How Cloud Services Promote Business Continuity

Business continuity allows workers to have uninterrupted access to the data and applications their productivity depends upon. Maintaining business continuity requires that companies have the tools they need to be resilient enough to bounce back and resume operations immediately after a traumatic event.

Traditionally, business continuity planning has focused on failover and disaster recovery for the datacenter. Often, companies build secondary datacenters for backup and recovery, which can be expensive. These secondary data centers use manual processes that prolong recovery, extend downtime, and only solve part of the problem. Employees need continuous access to files, applications, data, and communication and collaboration tools.

The same cloud-based infrastructure that enables workplace flexibility for remote and hybrid workplaces provides a strong foundation for maintaining business continuity through interruptions of all kinds, planned and unplanned.

The cloud offers a cost-effective, reliable, and comprehensive way for companies to promote business continuity.

Why Business Continuity Matters 

Businesses are prone to many interruptions. Routine system maintenance may lead to planned downtime that can be accommodated. However, unplanned downtime can be triggered by power failures, critical system outages, cyberattacks, and natural disasters, such as flash floods, fires, tornadoes, blizzards, and earthquakes.

These interruptions to operations can cause substantial damage to a company. Due to diminished productivity, missed opportunities, and loss of revenue, downtime negatively impacts the bottom line. Companies that experience interruptions may fail to meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs), leading to customer attrition. Clients expect companies to win their loyalty by being reliable and always available, so lack of business continuity takes a toll on your company’s reputation.

How Business Continuity in the Cloud Works 

To support business continuity, companies can adopt a hybrid cloud for backup and disaster recovery. Hybrid cloud provides both private and public cloud resources, enabling backups to be stored off-site for recovery. Mission-critical data and applications can be stored in the private cloud and replicated for backup in the public cloud.

The public and private cloud instances can be orchestrated with synchronized backups so that data can be recovered completely in its current state, allowing companies to meet their Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).

The cloud ensures the accessibility of IT services through swift, automated datacenter failover, load balancing, and monitoring capabilities. When business continuity is supported in the cloud, employees experience continuous access to their apps, data, and collaboration tools during any business interruption.

The cloud achieves automatic failover by immediately switching on backup systems, eliminating downtime after a traumatic incident. Automatic failover promotes business continuity and resilience by meeting rapid Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs).

Cloud services for business continuity also include Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). DRaaS is a third-party Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that replicates and backs up company data and IT infrastructure. Orchestration enables seamless recovery of access to data and functionality after a disaster so that operations are protected.

Cloud security services help prevent cybersecurity incidents that interrupt business continuity. Security measures available in the cloud include encryption, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and continuous monitoring to prevent data from being stolen or compromised.

Benefits of Cloud-Based Business Continuity 

Cloud services for business continuity keep applications at your employees’ fingertips and deliver uninterrupted access to business assets, mobile device management, file sharing, collaboration, remote support, and datacenter automation and recovery. This level of access to information and resources provides business continuity that is stress-free and reliable.

Disaster preparedness through the cloud streamlines business continuity by taking advantage of public and private cloud resources, eliminating the need for a secondary data center infrastructure to store backups for recovery. Cloud resources for business continuity are scalable, enabling your company to meet backup and recovery needs as your company grows.

With the cloud, companies can safeguard and control private information accessed on any device and from any location so that businesses work with complete and accurate information at all times. Cloud providers store mission-critical data across multiple, distributed locations, providing the redundancy needed for data to be accessed at a different location if one experiences a traumatic event.

Cloud business continuity is cost-effective because it eliminates the capital expenses needed to provision and implement physical infrastructure for storing backup data. Instead, companies pay a monthly fee for the cloud resources they use as part of regular operating expenses.

How to Get Started with Cloud Services for Business Continuity 

Business continuity planning is essential for being prepared for the inevitable. Developing a cloud-based business continuity solution should begin with an assessment of your company’s backup and recovery requirements, including RTOs and RPOs, as well as your risk landscape.

Based on the findings of the assessment, you can work with a cloud service provider to design a custom cloud-based solution that may include hybrid cloud and DRaaS. Your cloud services partner can also provide regular testing of your cloud business recovery plan to make sure it works, and you know how to adapt it to accommodate changing requirements.

As part of our Cloud Services, Xceptional provides backup as a service and disaster recovery planning to support fluid business continuity.

Learn more about how cloud services promote business continuity. Reach out to Xceptional today.