The enterprise will increasingly live in a hybrid IT world in 2017, split between on-premises solutions and cloud environments. Recent reports have revealed that many organisations have already started to split their cloud budgets between public and private deployments, creating demand for hybrid cloud strategies that give businesses greater flexibility as well as more workload deployment options.

It’s easy to see why hybrid strategies are on the rise. Hybrid cloud enables workloads to exist on either a vendor-run public cloud or a customer-run private cloud. This means that IT teams are able to harness the security and control of a private cloud as well as the flexibility of public cloud services – thus, getting the best of both worlds. The most mature IT teams are reviewing their workloads – often in consultation with a cloud services provider – to determine which are most suited to a public or private cloud environment and adapting their workload placement accordingly across hybrid cloud options.

Here are the three key benefits often associated with implementing a hybrid cloud solution:

Scalability

Demand will wax and wane. Organisations’ requirements rarely run in a horizontal line and public cloud solutions are particularly valuable for dynamic or highly changeable workloads. When traffic surges, a hybrid environment allows for quick scalability in order to meet the needs of the moment. When the surge dies off the cloud resources consumed can be scaled back to avoid over-provisioning and keep costs under control.  With a hybrid cloud strategy, IT has the option to burst workloads into the public cloud when required to maintain performance during periods of increased demand.

Cost

Public cloud is fast and inexpensive to scale out and does not require the up-front investment in infrastructure of private cloud. The great thing about a hybrid approach is that it brings long-term savings. It is no longer a case of trying to determine the maximum load, reserving what is needed for that maximum load and paying for it all whether it is used or not. A hybrid solution allows for location and reallocation to meet changing workload needs as and when required which can have a significant impact on the IT bottom line.

Security

While the perception that the cloud is not as secure as on-premises infrastructure is a persistent one, there is increasing evidence that public cloud environments actually suffer from fewer attacks such as ransomware and viruses than traditional IT environments. Cloud service providers like iland now offer levels of security and compliance reporting that is very difficult for medium to small enterprise businesses to match in their own IT infrastructure.  Despite this, there may still be reasons why certain apps – particularly those running on legacy systems – may need to stay on-premises and a hybrid cloud strategy enables that dual approach.

Despite all the opportunities and related benefits provided by a hybrid cloud strategy, there is a key challenge that businesses must overcome – having visibility into and control of their cloud workloads and resources. All too often, organisations looking to adopt hybrid cloud as a means to increase agility within their IT operation get stuck in the implementation stage. They are left fighting for control of their environment because the majority of cloud providers don’t offer the same level of visibility teams are accustomed to from their on premise resources. They also struggle to maintain consistent network and security policies meaning that migration becomes a far bigger headache than initially expected. As companies make cloud computing a more strategic part of their overall strategy, having that visibility and management control over areas such as performance, billing, security and compliance reporting, is more important than ever.

At iland, we find that while customers continue to value and leverage our support teams, they increasingly want to take a more strategic and self-sufficient approach to cloud management in order to fully leverage all of its benefits. This means having the capability to perform data analytics, adjust resources, do DR testing on-demand, generate security reports and manage networking. And, increasingly, customers are using our APIs to link essential data about their cloud resources and workloads to their own IT systems which is invaluable in managing both public and private on-premises cloud environments in a holistic way.

As adoption of hybrid cloud increases, IT teams will need cloud service providers to provide the visibility and end-to-end cloud management tools that will help them approach and manage cloud in a more strategic way. The need for agility continues to be one of the biggest drivers of cloud adoption and with more complex hybrid cloud environments becoming the norm, management is key.

You can find out more about how customers leverage the iland cloud management console here.

The enterprise will increasingly live in a hybrid IT world in 2017, split between on-premises solutions and cloud environments. Recent reports have revealed that many organisations have already started to split their cloud budgets between public and private deployments, creating demand for hybrid cloud strategies that give businesses greater flexibility as well as more workload deployment options.

It’s easy to see why hybrid strategies are on the rise. Hybrid cloud enables workloads to exist on either a vendor-run public cloud or a customer-run private cloud. This means that IT teams are able to harness the security and control of a private cloud as well as the flexibility of public cloud services – thus, getting the best of both worlds. The most mature IT teams are reviewing their workloads – often in consultation with a cloud services provider – to determine which are most suited to a public or private cloud environment and adapting their workload placement accordingly across hybrid cloud options.

Here are the three key benefits often associated with implementing a hybrid cloud solution:

Scalability

Demand will wax and wane. Organisations’ requirements rarely run in a horizontal line and public cloud solutions are particularly valuable for dynamic or highly changeable workloads. When traffic surges, a hybrid environment allows for quick scalability in order to meet the needs of the moment. When the surge dies off the cloud resources consumed can be scaled back to avoid over-provisioning and keep costs under control.  With a hybrid cloud strategy, IT has the option to burst workloads into the public cloud when required to maintain performance during periods of increased demand.

Cost

Public cloud is fast and inexpensive to scale out and does not require the up-front investment in infrastructure of private cloud. The great thing about a hybrid approach is that it brings long-term savings. It is no longer a case of trying to determine the maximum load, reserving what is needed for that maximum load and paying for it all whether it is used or not. A hybrid solution allows for location and reallocation to meet changing workload needs as and when required which can have a significant impact on the IT bottom line.

