A recent article for E-Commerce times data protection expert Peter Laudenslager explained some of the key concepts of cloud computing and compared cloud computing recovery with traditional on-site data backup solutions, highlighting some interesting points.
When considering the best methods for backing up data, businesses must also plot the road to recovery that each method embodies. Workload recovery after a disaster and the backup itself, if established in-house, are expensive but necessary considerations. Laudenslager believes that no cloud computing recovery solution should be considered complete without the potential for an entire system resuscitation. Cloud computing must intrinsically constitute more than simple data storage.
Laudenslager also highlighted the economic benefits of a cloud recovery program for smaller businesses. Internal backup and disaster recovery requires long term commitments and significant investment. However, some cloud recovery approaches may operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. This not only allows for short term trials of the system, but also ensures consistent quality as the vendors strive to build customer loyalty.
Cloud computing solutions benefit from potentially unlimited scalability and obviate the need for any direct up-front capital expenditure on new servers and hardware even if backup requirements were to increase substantially over a short period of time. Businesses who take advantage of the cloud approach will be thus able to more effectively manage the costs of extending their backup capacity.
Eran Feignebaum, a leading security adviser working for Google, described the economies of scale which typify the relationship between cloud computing solutions and the smaller businesses which use them. Cloud computing providers have the motivation and the resources to perpetually enhance their security measures. Their smaller clients consequently benefit from features which they could not themselves accommodate.
Laudenslager ultimately believes that a true cloud computing recovery offering should be absolutely comprehensive in order to deserve its title. It should represent a complete recovery and total protection solution that pure-play disaster recovery centres or external database alternatives may or may not be able to support. The ultimate aim is to put the expertise in the hands of a third party and streamline the recovery process to virtually eliminate any downtime.
