How Cloud Integrations Help Government Agencies with Disaster Recovery

As a dedicated professional working in a government agency, you know how important it is to maintain services in the face of natural disasters. But only keeping data on local servers without a comprehensive backup plan is a recipe for disaster.

Many enterprise organizations have seen the benefits of relying on cloud computing and storage services, as are government IT professionals who find value in setting up cloud integrations for data safety.

Whether from natural disasters or cyber attacks, the potential loss of data means it's critical to maintain comprehensive backups while keeping your recovery point objections top of mind.

“As state and local governments increasingly rely on cloud services, they have a responsibility to protect their data and ensure their systems are secure, notes a report from Government Technology." It continued, “This starts by understanding current practices and solutions are not always secure by default and developing best practices to mitigating new risks that may emerge in the future.” From human error to criminal hackers to unforeseen data breaches, there is plenty to safeguard with your cloud computing partners.

Here is information on how cloud integrations can help government agencies with their disaster recovery to help you as you design, establish or beef up your existing recovery capabilities.

Why Is it Important to Plan Ahead for IT Disaster Recovery?

To keep your government agency functioning and able to provide at least the most basic level of services in the face of disaster, it's more than having backups in place. It's also essential to plan what to do with the backup information. Preparing for what happens during recovery will make things go smoother in the aftermath when the actual event transpires.

You can prepare and train for disaster recovery just as you do with fire drills to ensure everyone knows what to do to maximize safety for people and property..

Compare Cloud Integrations With Manual Integrations

It might be tempting for IT professionals to stick with their manual processes. Being conservative is often a preferred strategy when entangled in a government bureaucracy that is possibly resistant to sudden changes. Still, with cloud computing being adopted across so many industries, you can feel confident about adopting a cloud integration solution for disaster recovery.

Manual integrations rely on humans verifying that the backups and recovery processes are in good working order and that the backups take place according to the schedule you establish.

The resulting system is more susceptible to human errors, such as forgetfulness or a critical person being out sick or on vacation without having sufficient cross-training established ahead of time to account for personnel being missing at crucial times. And there is always the menace of criminal hackers breaking in and compromising your system at any moment.

Cloud integrations are simple and efficient by comparison. And because they are easier to manage, you can anticipate reduced recovery time due to easy cloud backups from which to pull data.

Because it's simpler to deploy cloud integrations for your disaster recovery system, you can free up time for other pressing IT concerns that would otherwise be spent on manual integration babysitting. This, in turn, allows you to have a more cost-effective response in the face of catastrophic disasters that otherwise jeopardize your data and your ongoing operations.

And you can have the peace of mind that will follow having a cloud computing services team in your corner, tending to your data, and keeping multiple backups in different, geographically dispersed locations. They will also monitor the network for problems, such as criminal hackers trying to break in and evidence of malware that they work 24/7/365 to manage.

What Are Key Components of a Disaster Recovery Plan?

First, you must clearly understand what your government agency will be tasked with backing up and recovering.

The United States government’s Ready program notes, "Developing a data backup strategy begins with identifying what data to backup, selecting and implementing hardware and software backup procedures, scheduling and conducting backups, and periodically validating that data has been accurately backed up.”

As you prepare your agency to resume functioning after a disaster, it’s helpful to list the significant aspects of the plan. Your disaster recovery plan will contain critical components, including:

• • • A reliable cloud computing service for your data. Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a convenient way for government agencies to safeguard their systems.
    • List the essential components of your system, from the local secure computer room and local hardware (from desktop and laptop computers to peripherals), the software, and the data that will need to be accessed and restored, as noted by the U.S. government’s Ready program.
    • Schedule tests for actual recovery. It’s not enough to automatically backup your data and software. You need to take your system offline and then attempt a recovery process to see if there are any hiccups.
    • Verify that the data you pull from hosted servers is complete and accurate. Consult with your DRaaS partners for details on how you will check the data during a systems test for a dry recovery run through cloud-integrated data.

Velosimo is Standing By to Assist Your Government Agency With Cloud-Integrated Disaster Recovery

From the perspective of a busy IT professional serving in a government agency, you have to prioritize maximizing your available resources and taking advantage of new developments in computational architecture.

With many individuals already having experienced how cloud computing makes enterprise companies function more efficiently, it’s reasonable for them to anticipate the same level of service and capability regarding government IT setups. Perhaps you have already recognized the value of cloud integration to shore up your disaster recovery capabilities.

But making a framework and verifying you have everything properly budgeted out for deploying cloud integrations may require more experience and expertise than you and your staff have today. That’s where the team at Velosimo can help. For more information on our approach to disaster recovery in the context of cloud integrations or to request a consultation, please contact us today.