Security

While the perception that the cloud is not as secure as on-premises infrastructure is a persistent one, there is increasing evidence that public cloud environments actually suffer from fewer attacks such as ransomware and viruses than traditional IT environments. Cloud service providers like iland now offer levels of security and compliance reporting that is very difficult for medium to small enterprise businesses to match in their own IT infrastructure.  Despite this, there may still be reasons why certain apps – particularly those running on legacy systems – may need to stay on-premises and a hybrid cloud strategy enables that dual approach.

Despite all the opportunities and related benefits provided by a hybrid cloud strategy, there is a key challenge that businesses must overcome – having visibility into and control of their cloud workloads and resources. All too often, organisations looking to adopt hybrid cloud as a means to increase agility within their IT operation get stuck in the implementation stage. They are left fighting for control of their environment because the majority of cloud providers don’t offer the same level of visibility teams are accustomed to from their on premise resources. They also struggle to maintain consistent network and security policies meaning that migration becomes a far bigger headache than initially expected. As companies make cloud computing a more strategic part of their overall strategy, having that visibility and management control over areas such as performance, billing, security and compliance reporting, is more important than ever.

At iland, we find that while customers continue to value and leverage our support teams, they increasingly want to take a more strategic and self-sufficient approach to cloud management in order to fully leverage all of its benefits. This means having the capability to perform data analytics, adjust resources, do DR testing on-demand, generate security reports and manage networking. And, increasingly, customers are using our APIs to link essential data about their cloud resources and workloads to their own IT systems which is invaluable in managing both public and private on-premises cloud environments in a holistic way.

As adoption of hybrid cloud increases, IT teams will need cloud service providers to provide the visibility and end-to-end cloud management tools that will help them approach and manage cloud in a more strategic way. The need for agility continues to be one of the biggest drivers of cloud adoption and with more complex hybrid cloud environments becoming the norm, management is key.

You can find out more about how customers leverage the iland cloud management console here.

(c)iStock.com/roberthyrons

When it comes to digital transformation within the legal sector there are understandably many questions about how to handle sensitive information without compromising client confidentiality. This is also true when dealing with the internet as a whole, but particularly when it comes to cloud computing.

In a survey by the Cloud Industry Forum it was revealed that 70% of IT decision makers regarded data security as one of their biggest concerns when deciding whether to move to cloud-based services, up from 61% the year before. Law firms are notoriously cautious about moving to the cloud and whilst many of them are planning to invest in new technology over the next two years, many are concerned about the risks involved with this decision.

The transactional nature of legal services means that IT availability is paramount, and the IT team must protect the business against threats like power outages, ransomware and other malicious attacks. Updating the IT infrastructure that legal firms use to do this, for example by migrating to the cloud, is now becoming key to enhancing operational efficiency, increasing IT security and ensuring the overall future success of individual legal firms.

Advantages of cloud migration

Increasingly, law firms are beginning to migrate to the cloud. Recently, New York law firm Graubard Miller and Thames Valley based solicitor B P Collins, migrated to the iland cloud for both Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service and cloud hosting services. This reflects the overall market need for reliable, secure and cost-efficient IT resilience, particularly in the face of growing business threats.

With the backup and disaster recovery services that are available, migrating to the cloud provides a much safer, secure and compliant option for businesses within the legal sector. Whilst there is still a bit of a misconception that the cloud presents a risk for legal firms, storing confidential data and client information in the cloud is actually a viable security measure protecting against both human and natural disasters.

Graubard Miller, for example, leverages on-demand testing functionality in the cloud to ensure everything will run smoothly should they need to fail over, as well as employing a hybrid cloud solution which seamlessly protects both physical and virtual machines. In addition, features such as role-based access control, two-factor authentication, turnkey security and compliance reports greatly simplify auditing processes and these measures provide an effective, efficient and easy alternative to traditional onsite IT systems.

As with any business, cloud computing offers law firms an effective means for storing large amounts of data in an easily accessible, cost-effective manner. When properly implemented, the cloud enables lawyers to work from anywhere, resulting in increased productivity and an enhanced work-life balance. More cloud providers also now offer cloud management via mobile apps, providing the user with even more freedom to access data. In addition to this, as data can be accessed and shared securely anytime from anywhere, collaboration among lawyers can be significantly improved.

Furthermore, the cloud offers potential cost savings for legal firms. This is largely due to the fact that the cloud reduces the need for in-house servers, therefore cutting down on the high cost of investing in and managing IT hardware. B P Collins, as an SMB who leverages the iland cloud through Managed Service Provider, Wavex, has benefited from opting for pay-as-you-go pricing in the cloud, making a significant saving on their IT infrastructure. Organisations are also often able to outsource cloud and data management to their cloud provider, saving costs and easing the load on their IT teams.

However, it is not a ‘no brainer’ decision

Migrating to the cloud is not a decision that should be taken lightly, and legal firms must be aware of the options available to them to ensure their journey to cloud is the most secure and compliant it can be.

Law firms should always consider the security measures of a cloud provider when choosing the best option for them. Confidentiality is vital to the lawyer-client relationship, therefore cloud providers must meet international best practices when it comes to complying with rigorous enterprise security and control standards such as data encryption, intrusion detection and vulnerability scanning.

