disaster recovery.

The recovery time objective (RTO) is the acceptable period for applications to be down.  Recovery point objectives (RPO) are the acceptable period data is down for. Based on these two criteria, companies define their needs and can choose an adequate solution. 

Define Your Recovery Requirements

A large part of any cloud backup and disaster recovery plan is the amount of bandwidth and network capacity required to perform failover. 

A sufficient analysis of how to make data available when needed is essential for choosing the best fit for a company.  Part of the considerations should be if the network and bandwidth capacity can handle redirecting all users to the cloud at once.

Another consideration for hybrid environments is how to restore data from the cloud to an on-premise data center network and how long it will take to perform this.  Backup sets for recovery will need to be designed as part of any disaster recovery solution as well.

When defining these requirements, RTOs and RPOs play a major role.  Both of these goals are included as part of the business impact analysis. 

Recovery points are the points at which data must be recovered. This may include the frequency of backup as it is based on the methods the data is used.  For instance, information and files that are frequently updated might have a recovery point of a few minutes, while less essential data would need to be recovered within a few hours.

Both recovery time and recovery point objectives represent the impact on the bottom line.  The smaller these values are, the higher the cost of the DRaaS.

Part of the recovery time and recovery point should include a schedule for automated backups.  Keep in mind the difference in the length required to backup data versus applications and create two schedules or note the differences in one schedule.

Creating a custom cloud backup & disaster recovery plan

There is no magic blueprint for back up and disaster recovery solutions. Each company must learn more about the industry’s best practices and determine the essential workloads required to continue operations after a data loss or other catastrophe.

The overall principle used to derive an IT recovery plan is triage.  This is the process of creating a program that begins with the identification and prioritization of services, applications, and data, and determining an appropriate amount of downtime before the disaster causes a significant impact on business operations.  These efforts include developing a set of recovery time objectives that will define what type of solution a business needs.

By identifying essential resources and appropriate downtime and recovery, a business has a solid foundation for a cloud DR solution. 

All critical applications and data must be included in this blueprint. On the other hand, to minimize costs and ensure a fast recovery when the strategy is put into practice, a business should remove all irrelevant applications and data.

After the applications and data are identified and prioritized, the recovery time objectives are defined. The most cost-effective way of achieving the goals should use a separate method for each application and service. 

Some businesses may require a separate method for data and applications running in their private or public cloud environments.  Most likely, this scenario would return different means to protect application clusters and data with parallel recovery time objectives.

Once the design for disaster recovery is final, periodic tests should be performed to ensure it works as needed. Many companies have backups in place but are not sure how to use them when they need them. This is why you need to test both internal and external procedures regularly and even update them as needed.

A general recommendation is to test your systems on an annual basis, carefully following each step of the outlined process. However, in companies that have dynamic multi-cloud strategies or those that are expanding at an unsteady pace, these tests may need to be performed even more frequently. As new systems or infrastructure upgrades are implemented, the disaster recovery plan should be updated to reflect the changes. 

Options for disaster data recovery in the cloud

Data centers offer varying options businesses can choose from for data protection.

Managed applications are popular components of a disaster recovery cloud strategy. In this case, both primary production data and backup cases are stored in the cloud and managed by a provider. This allows companies to reap the cloud’s benefits in a usage-based model while moving away from dependency on on-premises backups. 

A managed or hosted recovery solution brings you a comprehensive cloud-based platform with the needed hardware and software to support your operations. With this option, data and applications remain on-premises, and only data is backed up on the cloud infrastructure and restored as needed.  Such a solution is more cost-effective than a traditional option such as local, offsite data backup. However, the process of recovery for applications may be slow.

Some application vendors may already offer cloud backup services. Businesses should check with their vendors if this is an option to make the implementation as easy as possible. Another viable option is to back up to and restore from the cloud infrastructure. Data is restored to virtual machines in the cloud rather than on-premises servers, requiring cloud storage and cloud computing resources. 

The restore process can be executed when a disaster strikes, or it can be recurring. Recurring backups ensure data is kept up-to-date through resource sharing and is essential when recovery goals are short.

For applications and data with short or aggressive objectives, replication to virtual machines in the cloud is a viable DRaaS service. By replicating to the cloud, you can ensure data and applications are protected both in the cloud and on-premises. 

Replication is viable for cloud VM to cloud VM and on-premises to cloud VM.  The products in the replication to VMs are based on continuous data protection. 

