Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) deployment requires data protection from day 1. Adopting an IaaS approach can improve efficiency and stimulate innovation in an enterprise of any size. By removing the physical IT infrastructure from the enterprise, you shift your focus from IT maintenance to IT productivity.
The migration to IaaS, or any cloud-based form of computing, requires the creation of a strategic data protection plan. Any enterprise relying on the cloud must take steps to protect against human error, to safeguard against cyber security threats and to comply with retention policies.
Unfortunately, many new IaaS-based enterprises assume their cloud provider or MSP automatically backs-up cloud-based applications. Then, in the event of a disaster, these enterprises discover their data has been lost.
Data Protection: Critical to IaaS Operations
Data protection is key to enterprise business continuity. It’s also key to business efficiency, regulatory compliance, competitiveness and brand reputation.
In the event of an outage, your cloud service provider or MSP is responsible for the maintenance of cloud configuration and infrastructure. The provider/MSP is not responsible for the applications or data stored on the infrastructure.
If your enterprise has not planned for a backup solution, you will experience downtime.
Remind me how IaaS can impact my business?
Common IaaS business applications include testing and development, website hosting, and data backup and recovery.
IaaS is frequently combined with SaaS applications, like Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or MailChimp.
This multi-cloud strategy provides IT flexibility and lower costs. With so much enterprise data offsite and in the cloud, this strategy also requires significant disaster continuity planning.
Data Security in the Cloud
IaaS data security ensures viable backups of your IaaS infrastructure are always available.
A disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) plan ensures the security of your IaaS infrastructure. The plan sets policies around:
- The type of infrastructure resources that get backed up
- Frequency of backup
- The number of backup copies to be retained
- The physical location of backup copies, based on data compliance and sovereignty requirements
In order to fulfil the DR/BC plan, a data security solution is required. Many cloud solutions offer very granular backup and recovery capabilities from an easy-to-understand and use interface.
Choosing an IaaS Data Protection Solution
Data backup protection is not an automatic option when migration to an IaaS solution. Should your enterprise data become corrupted or workloads become inaccessible due to infrastructure outages, security breaches, or disasters – the benefits of scalability and cost savings are negated.
When looking for a DR/BC provider, choose a partner that goes beyond IaaS protection. Â Ensure that your IT infrastructure is protected regardless of location: cloud-based, hosted, or on-premise. Your enterprise DR/BC requires comprehensive data protection plan that enables quick recover in the case of an outage.
Gastops: Case Study in Data Protection
Gastops, an industrial design and manufacturing firm, worked with HostedBizz to create and deploy an extensive disaster recovery and business continuity plan.
HostedBizz helped Gastops to create a business continuity plan with the ability to completely fail over to cloud infrastructure in the event of a disaster. The data protection plan safeguards against Ransomware/Crypto-locker attacks, and provides a Sandbox where Gastops can restore VMs, complete application updates and test new software in a non-production environment. The solution provides Gastops’ management with complete peace of mind that their data protection in the event of a major disaster or outage.