Firms also need to consider data sovereignty and privacy regulations and the implications of the legal domains in which cloud content is stored. Many countries do not allow certain types of data to be stored outside of the country; therefore the firm needs to know where the cloud provider is physically located and whether it provides mitigation strategies to properly safeguard stored data.

Cloud is vital to remain competitive

In order for law firms to remain competitive they must update their technology to ensure their services continue to evolve. As with B P Collins, operating within the cloud enables legal firms to work with individuals and organisations to provide a range of services, from securing international acquisitions to supporting individual needs and safeguarding clients’ interests.  

In this ever more mobile age, lawyers are frequently required to access trial-critical documents on the move, rather than just from the office. This is why its important law firms embrace cloud computing securely to ensure their workforce is working as smartly as possible and their IT systems are highly available. If lawyers are spending a large proportion of their time every week out of the office, the ability to access data becomes a necessity.

Making the decision to adopt a cloud first strategy not only ensures high availability, data protection and increased IT security for legal firms, but also results in considerable IT cost reductions and enhanced lawyer-client collaboration. If technology is utilised well, migration to the cloud can only have a positive impact on the overall operational efficiency and ultimately the success of the firm.

(c)iStock.com/roberthyrons

When it comes to digital transformation within the legal sector there are understandably many questions about how to handle sensitive information without compromising client confidentiality. This is also true when dealing with the internet as a whole, but particularly when it comes to cloud computing.

In a survey by the Cloud Industry Forum it was revealed that 70% of IT decision makers regarded data security as one of their biggest concerns when deciding whether to move to cloud-based services, up from 61% the year before. Law firms are notoriously cautious about moving to the cloud and whilst many of them are planning to invest in new technology over the next two years, many are concerned about the risks involved with this decision.

The transactional nature of legal services means that IT availability is paramount, and the IT team must protect the business against threats like power outages, ransomware and other malicious attacks. Updating the IT infrastructure that legal firms use to do this, for example by migrating to the cloud, is now becoming key to enhancing operational efficiency, increasing IT security and ensuring the overall future success of individual legal firms.

Advantages of cloud migration

Increasingly, law firms are beginning to migrate to the cloud. Recently, New York law firm Graubard Miller and Thames Valley based solicitor B P Collins, migrated to the iland cloud for both Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service and cloud hosting services. This reflects the overall market need for reliable, secure and cost-efficient IT resilience, particularly in the face of growing business threats.

With the backup and disaster recovery services that are available, migrating to the cloud provides a much safer, secure and compliant option for businesses within the legal sector. Whilst there is still a bit of a misconception that the cloud presents a risk for legal firms, storing confidential data and client information in the cloud is actually a viable security measure protecting against both human and natural disasters.

Graubard Miller, for example, leverages on-demand testing functionality in the cloud to ensure everything will run smoothly should they need to fail over, as well as employing a hybrid cloud solution which seamlessly protects both physical and virtual machines. In addition, features such as role-based access control, two-factor authentication, turnkey security and compliance reports greatly simplify auditing processes and these measures provide an effective, efficient and easy alternative to traditional onsite IT systems.

As with any business, cloud computing offers law firms an effective means for storing large amounts of data in an easily accessible, cost-effective manner. When properly implemented, the cloud enables lawyers to work from anywhere, resulting in increased productivity and an enhanced work-life balance. More cloud providers also now offer cloud management via mobile apps, providing the user with even more freedom to access data. In addition to this, as data can be accessed and shared securely anytime from anywhere, collaboration among lawyers can be significantly improved.

Furthermore, the cloud offers potential cost savings for legal firms. This is largely due to the fact that the cloud reduces the need for in-house servers, therefore cutting down on the high cost of investing in and managing IT hardware. B P Collins, as an SMB who leverages the iland cloud through Managed Service Provider, Wavex, has benefited from opting for pay-as-you-go pricing in the cloud, making a significant saving on their IT infrastructure. Organisations are also often able to outsource cloud and data management to their cloud provider, saving costs and easing the load on their IT teams.

However, it is not a ‘no brainer’ decision

Migrating to the cloud is not a decision that should be taken lightly, and legal firms must be aware of the options available to them to ensure their journey to cloud is the most secure and compliant it can be.

Law firms should always consider the security measures of a cloud provider when choosing the best option for them. Confidentiality is vital to the lawyer-client relationship, therefore cloud providers must meet international best practices when it comes to complying with rigorous enterprise security and control standards such as data encryption, intrusion detection and vulnerability scanning.

Firms also need to consider data sovereignty and privacy regulations and the implications of the legal domains in which cloud content is stored. Many countries do not allow certain types of data to be stored outside of the country; therefore the firm needs to know where the cloud provider is physically located and whether it provides mitigation strategies to properly safeguard stored data.

Cloud is vital to remain competitive

In order for law firms to remain competitive they must update their technology to ensure their services continue to evolve. As with B P Collins, operating within the cloud enables legal firms to work with individuals and organisations to provide a range of services, from securing international acquisitions to supporting individual needs and safeguarding clients’ interests.  

In this ever more mobile age, lawyers are frequently required to access trial-critical documents on the move, rather than just from the office. This is why its important law firms embrace cloud computing securely to ensure their workforce is working as smartly as possible and their IT systems are highly available. If lawyers are spending a large proportion of their time every week out of the office, the ability to access data becomes a necessity.