Getting Started with Cloud Disaster Recovery

After a business has determined which type of recovery solution they want, the next step is to make an overview of the options available with different providers and data centers. 

The key to finding a solution that suits the business needs is discussing options with multiple service providers. 

Many vendors offer variances in their pricing packages which may include a certain number of users, application backup, data backup, and frequency of backup.

The only efficient way to choose a managed cloud backup and disaster recovery provider is to assess your needs adequately. Discuss needs with all stakeholders in the business in all departments to discover critical data and applications to ensure business continuity. 

Determine recovery time and point objectives and create a schedule with appropriate downtime for data and applications.  Next, consider the budget allotted for disaster recovery.

Examine various options to find the best one for your business. 

 

BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Loss Prevention:

                               If your organization isn't investing in a cloud-computing solution, then all of your valuable data is inseparably tied to the office computers it resides in. This may not seem like a problem, but the reality is that if your local hardware experiences a problem, you might end up permanently losing your data. This is a more common problem than you might realise computers can malfunction for many reasons, from viral infections, to age-related hardware deterioration, to simple user error. Or, despite the best of intentions, they can be misplaced or stolen (over 10,000 laptops are reported lost every week at major airports)

If you aren't on the cloud, you're at risk of losing all the information you had saved locally. With a cloud-based server, however, all the information you've uploaded to the cloud remains safe and easily accessible from any computer with an internet connection, even if the computer you regularly use isn't working.

Automatic Software Updates:

                                                       For those who have a lot to get done, there isn't anything more irritating than having to wait for system updates to be installed. Cloud-based applications automatically refresh and update themselves, instead of forcing an IT department to perform a manual organisation wide update. This saves valuable IT staff time and money spent on outside IT consultation. PCWorld lists that 50% of cloud adopters cited requiring fewer internal IT resources as a cloud benefit.

Competitive Edge:

                                  While cloud computing is increasing in popularity, there are still those who prefer to keep everything local. That's their choice, but doing so places them at a distinct disadvantage when competing with those who have the benefits of the cloud at their fingertips. If you implement a cloud-based solution before your competitors, you'll be further along the learning curve by the time they catch up. A recent Verizon study showed that 77% of businesses feel cloud technology gives them a competitive advantage, and 16% believe this advantage is significant.

Sustainability:

                           Given the current state of the environment, it's no longer enough for organizations to place a recycling bin in the breakroom and claim that they're doing their part to help the planet. Real sustainability requires solutions that address wastefulness at every level of a business. Hosting on the cloud is more environmentally friendly and results in less of a carbon footprint.

Cloud infrastructures support environmental proactivity, powering virtual services rather than physical products and hardware, and cutting down on paper waste, improving energy efficiency, and (given that it allows employees access from anywhere with an internet connection) reducing commuter-related emissions. A Pike Research report predicted data center energy consumption will drop by 31% from 2010 to 2020 based on the adoption of cloud computing and other virtual data options.

Other Important Benefits:

       Apart from the above, some other advantages of cloud computing are:

• On-Demand Self-service
• Multi-tenancy
• Offers Resilient Computing
• Fast and effective virtualization
• Provide you low-cost software
• Offers advanced online security
• Location and Device Independence
• Always available, and scales automatically to adjust to the increase in demand
• Allows pay-per-use
• Web-based control & interfaces
• API Access available

 

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

Here, are significant challenges of using Cloud Computing:

Performance can vary:

When you are working in a cloud environment,

your application is running on the server which

simultaneously provides resources to other

businesses. Any greedy behavior or DDOS attack on your tenant could affect the performance of your shared resource.

Technical Issues:

                              Cloud technology is always prone to an outage and other technical issues. Even, the best cloud service provider companies may face this type of trouble despite maintaining high standards of maintenance.

Security Threat in the Cloud:

                                                  Another drawback while working with cloud computing services is security risk. Before adopting cloud technology, you should be well aware of the fact that you will be sharing all your company's sensitive information to a third-party cloud computing service provider. Hackers might access this information.

Downtime:

                   Downtime should also be considered while working with cloud computing. That's because your cloud provider may face power loss, low internet connectivity, service maintenance, etc.

Internet Connectivity:

                                     Good Internet connectivity is a must in cloud computing. You can't access cloud without an internet connection. Moreover, you don't have any other way to gather data from the cloud.

Lower Bandwidth:

                               Many cloud storage service providers limit bandwidth usage of their users. So, in case if your organization surpasses the given allowance, the additional charges could be significantly costly

Lacks of Support:

                              Cloud Computing companies fail to provide proper support to the customers. Moreover, they want their user to depend on FAQs or online help, which can be a tedious job for non-technical persons.

