How DR is Different with Enterprise Hybrid Clouds and Why That's a Good Thing

Disaster recovery (DR) is a critical component of IT strategy that pertains to the restoration of applications, data, and IT resources after a disaster. When we talk about hybrid clouds, we're referring to an IT architecture that combines the use of on-premises resources, private clouds, and public clouds.

What is Disaster Recovery?

Companies must do a lot more than back up their data if they wish to continue operating in the event of a disaster. Disaster recovery refers to the strategies and processes put in place to ensure that data and services hosted in the cloud can be quickly and effectively restored in the event of a disaster or data loss.

By taking into account what workloads are critical and how much downtime and data loss is acceptable, companies can develop comprehensive disaster recovery plans specific to their cloud infrastructure. These plans outline the steps to take in the event of a disaster, including data recovery testing frequency, data restoration procedures, roles and responsibilities, and communication protocols.

Cloud storage offers several advantages for disaster recovery compared to traditional on-premises solutions. Below is a comprehensive account of how hybrid cloud disaster recovery is different from traditional disaster recovery methods, with specific examples, and why those differences can be beneficial.

Data Resiliency and Flexibility

Companies need the flexibility to back up their data on multiple clouds. The primary benefit is that data will be more secure in case of a disaster, but there's another benefit that could provide a bigger upside: companies can offload some of their on-premises data and workloads to the cloud when they need more resources.

Traditional DR: Previously, organizations would have physical backup sites that could be miles away to protect against localized disasters. Setting up, maintaining, and periodically testing these sites was expensive and resource intensive.

Hybrid Cloud DR: With hybrid cloud solutions, organizations can choose to back up their on-premises infrastructure to a public cloud or vice versa. For instance, a company could use an on-premises setup for everyday operations and back up data to OVHcloud's public cloud. Alternatively, they might use a private cloud for sensitive operations and utilize a public cloud for scalable operations.

The biggest difference between these two is that with Traditional DR the cost is usually twofold. Two data centers, two sets of compute, two sets of data. And all of this has to be maintained and kept in the same versions. With the Hybrid Cloud DR, you replicate your data, and the DR site can have the compute powered off or not installed until there is a disaster. At that point, you can power on or install the compute as needed.

Geographical Redundancy

The rule of thumb is to keep three copies of data: one to use actively and two others for backup. The 3-2-1 rule, as it's known, dictates that users should keep three copies of the data; two copies should be stored on-site on different devices, and one copy should be off-site. However, with security breaches becoming more common, Veeam's 3-2-1-1-0 data storage strategy takes a few steps further. This strategy is mostly the same as the 3-2-1 rule, with two exceptions. The second "1" refers to storing one additional copy in an air-gapped device, meaning a device with no network interfaces, which prevents it from being connected to the internet. If users follow this rule, the "0" refers to there being zero errors.

Traditional DR: Companies had to manually set up redundant data centers in diverse geographical locations to guard against regional disasters, which was costly and had many weaknesses. For example, companies with short-staffed or overworked IT departments left the door open for mistakes, which often led to security vulnerabilities and lost data.

Hybrid Cloud DR: Cloud storage services allow organizations to regularly back up their data to remote servers located in data centers across various geographical regions. This redundancy helps safeguard against data loss due to localized disasters, such as fires, floods, or hardware failures. There's also peace of mind, as data centers employ hundreds of server technicians who work around the clock to maintain, update, and repair servers.

With 41% of companies running data protection on their hybrid cloud environments, having redundancy across multiple data centers can make the difference between a speedy recovery and longer downtime.

Testing

It's essential to regularly test disaster recovery plans and procedures to ensure they work as expected. Simulated disaster recovery drills can help identify and address potential issues before an actual disaster occurs.

Traditional DR: Testing a disaster recovery plan often meant interrupting operations and risking actual data or productivity. This crucial task is unavoidable, but the service interruptions and hassle of testing mean that most companies do DR testing as little as possible. According to an analyst report from Nutanix, only 21% of enterprise companies perform DR testing more than twice a year.

Hybrid Cloud DR: Cloud-based DR solutions can allow for non-disruptive testing to drive testing frequency and, ultimately, the security posture of your organization. For instance, you can create a clone of your environment in the cloud and test the DR scenario without affecting the production environment. This also makes meeting compliance requirements more feasible.

Speed of Recovery

Some cloud providers offer options for cross-region or cross-account data replication. This means that data can be automatically copied to another region or account, ensuring quick data recovery and data resilience in case of regional outages or account-related issues.

Traditional DR: Recovery time could be lengthy, especially if it requires restoring from physical backups.

Hybrid Cloud DR: With hybrid clouds, features like data replication can enable quicker recovery. Many cloud storage services offer features like data snapshots and versioning, which allow organizations to recover previous versions of files or restore data to a specific point in time. This can be crucial in scenarios where data is accidentally deleted or corrupted.

For example, with modern data recovery tools like lightweight snapshots, data can be continuously or periodically replicated, ensuring a faster recovery time objective (RTO). More importantly, these tools minimize restore point objectives (RPO), lowering the amount of data lost during an outage.

Scalability

Leveraging cloud services like load balancers, auto scaling, and multiple availability zones can enhance application and service availability. By designing systems with high availability in mind, organizations can minimize downtime during disasters.

Traditional DR: Scaling requires additional physical resources, which could be time-consuming and expensive.

Hybrid Cloud DR: Cloud resources can be quickly provisioned or decommissioned as needed. If a company suddenly needs more storage or computing resources during recovery, it can scale up quickly with a public cloud provider. With OVHcloud, you can even scale dedicated servers through vRack, ensuring you get a highly secure server that has resources solely dedicated to your needs.

Automated Tools

The use of automated tools lowers the chances of human error affecting the network.

Traditional DR: Required a lot of manual procedures and coordination, burdening system administrators with repetitive tasks that tanked productivity.

Hybrid Cloud DR: Many cloud providers, like Nutanix, offer integrated tools for DR planning, automation, and orchestration. This reduces the manual effort and human error factor in DR scenarios.

Cost Efficiency

Setting up an on-premises cloud is expensive, with large investments needed for a cavernous space to store servers, modern hardware, and a skilled workforce.

Traditional DR: Required businesses to invest in duplicate hardware, software licenses, and data centers, even if they weren't always in use.

Hybrid Cloud DR: Public cloud resources are consumed on a pay-as-you-go basis. So, instead of maintaining an expensive, rarely used physical recovery site, businesses only pay for cloud resources when they're actively using them for DR purposes.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) With OVHcloud

Cloud service providers often offer additional disaster recovery solutions, such as backup and recovery services, which can simplify the process for organizations. These services may include automated backup, disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), and data migration tools.

At OVHcloud, you can take full advantage of the disaster recovery powered by Zerto, which is an industry-leading scalable enterprise cloud data management and security solution. With Zerto's advanced data recovery and automated features, you can quickly regain control over your applications and data by switching your on-premises or OVHcloud-hosted private cloud to another OVHcloud data center. Better yet, you can do this with just a few clicks, further lowering your RTO and RPO times. You can also bring your own Nutanix license to OVHcloud, which has robust disaster recovery features such as on-demand replication and testing.

If you're ready to upgrade to an enterprise hybrid cloud solution to protect your data in the event of a disaster, you can learn more about Nutanix on OVHcloud or chat with one of our sales associates by booking a consultation.