Making the decision to adopt a cloud first strategy not only ensures high availability, data protection and increased IT security for legal firms, but also results in considerable IT cost reductions and enhanced lawyer-client collaboration. If technology is utilised well, migration to the cloud can only have a positive impact on the overall operational efficiency and ultimately the success of the firm.

(c)iStock.com/xijian

I read an interesting article recently that outlined the way in which cloud adoption has changed the business landscape, causing a seismic shift in how organisations operate. Depending on your source, UK cloud adoption rates are currently anywhere between 78% and 84%, and whilst cloud is no longer a new phenomenon, its importance to not only the CIO but also the full c-suite of decision makers such as CEOs, CMOs and CFOs, is paramount as they jostle to gain a competitive advantage over competitors.

It has been argued that cloud adoption heralds the largest disruption in enterprise computing since the advent of the PC, with many industries embracing cloud-based platforms to not only cut costs but also drive efficiency. Despite this, there has been a certain amount of trepidation from the financial services sector to make the transition and fully embrace cloud and its many advantages.

At the mere utterance of the word ‘cloud’ we used to hear a plethora of reasons why financial services organisations could not make the leap. There were concerns over regulatory compliance as well as the complexity of functional replacement, security and control. And, in an era where financial institutions are more highly regulated than ever before, one could forgive these organisations for a tentative approach to change – especially when it came to new technologies that cloud put compliance at risk. To further validate this hesitance, financial services firms are reportedly hit with security incidents 300 percent more frequently than other industries.

However, over the past year, the UK financial services sector has taken a more confident and proactive approach to cloud computing. In mid-2016, following the publishing of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) final guidance for UK regulated firms outsourcing to the cloud, it was made clear that there is no fundamental reason why financial services firms cannot use public cloud services, so long as they comply with the FCA’s rules. 

This statement and the guidance provided will certainly be welcomed by those UK financial institutions that have been hesitant to embrace cloud due to the lack of regulatory certainty over its use. This also serves as good news for the cloud sector too, providing a boost in the uptake of cloud services in the sector. Certainly, there are many examples of financial services firms using cloud while remaining in compliance with FCA regulations.

Regulatory compliance and managing cyber risk do not need to be the enemy of innovation. In fact, taking a risk-avoidant approach to experimenting with new business models, technologies or user experiences will be a fast path to obscurity in today’s business landscape, where innovation and competition can come from anywhere. Banks, hedge funds, asset managers, insurance firms and other players in the financial services ecosystem should seek out technologies that meet compliance and security needs but also enable agility and flexibility.

Here are three quick benefits that cloud can provide for the financial services sector:

Enhanced security

Contrary to popular belief, businesses who take advantage of cloud computing may actually enjoy stronger security than those who try to go it alone or rely on their on-premise security technologies. The cloud is certainly more secure than many legacy platforms, so if financial organisations choose the right cloud service provider, they can actually experience a higher level of security than they would via legacy solutions.

Reduced infrastructure

As your financial services firm grows, so does its information technology hardware and software needs. By migrating to the cloud, your company can reduce the amount of infrastructure stored onsite, share liability with qualified technology partners, eliminate much of the hassle associated with procuring hardware and software, and reduce costs in the process by moving IT CAPEX to OPEX. There is no longer a need to purchase multiple servers and supporting equipment, store it on-site and pay for the space and utilities to support the operation of that infrastructure.

Increased business agility

Cloud computing brings with it a number of benefits related to agility. First and foremost, cloud computing is all about scalability and flexibility on demand and financial services firms benefit from being able to roll out new applications very quickly or use the cloud for dev/test to drive innovation. Additionally, cloud computing is built with mobile productivity in mind. Employees need no longer be tethered to their desks. Applications and information can be accessed from virtually any device with Internet connectivity, allowing your staff the access needed to be effective, without being tied to the office.

By embracing cloud computing services, companies in the financial sector are able to add vast efficiency to their operations. As long as the risks can be managed, and with the right cloud service provider they can, there are many benefits. Cloud services – ranging from production to dev/test to disaster recovery and backup – can help financial firms reduce setup and operating costs related to installing new IT infrastructure and negate the need to invest in more data centre space by making the necessary infrastructure resources available on demand. Perhaps most importantly for such a regulated industry, cloud services can help financial services firms gain IT innovation while protecting them against cyber-attacks, ransomware as well as maintaining compliance.

If your financial services firm has been hesitant about a migration to cloud computing, it may be time to reconsider. Enjoy stronger security, lower your maintenance costs and unleash the productivity potential of employees by migrating to the cloud.

Read more: Why financial firms are missing out by not embracing the cloud

(c)iStock.com/xijian

I read an interesting article recently that outlined the way in which cloud adoption has changed the business landscape, causing a seismic shift in how organisations operate. Depending on your source, UK cloud adoption rates are currently anywhere between 78% and 84%, and whilst cloud is no longer a new phenomenon, its importance to not only the CIO but also the full c-suite of decision makers such as CEOs, CMOs and CFOs, is paramount as they jostle to gain a competitive advantage over competitors.

