In the movies, any scene depicting an apocalyptic scenario typically comes with a large special effects budget. Cinematic doom tends to be very colorful, kinetic, and loud. Apocalypse, for your business, might warrant an Academy Award nomination if it results from a natural disaster, like a volcano eruption, tsunami, or comet strike.
Companies, however, don’t often experience cataclysms as filmed by Michael Bay. Corporate apocalypses tend to be a bit more silent. Air conditioning units on the roof leak into the data center, knocking the company website offline and create thousands of dollars per hour in lost revenue. A botched application update or user error deletes important records forever.
The cloud sounds like a Deus ex Machina used at the end of a technology-minded thriller. Actually, it can be exactly that in real life when it comes to helping avert an apocalypse. The cloud can help keep your business going in many ways when disaster strikes.
In the old days, a business relied on applications installed on local computers or in company server rooms for its business needs. If something happened to those computers or server room, even something as mundane as a power outage or as devastating as a tornado, the company was offline and out of business until the power came on or the building and all of its computers were restored.
However, with cloud-based application deployment, distributed data centers around the country can host and run needed applications. Users, customers, and employees can reach them no matter what might threaten the corporate HQ. Your applications can be distributed across many data centers to ensure continued operations in the event of a regional power outage like the one suffered by the northeast in 2003 or an earthquake that devastates California. Or both at once.
If running applications in the cloud doesn’t suit your company’s style or business needs, the cloud can still help provide shelter in a mega storm. You can replace equipment and software lost due to an alien invasion, but the data your company has collected over time is irreplaceable. Hopefully, your team has some backup procedures in place—perhaps backing that data up weekly to tape drives. A cloud-based backup solution offers a more robust solution. By storing your data in the cloud, you protect it from a localized Armageddon that would destroy mere local backups. Additionally, a cloud-based backup acts automatically—you don’t have to physically swap and store backup media, freeing your employees to fight actual fires.
While it’s unlikely your company will suffer from a real apocalypse, the odds that some computer problem will impact daily operations is far greater. A software application outage or a data loss could cost your business a great deal of money at the very least—or perhaps effectively end your business. The right cloud-based solution for your organization can turn an apocalypse into a mere inconvenience.
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