Cloud Computing Disaster Recovery Strategies

This assignment delves into the critical topic of disaster recovery in cloud computing environments. It examines diverse strategies employed for ensuring business continuity amidst potential disruptions. The assignment analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches, highlighting the complexities associated with data security, system redundancy, and failover mechanisms within cloud-based infrastructure. Students are encouraged to critically evaluate existing methodologies and propose innovative solutions for effective disaster recovery in today's dynamic cloud computing landscape.

Running head: DISASTER RECOVERY ON CLOUD COMPUTING
Disaster Recovery on Cloud Computing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Acknowledgement
I undertook this research study to improve my knowledge about the subject and my analytical
ability. This has helped me in conquering many challenges that I have faced in the coursework.
This research study would not have been possible without the guidance and help of my
professors and companions who have helped me in gathering advance knowledge about the
subject. I would like to thank my Supervisor __________ for guiding me throughout the
research and helping me out in every step of conducting the research study. I would like to all the
participants of this research work, without whom this research would not have been possible.
Finally, I would like to thank my family members for encouraging me to perform this work with
full dedication.
Thank You.

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Abstract
The purpose of this research is to evaluate the concept of disaster recovery and its effect in
business. A secondary research is executed for understanding the need of having a proper
disaster recovery plan for resuming the normal operations of an organization or business in case
a disaster breaks in. A qualitative data analysis is laid on the disaster recovery mechanism in
cloud computing and the benefits of storing data over cloud. The main aim of the research was to
gather knowledge whether the DR plans for cloud backup would be helpful for New Zealand
business units or not.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction........................................................................................................5
1.1. Background of the study...........................................................................................5
1.2. Aims of the Study.....................................................................................................6
1.3. Objectives of the Study.............................................................................................6
1.4. Research Questions...................................................................................................6
Chapter 2: Literature Review...............................................................................................8
2.1. Introduction...............................................................................................................8
2.2. The Disaster Recovery Mechanism..........................................................................8
2.3. Disaster Recovery in Cloud computing platform: Advantages and Concerns.........9
Chapter 3: Research Methodology....................................................................................11
3.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................11
3.2. Method Outline.......................................................................................................11
3.3. Data Collection Process..........................................................................................12
Chapter 4: Data Collection and Analysis...........................................................................13
4.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................13
4.2. Disaster Recovery Mechanism...............................................................................13
4.3. Disaster Recovery Mechanism in Cloud Computing.............................................14
4.4 Major advantages and concerns of disaster recovery in cloud................................15

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4.5. Cloud DR in New Zealand business units..............................................................16
Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations................................................................18
5.1. Conclusion..............................................................................................................18
5.2. Recommendations...................................................................................................19
References..........................................................................................................................20

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Background of the study
Disaster recovery is the essential security planning aiming to provide protection in an
organization from the ill impact of certain negative occurrences. It is needed for the
organizations to maintain or resume the mission critical functions that follow a disaster. It is a
documented process or procedures used for protecting a business associated with the IT
infrastructure, when a disaster occurs. Proper disaster recovery plans are followed in form of
documentation in written form, which an organization generally follows in an event of a disaster.
It can be defined as the subset of the business continuity plan, used for resumption of the data
hardware, applications and electronic communication. The different disaster recovery planning
should include a detailed analysis of different business processes and the business continuity
needs that help in creating a robust disaster recovery plan (Suo et al., 2012). It further involves a
set of policies, tools and procedures that aims in protecting an organization from the effects of
the significant negative events that can be a result of a disaster.
Disaster recovery in the cloud is a backup and the restore strategy of the files and data
present in the cloud storage. In is involved with the maintaining different copies of the electronic
records in a cloud environment (Bajpai, Rana & Maitrey, 2013). This essential security measure
helps in backing up of the data so that it can be restored onto on premises hardware in case a
disaster occurs. The disaster recovery technique in a cloud computing, which is based on
virtualization follows an altogether another approach to the disaster recovery techniques
(Snedaker, 2013). The different techniques of disaster recovery in cloud computing includes
encapsulation of the server along with the operating system, applications, patches and the data

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present in them. This process of backup can be completed within a matter of minutes (Gu, Wang
& Liu, 2014). Disaster recovery are mainly the control measures that reduces or eliminates
various risks associated with the storage of data in the cloud. In cloud storage, data security is a
major concern in cloud computing, but with the growing popularity of the cloud, different
organizations choose this environment as an effective means of data storage. Therefore, ensuring
a proper disaster recovery plan is necessary need in a business that uses a cloud computing
(Alhazmi & Malaiya, 2013).
1.2. Aims of the Study
The primary aim of this research study is to analyze the different factors of the disaster
recovery mechanism and the process of disaster recovery in cloud computing along with the
discussion about the usefulness of the DR concepts for business in New Zealand.
1.3. Objectives of the Study
 To understand the different disaster recovery mechanisms
 To identify the different ways in which the disaster recovery works in a cloud
computing platform
 To analyze whether the concept of disaster recovery in cloud computing helpful
for New Zealand business units.
1.4. Research Questions
 What are Disaster Recovery mechanisms?
 How Disaster Recovery works using cloud computing platform? What are major
advantages and concerns?

