IDA Blog
Driving Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Through Cloud Solutions
As enterprises increasingly depend on infocomm systems to operate smoothly and reliably, infocomm systems serve critical roles in most organisations. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that these systems continue to function, or recover rapidly, at times of disaster.
A study conducted in 2013 commissioned by NTT Com Security revealed that three quarters of Singapore enterprises already have, or plan to replace their data centres with cloud. The same study reports that 65% of Singapore enterprises have either already adopted cloud to handle most of their data and services, or plan to do so within a year, placing Singapore at the forefront of cloud adoption in Asia.
Previously, enterprises have to build an entire duplicate backup system that was cost, space and time-expensive. This substantial and complex problem is now gone by adopting the cloud approach. Crucially, this puts business continuity (BC) practices and disaster recovery (DR) within the reach of smaller enterprises that will see the most gains from moving to cloud based BC and DR.
The advent of virtualisation and cloud-related technologies has changed that scenario. It is now possible to put in place effective DR practices through cloud adoption. The solution can be as simple as duplicating enterprise data to the cloud as off-site backup storage. It can also involve creating a conduit between a customer's site and a remote infrastructure in the cloud.
To this end, Singapore is well-positioned to support such services given our vibrant cloud computing ecosystem facilitated by the development of major infocomm infrastructure such as the Next Gen NBN, Singapore Internet Exchange and Data Centre Park.
So what are some of the benefits in tapping on cloud computing for DR? One of the primary benefits is cost savings. It reduces the capital expenditures required by eliminating the need to invest in a remote DR facility. Operational costs are charged on a pay-per-use basis. The customer pays only for the resources utilised. Such savings mean that smaller enterprises can implement BC and DR plans that would have been particularly costly previously. Other benefits of cloud based BC and DR include:
Rapid provisioning and elasticity
. With minimal time required to secure cloud resources, and the ability to scale up or down on requirements accordingly, enterprises are able to move at a faster pace and better respond to their customers' evolving needs.
Faster recovery time
. As virtualised servers on the cloud are hardware independent, the entire virtual image including operating system's components can be safely and accurately transferred to the site to be recovered. This saves complicated setup and time spent to individually load patches and configurations in the conventional approach.
Multi-site availability at much lower costs
. Established Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) typically operate multiple data centres on which a DR solution can span for better redundancy and assurance. As CSPs operate in a much leaner fashion by aggregating demand, users pay a significantly lower premium for multi-site availability compared to building their own, while enjoying the same benefits.
Today, cloud services can simplify BC and DR processes by utilising cloud based software to automate entire recovery and migration procedures. Upon initiation of a disaster failover, enterprises can continue with their services. Furthermore, it also facilitates non-disruptive testing, whereby recovery plans can be tested without disrupting production systems. As a result, enterprises gain confidence in that their BC and DR will meet business objectives.
That said, enterprises will still need to factor in several considerations when adopting cloud based DR. For instance, they will need to have the necessary bandwidth and network capacity to redirect users to the cloud in the event of a disaster. This may be mitigated if businesses offer their services over the Next Gen NBN, which provides ultra high speed broadband of 1 Gbps and beyond. CSPs will also need to ensure that data can be securely transferred and users authenticated properly.
Cloud computing is an affordable, robust and flexible service that helps enterprises prepare for both the best and the worst as they grow: You will be prepared not just for BC and DR, but will also enjoy cost management and productivity gains.
Mr Khoong Hock Yun
Assistant Chief Executive
Infrastructure & Services Development Group