Conclusion:

                   Despite the entire pro and cons, we can't deny the fact that Cloud Computing is the fastest growing part of network-based computing. It offers a great advantage to customers of all sizes: simple users, developers, enterprises and all types of organizations. So, this technology here to stay for a long time.

 

Cloud Computing Security

                           For convenience and cost-effective reasons, all SMBs should consider making a migration to the cloud, but the migration should happen carefully.

Optimized Security:

Cloud Computing provides increased security compared with traditional and internal infrastructures in a company. Indeed, due to a lack of time, skill and budget, companies are having a harder and harder time fully ensuring security of their own IT system.

Cloud Computer guarantees this security by having the best security systems and services: data replication, Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), Business Continuity Plan (BCP), cyber-defense, the latest security technologies, implementing best practices, etc. Data confidentiality is guaranteed!

“But why?” you might ask. Simply because the security standards observed for data are stricter and more disciplined in your Cloud provider’s environment. Also, for them, the security of your data is priority number one, since a breach or alteration of its client’s data would cause them irreparable damage.

Incremental Cloud Backup:

                                               “The cloud has various benefits and risks, but one important thing SMBs should all be doing is the backup,” according to ESET’s Cobb. The best protection against Bad Rabbit Ransomware is to back up your current data, and making it is an important part of your cyber security and defence mechanism. Make sure you still back up to a hard drive and store a copy somewhere in a safe place and with the cloud, you can back up consistently.

Pay for Premium Cloud Security:

                                                        “Most small business owners are price-conscious, but other factors must get the right amount of weight,” were according to ADP’s O’Connell. “Some things should cost more for an advanced level of service and security is one of those things. Avoid making a decision based on price.”

Two-factor Authentication:

                                              Make security your top priority and practice two-factor authentication on any device used by your company for email accounts, sensitive systems or social media feed. A person will require an extra credential to access from a new device or to change existing profile settings, which does not let attackers break in even if they have passwords.

Multi-factor authentication minimizes the risk of a compromise; having a password does not mean anyone can access an online account. When anyone leaves an organization, companies should shut down his/her accounts, or change login credentials.

Two-factor authentication adds extra steps to employees’ login procedures so avoid their frustration by taking a one step at a time. F-Secure security advisor advises,“Begin with the important accounts and scale up right from there as it turns into a habit.”

Encrypt Your Data:

                                  Ukraine based cyber security firm ISSP has alerted about the possible cyber attacks after recognizing a new computer virus distribution. According to an IBM study, “One data breach can cost a business an average of $4million. A massive data breach in 2014—an attack that released financial records of various customers— cost $200 million to the involved financial institutions, as per NBC report. Cisco and IBM have decided to address the cyber security issues together. You need to look at data encryption to avoid those hefty costs.

When you encrypt your data digitally, all information gets converted into the code called as ciphertext that requires a password to decrypt back all the data. It secures your valuable, confidential data that you don’t want to compromise with. Position encryption protocols on your operating systems, business email accounts, networks, and cloud storage.

Consider on-screen keyboards:

                                                     One of the common methods hackers use to get access to your information is by recording your keystrokes by installing keylogging software. In case you are using shared computers, you cannot predict whether a keylogger is being installed or not. The solution to this is to use on-screen keyboards so that keyloggers will not be able to track your keystrokes. Today, most banks offer on-screen keyboards. You should use them and offer as an option to your customers.

Keep your Systems Updated:

Your priority should be keeping your operating systems (OS) up-to-date. Many companies are reluctant to upgrade an OS as indicated by reports that 7% of computers are still running on Windows XP, even though it has not been updated for three years. The reason is that many businesses consider upgradation as an expensive process.

If you are still running an older OS on your computers, then you need to upgrade it to minimize the risks of cyber attacks. If you are running the latest OS, make sure you update it frequently.

Gary Miliefsky, CEO of SnoopWall, Inc., says, “Every computing device that connects to the internet should frequently be hardened. The latest patches must be installed.”

For instance, Microsoft came with an update months ago that addressed the WannaCry vulnerability.  Is it on your computer? “If you have not been exploited, move quickly to close the hole,” Miliefsky advises.

Either have a consistent update schedule for your computers, or just set them to auto-update.

The bottom line is that data security should be at the top of your priority list. With the right precautions, you can greatly reduce the risk of catastrophic business interruptions due to data breaches