Cloud computing has become extremely popular today. However, this increasing popularity does not mean that there are no concerns or issues regarding storage of critical data in the cloud. Disasters, whether man-made or natural, impact businesses through expensive downtime and data loss. To ensure you do not lose any critical data, it is essential to have a proper disaster recovery plan. When planning for disaster recovery, here are some pitfalls that you should avoid.
- Ensure exact knowledge of what your agreement covers: When signing a service level agreement (SLA) with a cloud provider, make sure that you do not take anything for granted. Make the service provider spell out everything that they have laid out in terms of recovery of your critical data should a disaster strike. In other words, you should know exactly what has been planned, the recovery time objective (RTO), and the penalties if the company does not take the promised actions. If you do not have in-house IT experts to assess an SLA, you can consider IT consulting services.
- Be clear about costs: When dealing with disaster recovery companies, it is important to be very clear about the costs that you might have to bear in during a recovery. Most companies require an additional fee to be paid for the recovery of data after a disaster. However, you only have to pay this fee if a disaster strikes.
- Interdependent applications: You should ensure that your critical applications do not depend on another application that might not be covered by your disaster recovery plan.
- Geographical location of backup: It is extremely important to ensure that you choose disaster recovery companies that are not situated in the same geographical location as your company or business. This ensures that your backup location is not affected by the same disaster that might occur at your headquarters.
- Check reliability: When choosing vendors, ensure that they conduct regular tests of the reliability of their network security management solutions. Make sure you know how frequently such tests are done by these companies.
If you avoid these pitfalls, you will keep your data safe and minimize the effects of any disaster on your business. Act accordingly and make an informed decision.
Author Bio:
Sarah Lizote loves to write about Cloud Computing, Data Centre Services, ERP Applications & BPO Services. I hope to add value to all my readers by sharing my views and experience.
