The Benefits and Drawbacks of Cloud Resiliency

The Cloud has the distinct ability that it is capable of resilience, meaning that it can rebuild or “bounce back” depending on the events which affect it. So let’s take a look at the benefits of cloud resilience and what it cannot guarantee.

What is cloud resilience?

Cloud resilience is understood as a way to readapt to a “crisis situation”. This applies to the infrastructure and the data. The infrastructure, which is comprised of virtual servers, is designed to accommodate significant fluctuations in processing power and data volume, while enabling ubiquitous use of various devices, such as tablets, smartphones, PCs, etc. For example, did you just lose your laptop which has all your information synchronised with the cloud? Don’t panic! You simply need a username and password to recover it all quickly on a new laptop. The resilience of the infrastructure and the data is guaranteed.

In regards to data, this can affect your work email as well as your current work documents and other items. The idea of synchronising with the cloud is interesting because not only will your new computer become operational very quickly, but there is a good chance that you can continue working without any issues. You will realise by resuming work with your desktop, tablet or smartphone, they remained fully operational with the information you need to continue your work.

Data access

What we can also understand in this type of situation is that the data is accessible via a network, from which it is easily accessible through the Internet with access points via ADSL, the enterprise network, 3G, 4G, WiFi, and so on. It’s possible to continue working from any location, so long as you have this type of access.

So, from this perspective, everything is great in the world of the cloud, right? Not necessarily. Every situation which is convenient requires us to think about the risks. You will have noticed that a simple username and password are used to access the information. In cases where the data is highly confidential, other additional methods of access, known as “multi-factors”, can help to ensure that only you can access both your username and password, but with a hardware ID – a device – such as a mobile phone, a USB key or something else. You connect this device to your access terminal (for example, your computer) as if it were a second complementary key. Furthermore, you can also define the place from where you can access the data. Basically, you can choose the system.

Cloud Drawbacks

There are some limits to this practice that are good to be aware of to ensure terminal resilience. It is necessary that the data, which a device is using, has been saved in the best possible way. If you delete all the data on the cloud from a device, whether it is a result of improper handling or a malicious act, the infrastructure can only rebuild the data if one or several backups were made at the right time. When choosing a SaaS service, this backup needs to be guaranteed if you are not the one who is creating it.