Everything can either be a hit or a miss. In regard to cloud computing services, there are still some gray areas that make businesses hard to decide whether or not to trust this hyped technology to be part of their business continuity plan. In this article, we will talk about the reasons supporting for a “yes” and a “no” for the question: “Can Cloud Computing Services Assure You of Business Continuity?”
Reasons Why YES
1. Accessibility and Availability
Since the cloud makes it possible for everyone in the company to access important files anywhere and anytime, this makes cloud computing services a perfect setup for business continuity plan. Providers of the service would only need to back up all data necessary and protect them against hackers that might attack and steal sensitive and confidential information. Businesses can take advantage of the cloud’s accessibility in instances where employees cannot go to the physical premise and they are still required to work remotely.
2. Uninterrupted Power Supply
Related to the first point above, cloud computing works online and there is no stopping the workforce to continue working in the business shall electricity fails in town. If there are interruptions of power supply in the office building, employees can take their work to a coffee shop or somewhere convenient. This then ensures that dedicated support staff apply when running in cloud computing.
3. Redundancy
Some companies opt to use cloud computing services to back up their existing data located in physical drives and servers. If this is the case then cloud computing acts as a data recovery tool or a life-saver when it comes to disasters. Data and the software can be replicated automatically in the cloud with cloud hosting. This creates an advanced level of redundancy, leaving the business worry-free. The cloud, being a flexible data center environment, also contributes to easy configuration. So in a matter of minutes, businesses can be able to retrieve their lost or corrupted data from the web.
Reasons Why NO
1. Poor Internet Connection
Since the data and applications stored in the cloud can only be accessed through Internet connection, businesses will be highly dependent on this connection to pursue and continue business operations. When instances of natural disasters like tidal waves, earthquakes and tornadoes occur, one cannot be sure that Internet can still pave the way for cloud computing vendors to provide availability and resiliency to resume their services.
2. System Outages
A popular example of system or web outages is that of what happened to Amazon.com. Since their business is largely operating through the cloud where sellers and buyers meet to make a sale, the public cloud cannot fail at any cost. However, downtimes happen and unplanned outages can strike anytime. Cloud computing service support staff should be alert and skilled on how to resolve such problems in real time quickly else this may result to customer dissatisfaction and disappointment. It’s important hence to secure the infrastructure design of the cloud considering the possibilities of failure.
3. Cloud Resource Down
If it’s not the unstable internet connection or the system downtime that’s the culprit, it could be the cloud resource itself that would take away business continuity. The business operations can fail to resume when there’s a breakdown in the cloud server, network switch, disk drive or SAN. When such disaster strikes, the time it takes to redeploy as solutions of the outage depends on the operational excellence of the staff supporting in the back end of the cloud. So it’s highly recommended to choose a provider that offers great unparalleled customer service to protect the business.
Conclusion
Loss of data is one of the common results when there’s a downtime in Internet connection, in a cloud computing environment. Many businesses today do not tolerate these instances especially during urgent times. Hopefully, with the reasons listed here, you can have a better grasp of the implications of using cloud computing services for your business operations and continuity. Benefits of the cloud are a lot, but as an organization, it’s up to you to decide if you will be willing to adopt and take the risks as well given some of the cons. Know more about cloud computing before you finally sign up for the service.
Author Bio:
+Jamaica Sanchez is a network engineer who has been, and is constantly studying about the techie-gibberish of cloud computing. When not diving headfirst in the language of computers, she surfs the waves of Sydney. Follow her on Twitter!