Cloud-based systems have brought a new, scalable application delivery service model to the market. Cloud services promise to help reduce capital and operational costs while providing higher service levels.
However, Cloud services rely heavily on keeping the data and applications they are managing available at all times, and to restore operations quickly following any type of data disaster (database corruption, virus attack, hardware failure, local/regional disaster).
There are several models for Cloud computing, including private clouds (where the deployment is within the organization’s firewall) and public clouds (where the application services and data are hosted by a third party outside the firewall), as well as a hybrid model of both. Consistent data availability is a critical success factor for any Cloud deployment. Customers need to ensure that data is adequately protected and can be restored in a timely fashion following any disruption event.
Cloud administrators need to ensure that a minimum of data is at risk by performing backups as frequently as possible, to meet stringent Recovery Point Objectives (RPO). And downtime must be limited as well following an outage to meet strict Recovery Time Objectives (RTO).
