Many firms regard cloud computing as the next great solution in the IT landscape because of the countless opportunities the technology provides the private sector. During today’s macroeconomic crisis, the cloud helps companies reduce expenses. As the business phone system continues to evolve, cloud solutions support mobility and remote connectivity. In the age of big data, the hosted environment’s scalable and flexible environment can expand or contract depending on their specific user’s requirements.
The list goes on and on, but most companies recognize a single characteristic as the cloud’s most advantageous quality: business continuity. The corporate landscape is surrounded by a number of threats executives have never faced before, including the cybercriminal who is more sophisticated than ever before and the constant, looming risk of an unavoidable natural or man-made disaster.
A recent report by Information Management said organizations of all sizes will deploy the cloud for business continuity benefits in 2013 if they haven’t done so already. This is largely because hosted services offer companies the ability to store resources off-premise and leverage advanced off-site resources that can improve an executive’s power to restore operations.
This area is gaining traction as enterprises and SMBs look for cost-effective ways to implement a DR strategy,” said Henrik Rosendahl, senior vice president of cloud solutions at Quantum, according to Information Management.
The benefits of cloud disaster recovery
A recent study by TwinStrata revealed that 80 percent of cloud users said they can recover mission-critical resources hosted in the virtual environments in less than 24 hours, while a quarter said they can do so nearly instantaneously. This is a stark comparison to firms not using the cloud, which say it sometimes takes them longer than a week to restore operations.
When businesses replace an old phone system with a cloud PBX, they will be able to experience these restoration benefits and more. This is especially important in today’s far-flung, distributed workplace full of remote employees. If an organization is not able to restore communications in a timely manner, it will likely suffer significant consequences in the wake of an emergency, sometimes even failing to come back to full health.
A separate report by AT&T highlighted the fact that roughly 38 percent of companies have incorporated cloud services into their disaster recovery strategies. Oftentimes, these solutions include cloud VoIP and other advanced hosted telecommunications.
“There’s certainly no shortage of potential threats or disasters around the world and it’s evident that executives are taking the necessary measures to ensure their business continuity plans are in place and actionable,” said Chris Costello of AT&T. “We’ve seen a strong emphasis on IT security and continued growth in areas of cloud and mobile applications; implying that companies are embracing the tools and services needed to continue operational activities despite potential threats and disasters.”
As the cloud continues to shape the office phone system as well as the general collaboration strategies in the private sector, decision-makers should not neglect incorporating the technology into their grand continuity scheme.