It has been argued that cloud adoption heralds the largest disruption in enterprise computing since the advent of the PC, with many industries embracing cloud-based platforms to not only cut costs but also drive efficiency. Despite this, there has been a certain amount of trepidation from the financial services sector to make the transition and fully embrace cloud and its many advantages.

At the mere utterance of the word ‘cloud’ we used to hear a plethora of reasons why financial services organisations could not make the leap. There were concerns over regulatory compliance as well as the complexity of functional replacement, security and control. And, in an era where financial institutions are more highly regulated than ever before, one could forgive these organisations for a tentative approach to change – especially when it came to new technologies that cloud put compliance at risk. To further validate this hesitance, financial services firms are reportedly hit with security incidents 300 percent more frequently than other industries.

However, over the past year, the UK financial services sector has taken a more confident and proactive approach to cloud computing. In mid-2016, following the publishing of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) final guidance for UK regulated firms outsourcing to the cloud, it was made clear that there is no fundamental reason why financial services firms cannot use public cloud services, so long as they comply with the FCA’s rules. 

This statement and the guidance provided will certainly be welcomed by those UK financial institutions that have been hesitant to embrace cloud due to the lack of regulatory certainty over its use. This also serves as good news for the cloud sector too, providing a boost in the uptake of cloud services in the sector. Certainly, there are many examples of financial services firms using cloud while remaining in compliance with FCA regulations.

Regulatory compliance and managing cyber risk do not need to be the enemy of innovation. In fact, taking a risk-avoidant approach to experimenting with new business models, technologies or user experiences will be a fast path to obscurity in today’s business landscape, where innovation and competition can come from anywhere. Banks, hedge funds, asset managers, insurance firms and other players in the financial services ecosystem should seek out technologies that meet compliance and security needs but also enable agility and flexibility.

Here are three quick benefits that cloud can provide for the financial services sector:

Enhanced security

Contrary to popular belief, businesses who take advantage of cloud computing may actually enjoy stronger security than those who try to go it alone or rely on their on-premise security technologies. The cloud is certainly more secure than many legacy platforms, so if financial organisations choose the right cloud service provider, they can actually experience a higher level of security than they would via legacy solutions.

Reduced infrastructure

As your financial services firm grows, so does its information technology hardware and software needs. By migrating to the cloud, your company can reduce the amount of infrastructure stored onsite, share liability with qualified technology partners, eliminate much of the hassle associated with procuring hardware and software, and reduce costs in the process by moving IT CAPEX to OPEX. There is no longer a need to purchase multiple servers and supporting equipment, store it on-site and pay for the space and utilities to support the operation of that infrastructure.

Increased business agility

Cloud computing brings with it a number of benefits related to agility. First and foremost, cloud computing is all about scalability and flexibility on demand and financial services firms benefit from being able to roll out new applications very quickly or use the cloud for dev/test to drive innovation. Additionally, cloud computing is built with mobile productivity in mind. Employees need no longer be tethered to their desks. Applications and information can be accessed from virtually any device with Internet connectivity, allowing your staff the access needed to be effective, without being tied to the office.

By embracing cloud computing services, companies in the financial sector are able to add vast efficiency to their operations. As long as the risks can be managed, and with the right cloud service provider they can, there are many benefits. Cloud services – ranging from production to dev/test to disaster recovery and backup – can help financial firms reduce setup and operating costs related to installing new IT infrastructure and negate the need to invest in more data centre space by making the necessary infrastructure resources available on demand. Perhaps most importantly for such a regulated industry, cloud services can help financial services firms gain IT innovation while protecting them against cyber-attacks, ransomware as well as maintaining compliance.

If your financial services firm has been hesitant about a migration to cloud computing, it may be time to reconsider. Enjoy stronger security, lower your maintenance costs and unleash the productivity potential of employees by migrating to the cloud.

Read more: Why financial firms are missing out by not embracing the cloud

(c)iStock.com/vchal

The most common objection I come across when discussing disaster recovery (DR) is, “Oh, well we don’t get hurricanes or floods or anything like that, so we don’t need DR”. To which I always reply “That’s all well and good, but do you have humans? What about hardware and power? Do you have HVAC in your data centre?”

A disaster can be any number of things and yes, whilst nature can definitely be a cause, in research that Opinion Matters undertook on behalf of iland in 2016, we found that it actually accounts for only 20% of outages. Our research also found that more often than not, disaster also comes in the form of operational failures (53%) and human error (52%). It is actually as a result of the latter two factors that the most outages occur.

When people think of disasters, they tend to think dramatically and on a large scale of incidents capable of taking out an entire data centre for long periods of time. In actual fact, when businesses leverage DR solutions, it tends to be because of much more isolated and smaller issues that have impacted the business. Perhaps only a couple of systems or mission critical applications have gone down; entire IT systems don’t need to implode before one’s eyes to warrant a disaster. It is the smaller disasters that we really need to be focusing on as it’s usually a build-up of these which results in a cascading effect which can then have a bigger impact on the business.

We have many customers that will failover just one or two systems. Maybe a patch went wrong, or a virus occurred and the best thing to do was to keep the system running, fail the affected machine over to keep the application running and fail back when systems are repaired. It doesn’t always have to be on a massive scale. By grouping VMs supporting multi-tier applications into virtual protection groups, you can perform partial failovers within that group, reducing cost and simplifying failback.

