There are many benefits to cloud computing, from cost savings to scalability and performance. Many companies have even begun to take a cloud-first approach that proactively looks for ways to migrate processes to the cloud. However, one of the major downsides is the potential for cloud outages.
Cloud outages can have an immense impact, preventing your company from being able to access applications and data. Even choosing a public cloud provider known for reliability may not help; some of the biggest players in cloud computing have had major outages.
Causes: A variety of elements can cause an outage. They can be considered a subset of cyber crime, with malware or a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack overloading the systems. Cloud outages can be the result of a natural disaster or an everyday power outage. Hardware failure, poorly designed IT architecture, or network connectivity issues can also lead to outages.
The Impact: Even a normally dependable cloud provider might experience problems that lead to an outage. In addition, as you continue using cloud computing and adding on cloud services, the likelihood that you will experience an outage increases. The effects of an outage include lost revenue, loss of data, loss of customer trust and loyalty, and problems accessing systems because of data inconsistencies. You’ll also lose applications that serve customers or other end users.
Protection: You may not be able to prevent every outage, but using some prevention techniques and tools can reduce their frequency and damage. Before you even implement cloud computing, it’s important for teams to accurately assess cloud readiness and develop a comprehensive transformation plan. There should also be a team designated for the architecture, engineering, and implementation steps, ensuring there are failover capabilities for the infrastructure.
It’s also important to choose the right cloud provider. To lessen the effects of a power outage, you might consider choosing a cloud provider location that is different from your own location as a secondary option. The location closest to yours will perform better under ordinary circumstances, but it will be helpful to have a backup in case of cloud outages.
Additional measures you might include for prevention:
- Developing a disaster recovery strategy
- Using disaster recovery drills to establish quick responses for critical applications
- Automation of manual processes
- Determining an error budget
- Reliable cloud data backup
A cloud outage is a costly event, often impacting revenue, the trust of customers, and the reputation of the company. But with a cloud support team, a solid disaster recovery strategy, and the right cloud provider, you can minimize the possibility of an outage.
For more information about preventing a cloud outage by choosing the right cloud provider, contact us at Cloud Source. We can help you examine the right metrics for the cloud providers you’re considering, ensuring you avoid as much outage time as possible.