Disaster Recovery Journal, Fall 2009

A key management and technology issue with any cloud computing environment is the continuous availability of the enterprise’s core data and information. The majority of high availability cloud solution offerings support real-time failover for the client’s applications and servers that reside in a single site facility. Replication to a physically diverse high availability site is not supported. When the primary site fails, core data and information become unavailable to and from the cloud. Therefore, an IT based DR strategy and plan is still needed to support continuous information availability.

The decision to sign up with cloud computing is a strategic initiative with enterprise-wide ramifications. The business case to support a cloud computing environment may appear solid – it’s a lease vs. buy analysis. However, moving the majority of an IT department off site to a third-party vendor requires significant up-front due diligence while ensuring a business resilient enterprise. Business continuity requirements still exist across operations regardless of where the tech-

nology resides. Depending upon the vertical industry involved, the company may still be required to develop, support and defend both BC and DR plans. Assuming a cloud computing environment, some key topics of BC resiliency are:

1. Developing a BC plan that is in alignment with the new operating paradigm.

2. Validating data integrity through DR exercises and tests.

3. Validating BC processes through exercises and tests.

4. Training employees on recovery processes and tasks.

5. Training employees on emergency management procedures.

6. Perform BC exercises for work group recovery. 7. Pandemic planning is still a must.

8. Validation through external auditing may be required.

9. Desire to build a development and test environment outside the cloud thereby supporting internal data integrity and redundancy testing.

Business-resilient objectives within a cloud computing operating environment do not go away – they just change the required recovery metrics and pro-

cesses. However, from a technical perspective there are proactive opportunities to ensure the cloud environment supports data, system, infrastructure, and software redundancy. As with any business resilient model, increasing redundancy across all operations increases the leased vs. buy cost model. Also, it’s important that new service level agreements (SLAs) support the recovery capabilities demanded by the business. Each SLA should be exercised and tested within the DR and BC plans. As the new operating paradigm shifts to cloud computing, the enterprise’s BC and DR plans change accordingly. There is no one size fits all solution and most companies will end up supporting a hybrid cloud computing model. Regardless of the operating environment, business resiliency should be on the front burner of every strategic initiative.

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James Myers is the president and CEO of Contingency Now Inc., a professional risk management consulting company focused on contingency planning and implementation for public and private enterprises.