While the concept of the cloud is certainly an overhyped piece of technology over the past decade, you still can’t deny how beneficial it can be. Especially when it is used as a disaster recovery plan (DR).

As cloud-based technology has continued to expand, that dream has become a reality and even implementing this plan is a lot easier than you might think. Below, we share our 6 step process for implementing this.

Step 1: Evaluate Protection Needs- The first step in putting together an effective DR is to evaluate the company’s needs. It sounds simple on paper, however, it actually has a lot happening. For one, you will need to evaluate critical factors that play parts in both infrastructures as well as configuration.

Step 2: Choose Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery Provider- Once you’ve figured out your protection needs, you’ll need a cloud provider. Not every cloud provider will be able to handle every single situation so it’s up for you to figure out how you want to deal with that.

Step 3: Put An Estimate On Your Costs For Cloud Disaster Recovery- The next step is to look at your costs. Each service provider has their own model for pricing.

Step 4: Have A Bandwidth Management Strategy- Considering the fact that some of those fees will be based on how much bandwidth or space you take up, it’s a smart idea to put together a strategy to crunch and maintain that bandwidth size.

Step 5: Satisfy Logistical Needs- In the event where you are using the cloud only for storage, you’ll need very little planning logistically. However, if you have a desire to do a failover to the cloud, you’ll have to consider a lot of things.

How much you logistical planning involved will vary based on the company’s already existing infrastructure, not to mention the cloud-based service you are using along with what you want the end result to be.

Common considerations in this are things like how you’ll copy the data and whether you’ll have an Active Directory synchronization.

Step 6: Virtual Machine Replication- The final step is more of a consideration and that is to replace Virtual Machine (VM). A lot of people may choose this due to the fact that virtual servers can get clustered which isn’t good news for you.

Business Disaster Recovery Plan- That is all there is to it when you are implementing a plan. There’s a lot of consideration and thoughts that go into it, so be mindful of all of those things. And don’t forget, when you have it all set up, be sure to test it to see that it works!