Data security and business continuity services were previously only financially accessible to large corporations that could afford to build a secondary data center. 

However, recent cloud computing innovations and the rise of cloud hosting providers have made business continuity and disaster recovery services available to the general public, including small- and medium-scale business owners.

Credit:Denis Isakov

For example, Meraki MX64W is an affordable but excellent entry-level option for a single security solution. This device is ideal for small branch networks, including businesses with limited IT resources.

What are the ways cloud computing supports and benefits business continuity? What factors should you consider before using cloud services?

This article lists and explains various ways cloud computing can support business continuity. Learn more about cloud computing services and their various advantages.

Cloud Benefits for Business Continuity

Before the development of cloud computing in the early 2000s, extensive remote work and ongoing trade through online shopping were impossible.

For business continuity, cloud-based services offer prompt and error-free data recovery. Moreover, the cloud provides a seamless, secure alternative when you cannot access your corporate offices. Work can go on as usual at home offices, branch offices, or recovery sites.

In contrast, data transfer from servers, flash drives, or on-site tape to recovery hardware frequently takes hours in traditional recovery solutions. The on-premise model could hold a company's operations if the primary servers fail.

SaaS (software as a service) and other cloud services frequently offer more backup systems and resilience against potential outages than a single business can afford to set up and maintain.

Here is an overview of how cloud computing promotes business continuity:

• Provides frequent backups and user-friendly failover (equipment that assumes the work once primary systems fail)
• Scales to your business needs; for instance, backup only the most critical data to the cloud while keeping all other data on-premise
• Minimizes downtime
• Offers better network and data security management
• Reduces the impact of attacks that disrupt service (DoS)
• Eliminates the requirement to set up and keep an expensive external mirror site of your infrastructure
• Cuts back on recovery time to just a few minutes, potentially
• Eliminates the need to visit a remote site under potentially hazardous or problematic conditions
• Removes the need for software to be synced across two sites

What Are Cloud-Based Services?

Cloud-based services are software and information that a service provider hosts in data centers in a remote location. Users gain access to these resources via the internet or a corporate intranet.

Cloud computing is an alternative to desktop-based programs, similar to on-premise enterprise solutions. The term "cloud" does not refer to data suspended around the ether.

Providers store your data on servers in a data center that hosts your programs. So there are various layers between you and the data in that server farm, and you have no control over them.

Cloud services include applications, datasets, storage, servers, analytics, and networking. Services are frequently available on demand, allowing you to increase capacity quickly.

Conclusion

"Cloud computing" is becoming more popular as 69% of internet users have used a web-based program or stored data online(1).

It is now simpler, quicker, and more affordable to achieve operational resilience thanks to cloud-based business continuity.

Because downtime can stall production and hurt revenue, businesses can no longer afford to ignore it. Additionally, moving business continuity to the cloud has enormous advantages for organizations.