Significant disruptions to IT systems, however, do happen and can take a heavy toll on the business; hence the importance of having a reliable DR plan in place. Of course, there are the obvious implications of a disaster such as interruptions to trade, service and loss in revenue. But, perhaps what you might not have considered is the effect on employee morale and additionally on customer confidence. In order to reduce disruptions such as these, a proactive and strategic approach to disaster recovery is required.

Five or ten years ago, the solution to DR felt heavy and complex and, as a result, many organisations put it in the ‘too hard or expensive’ basket and DR was put off to next month or the next quarter, maybe even the next year. In the last few years, however, cloud-based disaster recovery options have given organisations new and more affordable route to protecting their businesses.

As companies started to virtualise and people start moving to the cloud, we found that other parts of the datacentre weren’t keeping up. Efficiency was increasing but replication was still lagging, still embedded in the hardware layer. This not only made it difficult to work with an external vendor, as matching hardware requirements could not be met but, it also meant that everything had to be replicated, rather than just the data that companies were interested in. As a result, the investment in digitisation was being undermined as resources were being wasted. iland’s DR software, powered by Zerto, allows for replication to take place in the hypervisor at the VM level, providing its users with a far more efficient solution.

So what should you look for in a DRaaS solution?  In my mind, excellent technical support is key in enabling users to craft a complete DR solution that meets their cost requirements and risk tolerance, whilst also ensuring that the solution will be implemented quickly and tailored for success within their organisation. A successful DRaaS solution should also allow for testing by the user themselves to make sure their plan actually works. Finally, a DRaaS solution should be able extend the security measures and compliance rules already present on premise into the cloud.

As I mentioned earlier we commissioned a survey of 250 IT decision makers with responsibility for DR from medium to large companies in the UK. From outage experiences to achievable recovery times to failover confidence levels and barriers to adoption of cloud-based DR, the survey revealed a wealth of insights that can serve as benchmarks for developing a successful disaster recovery strategy. If you would be interested in finding out more about the results of the survey, the full report can be found here.

Read more: Why you can’t let disaster recovery slide off your IT budget in 2017

(c)iStock.com/vchal

The most common objection I come across when discussing disaster recovery (DR) is, “Oh, well we don’t get hurricanes or floods or anything like that, so we don’t need DR”. To which I always reply “That’s all well and good, but do you have humans? What about hardware and power? Do you have HVAC in your data centre?”

A disaster can be any number of things and yes, whilst nature can definitely be a cause, in research that Opinion Matters undertook on behalf of iland in 2016, we found that it actually accounts for only 20% of outages. Our research also found that more often than not, disaster also comes in the form of operational failures (53%) and human error (52%). It is actually as a result of the latter two factors that the most outages occur.

When people think of disasters, they tend to think dramatically and on a large scale of incidents capable of taking out an entire data centre for long periods of time. In actual fact, when businesses leverage DR solutions, it tends to be because of much more isolated and smaller issues that have impacted the business. Perhaps only a couple of systems or mission critical applications have gone down; entire IT systems don’t need to implode before one’s eyes to warrant a disaster. It is the smaller disasters that we really need to be focusing on as it’s usually a build-up of these which results in a cascading effect which can then have a bigger impact on the business.

We have many customers that will failover just one or two systems. Maybe a patch went wrong, or a virus occurred and the best thing to do was to keep the system running, fail the affected machine over to keep the application running and fail back when systems are repaired. It doesn’t always have to be on a massive scale. By grouping VMs supporting multi-tier applications into virtual protection groups, you can perform partial failovers within that group, reducing cost and simplifying failback.

Significant disruptions to IT systems, however, do happen and can take a heavy toll on the business; hence the importance of having a reliable DR plan in place. Of course, there are the obvious implications of a disaster such as interruptions to trade, service and loss in revenue. But, perhaps what you might not have considered is the effect on employee morale and additionally on customer confidence. In order to reduce disruptions such as these, a proactive and strategic approach to disaster recovery is required.

Five or ten years ago, the solution to DR felt heavy and complex and, as a result, many organisations put it in the ‘too hard or expensive’ basket and DR was put off to next month or the next quarter, maybe even the next year. In the last few years, however, cloud-based disaster recovery options have given organisations new and more affordable route to protecting their businesses.

As companies started to virtualise and people start moving to the cloud, we found that other parts of the datacentre weren’t keeping up. Efficiency was increasing but replication was still lagging, still embedded in the hardware layer. This not only made it difficult to work with an external vendor, as matching hardware requirements could not be met but, it also meant that everything had to be replicated, rather than just the data that companies were interested in. As a result, the investment in digitisation was being undermined as resources were being wasted. iland’s DR software, powered by Zerto, allows for replication to take place in the hypervisor at the VM level, providing its users with a far more efficient solution.

So what should you look for in a DRaaS solution?  In my mind, excellent technical support is key in enabling users to craft a complete DR solution that meets their cost requirements and risk tolerance, whilst also ensuring that the solution will be implemented quickly and tailored for success within their organisation. A successful DRaaS solution should also allow for testing by the user themselves to make sure their plan actually works. Finally, a DRaaS solution should be able extend the security measures and compliance rules already present on premise into the cloud.

