Whether it is the much revered Microsoft’s Azure or our own Bombay Stock Exchange, outage of services can create a pressing situation
If we talk about the large or even small enterprise IT infrastructure, cloud computing finds itself right in the middle of everything, processes and applications are increasingly getting intertwined with cloud solutions. However, there are times when cloud goes offline and when this happens, things go awry quite fast.
While most of the IT leaders say that today’s cloud technology is quite matured, they do fear the times when their cloud services are offline even for about an hour or so. “It creates havoc, even though we are quite prepared to handle such situations, but still there is loss to business. The only thing that we can do from an IT standpoint, is to minimize this loss and better prepare ourselves to handle such outages in a better manner,” says an IT leader working with a large enterprise on conditions of anonymity.
The all Critical Data Center
A world built on cloud is a world that is quite heavily dependent upon the availability of the datacenter and this availability again becomes a natural function of an array of technologies that drive data centers. There are different layers of computing, networking, storage and communications that power modern day data centers and on top of that, we have factors such as constant availability of electricity and power that can contribute towards smooth running of data centers.
If cloud services are unavailable for any amount of time, the cost to the cloud provider and the enterprise running within the cloud can become astronomical.
What would happen if an enterprise or even an SMB cloud goes down even for a short span of time? In this scenario, the IT guys must mitigate to understand how much money the organization would lose, in a given time or just say in an hourly manner? Answers to these questions can provide a stronger base to deal with cloud outage scenarios in a better and resilient manner.
Today, it is all about data and fast availability of data often decide business winners. And if a business can’t access its data then it most certainly means that cannot serve its customers well. Not being able to serve customers is catastrophic. And when we think about cloud outages, we have to consider the consequences of the negative experience of the end user.
At a time when cloud providers claim to provide 99.9% availability, it always seems to be the case as if the 00.1% of non-availability of services happens during the times when it is needed the most. But when it comes to outliving a cloud outage scenario, preparing for the worst is an essential part of building out a public, private or hybrid cloud strategy.
In a fast changing IT world, it is often seen that people make basic mistakes of not taking proper backups and especially when an enterprise puts its data in the hands of the cloud provider, it must crease a backup plan to outlive a cloud outage.
Some of the ‘Cloud-Critical’ Steps that enterprise should take
Take all the precautions to vet out any cloud service provider, clearly understand on its capacity to deliver service.
It is very important to read over the cloud service provider’s service level agreements and seek out legal or professional counsel as and when needed.
Due diligence is always important and at times can provide eye openers.
