Programs and data on a cloud-based service are hosted on a remote server by the cloud provider. Using the company intranet or internet users can access those data. This alternate means of desktop computing plays an important role in business continuity as it comes with many advantages which we will discuss in the next section.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

Cloud service does not implicate only remote access of servers. It includes analytics, databases, applications, storage, servers, and networking. You can access these services tend to be on-demand, which means you can easily increase capacity. All technologies borrow some challenges and the cloud is not an exception. Though the cloud presents some challenges, it also offers these advantages:

• It provides the facility of load balancing for delivering processing and storage resources where your company needs them 
• You will be charged only for services. However, you can quickly scales up or down the service access.
• As there is no concept of on-premises service access it eliminates costs related to hardware requires for maintenance and security 
• Reduces overall maintenance cost of the servers as they are maintained by third party vendors.
• Reduces the latency of the fixed company-owned data center through global data center networks 
• Increases availability because storage is decentralized; if one center fails, another should be available
• Helps control company expenses, increase efficiency, and reduce vulnerabilities 

Benefits of Cloud Services Models to Business Continuity

The cloud computing models can be categorized into the following types

• SaaS
• PaaS
• IaaS
• StaaS
• serverless models.

Companies buy subscriptions or use a pay-per-use (PPU) model. 

Let see what are the advantages on business continuity for the each of the cloud models.

SaaS – Customers can use multiple devices to access the software anytime, anywhere they have access to the internet.

PaaS – Companies can continue to develop, test, and deploy new products from any employee location.

IaaS – Companies can quickly support a system without paying for hardware and maintaining the required data center environment. The model provides high availability in emergencies, and you don’t need disaster recovery equipment and staff. The vendor is responsible for network and hardware security and maintenance.

STaaS – Small and medium-sized companies can use this option for off-site backup.

Serverless – A form of IaaS, serverless computing allows companies to scale as necessary and pay only for what they use, instead of pre-purchasing resources. They focus solely on the business functions of the application clients. The service provider dynamically adjusts resources as needed.

The cloud is a key part of business continuity for the transaction- and data-focused companies that can’t afford downtime. Cloud services protect continuous availability and offer fast, reliable continuity support. “When we’re talking about cloud computing for business continuity, we’re talking about having one of two things,” explains Bryan Strawser, Principal and Chief Executive at BryghtPath Consulting. “Either we have a redundant system that relies upon the cloud, whether that’s software-as-a-service or cloud-based applications — so a combination of physical data center assets and cloud-based assets like AWS or Azure. Or you’re a company where everything’s in the cloud.”

Cloud Benefits for Business Continuity

Data recovery is an important criterion of business continuity. The cloud offers timely and error-free data recovery for business continuity. The cloud offers a secure, seamless alternative when you cannot access your main offices. Home offices, satellite offices, or recovery sites can continue working as normal. 

Traditional recovery solutions often took hours to transfer data from on-premise tape or flash drives or servers to recovery hardware. The on-premise model could stall an entire company if the main servers crash.

SaaS and cloud offerings typically include more redundancy and resiliency against potential outages than an individual company can afford to establish and maintain. Large-scale remote work and continued trade through online shopping were impossible in the early 2000s, before the advent of cloud computing. 

Here is a summary of how cloud computing supports business continuity:

• Provides regular backups and easy failover (equipment that assumes the work when primary systems fail)
• Reduces downtime
• Provides better network and information security management
• Scales to suit your business needs; for example, keep critical data on-premise and back up the rest to the cloud 
• Helps reduce impact in disruption of service (DoS) attacks
• Removes the need to stand up and maintain a costly physical mirror site of your infrastructure
• Eliminates the need to sync software on two sites
• Reduces recovery time to as little as a few minutes — potentially 
• Eliminates the need to travel to a remote site in potentially difficult or dangerous circumstances

Related post – What are the benefits of cloud-based business continuity?

Business Continuity Plan for Cloud Computing

It is crucial to document the steps you will take to protect, preserve, and leverage your SaaS and cloud services in a crisis. Drafting a business continuity plan can help.

Follow these steps to include cloud computing in your business continuity procedures and guidelines: 

1. Auditing your existing infrastructure is the first step you need to do. So, conduct a complete audit of your distributed platform, including all devices, users, software, and hardware. Identify where data resides in your end-to-end system: Who has what documents on their laptops? You can use an automatic audit program or this downloadable network audit template.  
2. Conduct a risk assessment on your entire setup. 
3. Include cloud services when completing your business impact analysis (BIA). 
4. Document any workarounds.
5. Include key contacts for cloud services in business continuity plans.
6. Consider how work will continue if on-premise apps go down but the cloud is still running, and vice versa.
7. Test the cloud-related aspects of your plan in scenario-based exercises. Don’t assume everything will work. Your exercises should reproduce disruptions to your cloud services and response time delays, as well as help you brainstorm effective solutions.

Challenges of Business Continuity in cloud computing

• You are always responsible for understanding backup and security protocols, even for third-party provide
• Data centers are subject to failures and downtime.
• Many cybersecurity and other professionals don’t trust cloud security.
• You still need to understand how your cloud provider backs up your data.
• You need to understand the data center’s physical security plan.
• With your own hardware, you can create a redundant setup or move assets. The cloud includes layers you can’t control.
• You might have to invest in more resources and personnel than you currently need

How should you evaluate your existing business continuity plan when moving to cloud computing / SaaS?

You must include any major third-party supplier within your plans when moving to cloud computing. Some areas you need to cover are:

• You need to ensure that the provider’s plans fit your requirements for availability and return to service – so look at the service level agreements.
• You need to plan for your provider to potentially stop trading for a set amount of time and permanently.
• What happens if the provider is bought out and the new owner wishes to cease the service?
• Know how you will you get your data out of the provider in a disaster situation, and how you will be able to access your data. For example, your entire CRM or ERP exported in Excel format may be useful for the short-term.
• Ask for detail on their infrastructure and evaluate it as your own.
• Check the provider’s indemnity.
• Check support availability. Some SaaS providers may only run support services during US working hours and you’ll want a heavy UK focus.
• Think about systems integration. Undertake an in-depth analysis identify which internal systems and services interface with the SaaS solution and how a disaster will affect them.