As I mentioned earlier we commissioned a survey of 250 IT decision makers with responsibility for DR from medium to large companies in the UK. From outage experiences to achievable recovery times to failover confidence levels and barriers to adoption of cloud-based DR, the survey revealed a wealth of insights that can serve as benchmarks for developing a successful disaster recovery strategy. If you would be interested in finding out more about the results of the survey, the full report can be found here.

Read more: Why you can’t let disaster recovery slide off your IT budget in 2017

(c)iStock.com/olm26250

As we welcome in the New Year, we are already seeing multiple blogs prognosticating 2017 trends, setting priorities and suggesting resolutions. We are also rapidly approaching the 2017 budget cycle. I am sure you will read many articles concerning new plans or resolutions for the coming year, but this one will be about an old resolution: IT disaster recovery (DR).

When disaster strikes, organisations need to be able to recover IT systems as quickly as possible. Not having a disaster recovery plan in place can put the business at risk of high financial costs, reputation loss and even greater risks for its clients, customers and employees. Despite this, each year business continuity gets cut from the budget and companies continue to fail to invest in DR.

Here are five common objections that continue to dominate the disaster recovery budget discussion and why IT leaders need to refute them:

“It’s going to cost a fortune”

Business leaders often assume that disaster recovery is going to break the bank. When thinking about a robust disaster recovery plan, secondary data centres complete with HVAC, as well as second copies of all servers, storage and networks comes to mind. Furthermore, there is a general misconception that systems are sitting idle, just waiting for disaster to strike, and all this is before even considering the maintenance costs involved.

However, having a robust disaster recovery plan in place doesn’t have to mean investing in a secondary data centre. Technology has developed massively in the last few years and there are now a number of different options that enable organisations to minimise the cost of DR without sacrificing the recoverability of IT systems. Cloud-based disaster recovery, often termed Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) enables failover of virtual machines to secure cloud locations. Often billed by VM or by TB of storage, DRaaS provides the flexibility to only pay for what you need. Having an on-demand pricing model means the costs are therefore remarkably low. With DRaaS, organisations do not have to sacrifice the ability to fail over in a time of need and are also gaining the benefits of security and compliance within the cloud platform. In most cases, it has now become a lot more cost effective for organisations to invest in DRaaS rather than building and managing a secondary data centre.

“But I have backup down the hall”

Some businesses may argue they are covered in case of disaster because they have a robust backup system in the form of an on-site server. If you back up each day to this, then surely you do not need DRaaS?

However, backup ‘down the hall’ is not immune from a localised disaster and additionally, should disaster strike, restoring data from back up takes hours, if not days. DRaaS is about minimising downtime. With DRaaS organisations can restore operations quickly (often in minutes or even seconds) and in a highly automated fashion. It can also be tested in advance so that if and when an issue does arise the infrastructure can be recovered at the push of a button as the failover system has been fully tested and proven.

The difference between back up and DR is significant and both can co-exist happily in a secure and compliant business continuity strategy.

“We don’t get bad weather!” 

With headlines focusing on big natural disasters, many believe that if they live in a region with generally good weather, they are exempt from the danger of an outage. This is a false sense of security, however, as the ‘disaster’ in disaster recovery doesn’t just refer to natural disasters caused by weather events.

Outages are increasingly more likely to be the result of human error or malicious attacks – just look at the increase in ransomware attacks we’ve seen on businesses over the past year. Organisations are also susceptible to power outages, upgrade problems or bad coding.

Incidents such as these are completely out of an IT team’s control. It is therefore vital that there is a robust disaster recovery plan in place to be able to recover when the inevitable happens.

“We don’t have outages” 

This objection is for the most part unrealistic. Generally, people do not like talking about outages. Usually it is not a case of an organisation not experiencing outages, it is more likely that these outages do not get fed back to senior leadership.

Whilst some smaller outages may go unnoticed and leave a business moderately unscathed, over the course of a week, a month or a year downtime adds up and ultimately becomes expensive, having an unplanned effect on revenue. In addition to this, downtime can impact reputation, customer loyalty and employee productivity.

When it comes to outages organisations need to be more transparent in their approach; utilise the data on outages, attacks, maintenance windows, patch and upgrade problems that exist in your IT department to implement a reliable and effective DR strategy.

“We can handle a little downtime” 

The final objection is ‘we don’t need a robust DR plan because we can deal with a few minutes of downtime’. Businesses may question how much downtime will really impact the business and argue that since all their systems are not customer facing, it isn’t the end of the world.

However, downtime can actually have a very significant impact on revenue. In the last decade, our expectations as consumers and IT end users have changed. We expect everything instantly and business is increasingly conducted online. As a result, people are more sensitive to an interruption in service and having even a few minutes downtime could have a massive impact on customer loyalty, not to mention bottom line revenue.  

The impact of downtime is tremendous. A 2016 survey conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of iland showed that, for 69% of respondents, downtime of only minutes would have highly disruptive or catastrophic business impact. Additionally, Gartner has reported that 72% of firms had to use their IT disaster recovery plans, in its 2015 Business Continuity Management survey, and estimates in their 2016 Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service that the DRaaS market will nearly triple in the next three years to a revenue point of $3.4 billion by 2019.