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 Is this concept helpful for New Zealand business units?

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Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
This section of the research paper aims in reviewing previous research papers that are
written in the cloud computing platform and the different disaster recovery mechanisms based on
cloud computing. The base of the research is built through a proper review of the different
literatures available in this field. The different disaster recovery mechanism and its use in the
cloud-computing platform are analyzed through the review of the different research studies. This
section discusses the major advantages and the concerns associated with the cloud-computing
platform. Based on the findings of the reviews section, the data collection of the research study
would be done in the following sections of the research paper.
2.2. The Disaster Recovery Mechanism
According to Khoshkholghi et al., (2014) the disaster recovery mechanism should include
the preventive measures, detective measures and the corrective measures as a part of the business
continuity plan. Disaster recovery or DR is counted as a common problem in the IT platforms.
These problems are significantly crucial in case of cloud-based storage, as it is the responsibility
of the cloud vendors to provide uninterrupted services to their clients even if a disaster occurs in
the data center. The DR services, which are provided by the cloud vendors, can be effectively
used by the organizations as an effective disaster recovery technique. A disaster is an event in a
system lifetime that is not expected or foreseen. Cloud DR is an increasing trend as if offers the
ability in tolerating the different disasters along with the maintenance of the data availability and
reliability of the data. It is further useful for small and medium size business enterprises. The
primary requirements of the DR plan include the minimal impact on the performance of an

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application. The different strategies of data protection include different backups made into tape
and sent offsite (Smith, 2012). Backups are to be made into the disk onsite with automatic copy
of the data that can be directly sent to the offsite.
2.3. Disaster Recovery in Cloud computing platform: Advantages and Concerns
According to Liu, (2012), the data stored in the cloud systems are prone to the problem of
the stolen data and unlawful modification of the data. Therefore, one of the significant disaster
prevention technique associated with the cloud-computing platform is the encryption of the data
before it is moved to the cloud system. However, the cloud system exhibits other different types
of security problem therefore the loss of data are a common phenomenon of cloud computing.
This is because if during a certain case, the system meets a certain failure, certain recovery
techniques for fast recovery are essential. Therefore, the disaster recovery in the cloud
computing becomes very important in cloud computing platform. The major concern with the
backup and disaster recovery in cloud is to check whether the cloud provider is using AES
standard for data encryption. This process is essential because it helps in protecting the data from
theft or compromise (Abuhussein, Bedi & Shiva, 2012). The benefit of disaster recovery in cloud
is primarily the faster turnaround time. Cloud computing system regularly backup the company’s
computer programs and data, so that in an event of disaster, the recovery can be completed
within a few minutes (Vimercati, Foresti, & Samarati, 2012). Thus, even on an account of
disaster, normal operations of the company or organization will not be hampered. Furthermore,
the cloud platform offers disaster recovery in minimal downtime expense (Abbas et al., 2015).
The company can save on the cost of fixing the systems because of a disaster along with
financial losses incurred as a result of the significant downtime. The disaster recovery plan of the
cloud is less complex and can be easily implemented. The significant benefit of the cloud

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platform is that application, the data remain on premises in this approach, and the data is backed
up from the cloud (Chen & Zhao, 2012). These data and application are backed up onto on
premises on an event of the disaster. Apart from the benefits of reduced recovery time and less
cost of implementation the disaster recovery in cloud offers increased flexibility and options. The
cloud based disaster recovery services are generally referred to as disaster recovery as service or
DRaaS. Cloud backup furthermore reduces the cost of keeping redundant data centers in an
organization (Alhazmi & Malaiya, 2012).

