Disaster Recovery Strategies for Cloud Network Outages

Cloud Network Outages

Today, many organizations rely on the cloud for database and application services, a safe, cost-effective, and operationally advantageous strategy. However, when a widespread network outage hits, the necessary recovery mechanisms aren’t always in place. According to a recent 451 Research study, organizations spend 28% of total IT budgets on hosting and cloud services, and so whether due to natural disaster, construction blunders, or cyber challenges such as sweeping DDoS attacks, loss of connectivity is a disaster for just about all of us.

The Cloud & Remote Working

A major benefit of cloud networks and applications is the possibility of remote working, and this is an approach sometimes implemented during cloud network outages. Assuming employees are able to move to alternate locations with connectivity, accessing an organization’s cloud structures and tools requires only the foresight to set up such remote access and train employees on its use; unfortunately, this valuable tactic, albeit typically a temporary solution, is often overlooked in disaster recovery strategies.

And though a valuable device to be included in a disaster recovery plan, experts recognize that remote working is only a stop-gap, and in major disasters that result in widespread power and connectivity outages, all but useless. When preparing a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy, it’s necessary to play the pessimist and work from a worst-case scenario position.

Know Your Limitations

To thoroughly prepare for everything (or at least most) that can go wrong, it’s necessary to know what can go wrong. Perhaps a good brainstorming session to have with disgruntled employees on a Monday morning. Again, we’re not looking for glass-half-full considerations; we want to know which departments will be hit hardest, the shortest time the organization can cope with outages, and the most severe consequences that might occur. Documenting which users can remain productive versus those who will be unable to continue is necessary, and considering cloud-dependent versus cloud-optional services helps fill out the foundation of your disaster recovery strategy. Contemplate the effect on the business; how many days down can be survived?

Accessibility Options

Once all worst-case scenarios have been developed (and employees are thoroughly disheartened), it’s possible to begin creating a solid disaster recovery strategy. In the case of cloud network outages, redundancy for connectivity is essential. Ensuring multiple access points are available means cloud services and applications don’t necessarily have to remain unreachable in a disaster but can instead be utilized in alternate, if less efficient, manners. Commissioning connectivity that’s entirely independent of terrestrial infrastructure certainly comes with cost considerations, but having the option of satellite or mobile connectivity services in a disaster may be warranted.

On-Premise Possibilities

Of course, a cloud network outage might not be the result of connectivity failure. Should another disaster such as last year’s DDoS attack against Dyn occur, the challenge lies with the cloud provider itself, resulting in services and applications being unavailable to users everywhere. In such a case, having the backup of on-premise solutions is essential. Though many of us use the cloud for data storage and management, a secure and highly accessible practice, keeping copies of data on-premise is a viable disaster management tactic. Though this requires advanced development of in-house security measures, it ensures valuable data isn’t threatened by a single point of failure. Disaster recovery experts suggest that anything important enough to be secured in the cloud should be copied to different locations for enhanced protection.

hybrid cloud solutions are also worth considering, with data stored and accessed on local networks, while duplicates are sent to the cloud for both remote access and redundancy. With sophisticated synchronization features available, it’s possible to switch primary version from cloud to on-premise as necessary.

With the challenges considered and various solutions studied it’s important to test the measures decided upon. Laborious and time-intensive, perhaps, however, an untested solution is of no value at all. Should cloud network outages be of real concern to an organization, a well thought out and thoroughly tested disaster recovery strategy is imperative.

By Jennifer Klostermann

Tosin Vaithilingam
Navigating Economic Uncertainty: Strategies for IT Leaders and MSPs Lately, it seems that each day brings news of more economic uncertainty. Companies that have been navigating the pandemic for the past two and a half ...
Josh Miramant
Benefits of a Data-First Culture When it comes to analytics solutions, centralization versus decentralization is one constant tension that’s plagued data architects for years now. Both options offer their own sets of advantages and disadvantages, ...
Patrick Melampy
Cloud On-Ramp and Protecting Performance The expansion of remote work and the massive growth in usage of cloud-based applications have stressed existing infrastructure and put a keen focus on the performance of everyone’s network environment ...
10 Leading Open Source Business Intelligence Tools
Open Source Business Intelligence Tools It’s impossible to take the right business decisions without having insightful information to back up the decision-making process. Open Source Business Intelligence Tools make it easier to have our raw ...
Gary Bernstein
WordPress Website Security You've spent time, effort, and money building your website, so don't let it become outdated and run-down by not taking proper care of it. Here are tips on WordPress Website security, speed, ...
Security Breach 10 Useful Cloud Security Tools
Cloud Security Tools Cloud providing vendors need to embed cloud security tools within their infrastructure. They should not emphasize keeping high uptime at the expense of security. Cloud computing has become a business solution for ...
Richard Duffy
Overcoming IT Infrastructure Disaster (Updated: 03.24.2023) One of the least considered benefits of cloud computing in the average small or mid-sized business manager’s mind is the aspect of disaster recovery. Part of the reason for ...
Matt Hallett
Data Clean Rooms are Changing the Game for Marketers It’s no surprise that data clean rooms (DCRs) have become the go-to solution for customer insights. With the depreciation of cookies and growing concerns about data ...