A robust disaster recovery strategy is vital to running a successful and secure business. If any of these five objections have influenced your decision to invest in a business continuity plan, it may be time to reconsider. Without an IT disaster recovery plan, you run the risk of incurring serious business losses through outages, hours of downtime, lost data, and negative impact on reputation. Make 2017 the year that DR is put firmly back in the IT budget. 

(c)iStock.com/olm26250

As we welcome in the New Year, we are already seeing multiple blogs prognosticating 2017 trends, setting priorities and suggesting resolutions. We are also rapidly approaching the 2017 budget cycle. I am sure you will read many articles concerning new plans or resolutions for the coming year, but this one will be about an old resolution: IT disaster recovery (DR).

When disaster strikes, organisations need to be able to recover IT systems as quickly as possible. Not having a disaster recovery plan in place can put the business at risk of high financial costs, reputation loss and even greater risks for its clients, customers and employees. Despite this, each year business continuity gets cut from the budget and companies continue to fail to invest in DR.

Here are five common objections that continue to dominate the disaster recovery budget discussion and why IT leaders need to refute them:

“It’s going to cost a fortune”

Business leaders often assume that disaster recovery is going to break the bank. When thinking about a robust disaster recovery plan, secondary data centres complete with HVAC, as well as second copies of all servers, storage and networks comes to mind. Furthermore, there is a general misconception that systems are sitting idle, just waiting for disaster to strike, and all this is before even considering the maintenance costs involved.

However, having a robust disaster recovery plan in place doesn’t have to mean investing in a secondary data centre. Technology has developed massively in the last few years and there are now a number of different options that enable organisations to minimise the cost of DR without sacrificing the recoverability of IT systems. Cloud-based disaster recovery, often termed Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) enables failover of virtual machines to secure cloud locations. Often billed by VM or by TB of storage, DRaaS provides the flexibility to only pay for what you need. Having an on-demand pricing model means the costs are therefore remarkably low. With DRaaS, organisations do not have to sacrifice the ability to fail over in a time of need and are also gaining the benefits of security and compliance within the cloud platform. In most cases, it has now become a lot more cost effective for organisations to invest in DRaaS rather than building and managing a secondary data centre.

“But I have backup down the hall”

Some businesses may argue they are covered in case of disaster because they have a robust backup system in the form of an on-site server. If you back up each day to this, then surely you do not need DRaaS?

However, backup ‘down the hall’ is not immune from a localised disaster and additionally, should disaster strike, restoring data from back up takes hours, if not days. DRaaS is about minimising downtime. With DRaaS organisations can restore operations quickly (often in minutes or even seconds) and in a highly automated fashion. It can also be tested in advance so that if and when an issue does arise the infrastructure can be recovered at the push of a button as the failover system has been fully tested and proven.

The difference between back up and DR is significant and both can co-exist happily in a secure and compliant business continuity strategy.

“We don’t get bad weather!” 

With headlines focusing on big natural disasters, many believe that if they live in a region with generally good weather, they are exempt from the danger of an outage. This is a false sense of security, however, as the ‘disaster’ in disaster recovery doesn’t just refer to natural disasters caused by weather events.

Outages are increasingly more likely to be the result of human error or malicious attacks – just look at the increase in ransomware attacks we’ve seen on businesses over the past year. Organisations are also susceptible to power outages, upgrade problems or bad coding.

Incidents such as these are completely out of an IT team’s control. It is therefore vital that there is a robust disaster recovery plan in place to be able to recover when the inevitable happens.

“We don’t have outages” 

This objection is for the most part unrealistic. Generally, people do not like talking about outages. Usually it is not a case of an organisation not experiencing outages, it is more likely that these outages do not get fed back to senior leadership.

Whilst some smaller outages may go unnoticed and leave a business moderately unscathed, over the course of a week, a month or a year downtime adds up and ultimately becomes expensive, having an unplanned effect on revenue. In addition to this, downtime can impact reputation, customer loyalty and employee productivity.

When it comes to outages organisations need to be more transparent in their approach; utilise the data on outages, attacks, maintenance windows, patch and upgrade problems that exist in your IT department to implement a reliable and effective DR strategy.

“We can handle a little downtime” 

The final objection is ‘we don’t need a robust DR plan because we can deal with a few minutes of downtime’. Businesses may question how much downtime will really impact the business and argue that since all their systems are not customer facing, it isn’t the end of the world.

However, downtime can actually have a very significant impact on revenue. In the last decade, our expectations as consumers and IT end users have changed. We expect everything instantly and business is increasingly conducted online. As a result, people are more sensitive to an interruption in service and having even a few minutes downtime could have a massive impact on customer loyalty, not to mention bottom line revenue.  

The impact of downtime is tremendous. A 2016 survey conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of iland showed that, for 69% of respondents, downtime of only minutes would have highly disruptive or catastrophic business impact. Additionally, Gartner has reported that 72% of firms had to use their IT disaster recovery plans, in its 2015 Business Continuity Management survey, and estimates in their 2016 Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service that the DRaaS market will nearly triple in the next three years to a revenue point of $3.4 billion by 2019.

A robust disaster recovery strategy is vital to running a successful and secure business. If any of these five objections have influenced your decision to invest in a business continuity plan, it may be time to reconsider. Without an IT disaster recovery plan, you run the risk of incurring serious business losses through outages, hours of downtime, lost data, and negative impact on reputation. Make 2017 the year that DR is put firmly back in the IT budget.