Part 3 will discuss Cloud Disaster Recovery (CDR) Planning Steps 4 to 7.

Step 4 – Find Right Cloud Provider

For companies planning to implement full replication and disaster recovery in the cloud, the following factors should be considered for finding the right cloud provider:

• Ease of Setup & Recovery
• Reliability
• Scalability
• Security Compliance
• Speed of Recovery
• Usability

All the major cloud providers, AWS, Google Cloud, IBM, and Microsoft Azure, have disaster recovery features. In addition, there are companies that provide Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS).

Step 5 – Set Up CDR Infrastructure

Your cloud DR partner will assist in the design implementation and setup of your DR infrastructure. As determined by the DR approach your team has chosen, there will be logistical aspects for consideration as summarized below.

• The quantity of infrastructure components required
• The methods used for copying your company’s data to the cloud
• Approach for user authentication and access management
• Best practices for security and compliance required
• Security measures needed to minimize effects of disasters
• Need for alignment with your company’s RTO and RPO specifications

Step 6 – Documentation of Disaster Recovery Plan

Standard guidelines or a process flowchart containing detailed step-by-step instructions for each DR team member. Should a disaster take place each member must be prepared to perform their assigned responsibilities during the disaster recovery process.

Step 7 – Regular Testing of DR Plan

Ensuring the effectiveness of your organization’s DR plan will require regular testing. It is only through tests that gaps and weaknesses will be found. Work with your CDR partner to come up with a testing procedure and a quarterly schedule that addresses the needs of your business. The analysis and monitoring of data backup performance should be performed on a daily or weekly basis as required by your industry.

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