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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
3.1. Introduction
Research methodology is the process of collecting information and data that is required
for effective decision-making. It is a specific research policy that deals with the collection and
accumulation of the deliberate information along with the productive assessment of the
examination result. Use of proper strategies is essential for examining the different aspects of the
investigation, which is a primary distinguishing factor of research methodology (Panneerselvam,
2014). Choosing a proper research methodology is essential it is basically a systemic and
theoretical analysis of the process and methods that are applied to the field of a particular study.
It encompasses the concepts of theoretical model, phases, qualitative and quantitative techniques
of research.
3.2. Method Outline
The research methodology used in this approach is secondary data analysis. This process
of research methodology involves the use of the existing data collected in order to pursue a
research work. Secondary data analysis is the use of data that was collected by someone else for
a particular work or purpose. The different research questions are addressed through the proper
analysis of the data collected (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). This approach is suitable for
the research purpose because secondary data will help in analyzing the advantages and the
concerns of the cloud-computing platform in an effective way. Qualitative data analysis is a set
of process and procedures that provides insights into the problem and helps in developing idea
for potential quantitative research. There are different techniques and processes of secondary
quantitative data collection that are discussed in the next section.

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3.3. Data Collection Process
The data that is to be collected for this research purpose is secondary qualitative data. The
collection of secondary qualitative data includes collection of peer-reviewed articles, annual
reports of different companies that use cloud solution. This will considerably help in analyzing
the benefits and concerns regarding the disaster recovery techniques in cloud platform
(Silverman, 2016). Proper analysis of the data and the reports thus collected may help in
estimating whether the concept of disaster recovery using cloud computing would be helpful for
the New Zealand business units. The other sources of secondary data collection reports are
feedback from a retailer and the distributor of cloud services. Different business journals,
financial statements and statistics are rich source of data that can be collected for research
purposes (Liamputtong, 2013). These data can help in analyzing the success of different cloud
backup and recovery options available in the market.

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Chapter 4: Data Collection and Analysis
4.1. Introduction
The Policies, tools and procedures that deal with the recovery or continuation of the
operation of the vital technology infrastructure and systems for a disaster can be termed as a
disaster recovery. Different disaster recovery mechanisms are in use of which helps different
organizations in returning to a state of normality after occurrence of a disastrous event. It is an
essential part of the business continuity plan. This plan is executed on an event of a disaster that
leads to loss of companies resources including data and IT equipment. Cloud disaster recovery
provides an amazing platform of disaster recovery. This is a very cost effective solution as the
recovery of the entire data can be completed within a few minutes. However, implementation of
an effective disaster recovery plans should include the understanding of the operating procedure
of the company, data integrity and contingency planning. Disaster recovery requires
development of a short-term recovery plan that may help in managing a disaster in a more
effective way (Chang, 2015).
4.2. Disaster Recovery Mechanism
The primary step of planning a disaster recovery is business impact analysis. The disaster
recovery mechanism generally works out with the help of two key metrics, which includes a
recovery time objective and a recovery point objective. The recovery time objective refers to the
time an application might take to come back online after a disaster has occurred. Recovery point
objective on the other hand represents the time of the recent backup prior to the occurrence of
any failure. Furthermore, the disaster recovery mechanism should ensure that minimal impact is
laid on the performance of an application and it should maintain its consistency after being

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replicated and restored (Sharma & Singh, 2012). It is necessary for the primary and the backup
sites to be separated geographically. The strategies include backing up the files into a tape and
sending it off site. The backups are made into disk on-site by copying the files automatically.
Hybrid cloud solutions offer an effective disaster recovery mechanism (Marshall & Rossman,
2014).
In disaster recovery mechanism of cloud computing, it uses synchronous replication of
data. It is very important to have a DR plan as on account of a disaster, 43% of the business
never reopen and 29% close within a year. A disaster can be defined as a sudden, unplanned and
calamitous event that is capable of bringing a great damage or loss. Therefore, businesses face
special challenges in safeguarding the company’s assets on behalf of the stakeholders. On a
business perspective, the term disaster can be defined as a situation that prevents the continuation
of the complex business functions in a certain period of time. Therefore, it is increasingly
essential to manage a disaster and have a sturdy disaster recovery plan in order to ensure proper
business continuity. The word business continuity refers to the process of sustaining the normal
operations of the critical system and to reduce the outage time. Furthermore, a business
continuity plan effectively identifies the impacts that can possibly threaten an organization.
Therefore, in order to ensure the continuity is the business processes and operation, having a
proper disaster recovery mechanism is essential.
4.3. Disaster Recovery Mechanism in Cloud Computing
Cloud computing has been developed in order to overcome the problem of resource
sharing using a physical hardware device. In Cloud computing, different systems are
interconnected with each other over the internet. Client can store confidential data in the cloud

