Choose Your DR Solutions in Cloud computing

After you’ve set your RTOs and RPOs, it is time to choose the specific solution
that will protect each of your applications and data. Your selection criteria
should include the following:
• The total cost of ownership. Cost is always a factor, but as stated
above, be sure to consider the total cost of ownership rather than
just the sticker price. A product that requires considerable daily
manual maintenance, or that is a significant resource hog, may end up
costing significantly more over its lifetime than one that is almost fully
automated and resource-efficient, even if the former comes with a lower
purchase price.
• The level of RTO and RPO supported. The difference in the speed
and/or completeness of data and process recovery typically varies
greatly from one class of DR solution to another. However, even within
a solution class, these measures vary somewhat among the products
available in the marketplace. Because, at this point, you will have an
estimate of the costs of downtime and lost data, you will be in a good
position to evaluate whether a price premium (if any) will be justified by
the faster recovery times and/or more complete protection of your data

Performance. Every DR solution will consume some resources, and
resources aren’t free. Thus consider the performance characteristics
of the solutions you’re evaluating. How stingy are they in their use of
resources?
• Reliability. Obviously, you want all of your technologies and processes
to be reliable, but probably none more so than your DR solution. A trait
of an unreliable DR solution that is not shared with other unreliable
technology is that you may not discover the problem until it’s too late
to do anything about it. After a disaster has destroyed your production
data and applications, there is no fix that you can apply if your DR
solution failed to create complete and accurate backups.
You can get first-hand knowledge of the reliability of a product only
after you’ve bought it, used it extensively and tested it thoroughly.
Unfortunately, you don’t have that first-hand experience when you’re
evaluating products that you are considering buying. Consequently, as
part of the evaluation process, ask for references and then follow up
by asking the reference accounts about the reliability of the products
under consideration.
• Vendor Support. Check out the level and hours of support offered by
the vendor. If you need some assistance from the vendor while you
desperately struggle to recover a lost system, you don’t want to learn
only then that, for example, the vendor provides support solely via
email. And if you use your systems 24x7 and one of them is destroyed
at 6:00 a.m. Saturday, if you have a question about your recovery
operations you shouldn’t have to wait until 9:00 a.m. Monday morning
for the vendor’s support team to get back to work after the weekend.
The vendor’s support team should be available to you whenever you
need their help.
• Vendor Stability. All products need ongoing maintenance and
enhancements. For example, DR solutions may have to be upgraded to
support new operating system versions as they become available. And
as new DR techniques and technologies are developed, you will want
your DR solution provider to incorporate them into their products so you
can reap the rewards.
Vendors can provide this ongoing support and maintenance only if they
are still in business. Thus, it is important consider the vendor’s stability
as a factor in your product evaluation. Does the vendor have a track
record of stability? Is it profitable? Is it well financed? If the answer to

any of these questions is “no,” proceed with caution.