Disaster Recovery in the Cloud: Ensuring Business Continuity
Cloud-based disaster recovery has transformed how businesses protect themselves from data loss and downtime. What once required expensive secondary data centres is now accessible to organisations of all sizes through cloud services. Understanding cloud DR options helps you build resilience appropriate to your business needs.
Understanding RPO and RTO
Two key metrics drive disaster recovery planning: Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - how much data loss is acceptable, and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) - how quickly you need to be back online. These metrics determine your DR architecture and costs. Tighter objectives require more sophisticated solutions.
Cloud DR Approaches
- Backup and restore: Lowest cost, but highest RTO - suitable when hours of downtime are acceptable
- Pilot light: Core systems replicated but not running - can scale up when needed
- Warm standby: Scaled-down version running continuously - faster failover
- Hot standby: Full replica running in parallel - near-instant failover
- Multi-region active-active: Load balanced across regions - no failover needed
A disaster recovery plan that hasn't been tested is just a document. Regular testing is what turns theory into confidence.
Testing Your DR Plan
Regular DR testing is essential. Start with tabletop exercises to walk through procedures, progress to partial failover tests, and conduct full failover tests at least annually. Document everything and update procedures based on lessons learned.
Partner With VortexHive
At VortexHive, we help businesses design and implement cloud-based disaster recovery solutions matched to their specific requirements and budget. From initial assessment through implementation and ongoing testing, we ensure you're prepared for whatever disruptions may come.
Ready to strengthen your disaster recovery capabilities? Contact VortexHive for a DR assessment.