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server and can use or access it from anywhere. Therefore, cloud computing act as a real time
communication network between the server and the client. Therefore, in case of a disaster, the
company suffers a huge data and financial loss. Thus, it is essential for a company to prepare a
disaster recovery plan to prevent the company from data loss.
Broadly classifying, there are two major approaches of disaster recovery in cloud
computing based on cost and speed. The process of data backup in cloud infrastructure is an
effective disaster recovery mechanism in cloud computing. It is essential for every organization
to have a documented disaster recovery process, which should be updated twice a year. The
major causes of data loss include mission critical application failure, network failure and network
intrusion. Therefore, in cloud computing, different techniques are implemented for data backup
and recovery. The primary requirement of DR in cloud computing includes a proper backup site.
The types of back sites in cloud include a hot backup site, a cold back up site and a warm backup
site. Out of these three backup sites, the hot back up site is very expensive to operate, while the
cold back up site is least expensive. Apart from this the disaster recover as a service is a low cost
disaster recovery technique that works in cloud computing. It provides application consistent
recovery and has a pre-developed option for virtual recovery environment that includes, security,
network connectivity and server failure while continuously replicating among the servers.
Therefore, during a disaster, backup can be taken to run the application on the services provided
by the disaster recover until the primary site becomes accessible (Bitar Gringeri & Xia, 2013).
4.4 Major advantages and concerns of disaster recovery in cloud
The primary advantage of backing up of data and disaster recovery in cloud is
conservation of resources. It saves the organizations from setting up a duplicate data center.

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Furthermore, it offers a faster response to a disaster and the minimum time required for a disaster
recovery can only be a few minutes. Furthermore, it offers flexibility to the clients to choose the
required disaster recovery solution.
The major concerns of disaster recovery in cloud include the dependency, cost, failure
detection, security and data storage. Dependency is a major concerns in disaster recovery in
cloud platforms because customers have no control of the system or data. This is because the
data backup is done on premises or location of the service providers. The failure detection is
another major concern about disaster recovery in cloud because it strongly affects the downtime
of the system. Therefore, it is critical for a disaster recovery mechanism that can effectively
detect and report a failure as soon as possible. Cyber terrorism attack is another concern
associated with the disaster recovery in cloud that can result in severe data loss and data theft.
The centralized data storage may result in the failure of data backup and can be a challenge for
storing data in cloud.
4.5. Cloud DR in New Zealand business units
Yes, the concept of disaster recovery in cloud computing is helpful for New Zealand
business unit. The disaster recovery in cloud computing offers flexibility, that can help the
business units in New Zealand to customize the application without worrying about the
underlying infrastructure cost and maintenance (Sen, 2012). Furthermore, it can give the
business units of New Zealand, a competitive advantage by providing a most innovative
technology of disaster recovery. The process of networked backup prevents the loss of data and
enables the users to get their application to normal mode, within minutes, in case of a disaster.

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Therefore, enabling a cloud disaster recovery technique will help the business units of New
Zealand in gaining competitive advantage in the market (Ali, Soar & Yong, 2014).

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Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations
5.1. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that it is essential for any
business to have a proper disaster recovery mechanism. The disaster recovery mechanism in
cloud computing offers numerous benefits that can help the business units in New Zealand.
Secondary data analysis process has been undertaken to conduct a research on the disaster
recovery mechanism in cloud computing. The report discusses the advantages and the concerns
of DR plans in cloud computing approach and the different mechanisms of disaster recovery in
cloud computing.
Linking with Objectives
1. To understand the different disaster recovery mechanisms
Having a disaster recovery plan is essential for preventing a huge financial as well as the
data loss of the company. Disaster recovery is one of a leading problem in IT platforms and
therefore it is essential to design a proper disaster recovery mechanism.
2. To identify the different ways in which the disaster recovery works in a cloud
computing platform
The disaster recovery mechanism in cloud computing enables an organization to
back up the data offsite so that it can be restored when in need. The cloud backup offers options
of flexibility and scalability in the recovery process, which benefits the users.
3. To analyze whether the concept of disaster recovery in cloud computing helpful for
New Zealand business units.

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One employing the disaster recovery in cloud, the business unit of New Zealand
will definitely be benefited. This is because, the disaster recovery in cloud minimizes the data
backup time, which is necessary need for a business continuity plan.
5.2. Recommendations
The recommendation for an effective disaster recovery mechanism in cloud computing
are listed below-
1. While choosing an effective backup technique, the scope of use of the cloud services
should be clear.
2. The backup system or the backup software to be used should be effective enough to
recover the data as soon as a disaster has been identified.
3. It is to be ensured that the backup location is secure enough to store the confidential
data of the system.

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