Which cloud-based disaster recovery solutions offer the best scalability options?

I think disaster recovery plan needs a set of things: - A good comunication plan. - A good test platform, because if you don't have a test you don't have a DR when you need. - A very easy approach to run the DR, needs to be fastest as possible and easy to undone.

A comprehensive disaster recovery solution should provide a wide range of features that cater to different recovery scenarios and objectives. This includes continuous data protection, failback capabilities, and support for hybrid environments. In one of our projects, we selected a solution that offered an extensive set of features, which enabled us to tailor the disaster recovery plan to the specific needs of our client, ensuring that their critical applications could be quickly restored in the event of an outage.

Look for solutions with flexible scaling capabilities that can accommodate your evolving needs without compromising performance or reliability.

The ability to quickly recover operations is paramount. Solutions that support rapid recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) are highly valuable. Through our experience, we've learned to prioritize solutions that offer immediate failover to minimize downtime. For instance, in a recent deployment, we leveraged a solution that could achieve an RPO of seconds and an RTO of minutes, significantly mitigating potential revenue losses during unplanned downtimes.

A underestimated feature is: How long the company needs to wait the failover to complete? Backup is not a DR (can be a part of the DR strategy, but is not a DR). And backup in many times have the worst RTO thinking in DR scenaries. Replication, Instant Backup restore to a cloud baremetal or VMware cloud cluster, high bandwidth to cloud, etc. have they place in the good DR plan using cloud.

Assess the speed of recovery offered by cloud-based disaster recovery solutions, ensuring rapid restoration of services during downtime.

Disaster recovery solutions should facilitate data replication across multiple geographic locations to ensure redundancy and high availability. In our work, we prioritize solutions that offer multiple data center options, enabling us to design DR strategies that align with geographic considerations and safeguard against regional disasters. We once implemented a solution with a global spread for a multinational corporation, ensuring their operations could continue seamlessly, irrespective of local disruptions.

I think just 2 different zones is possible, best to have zone replicated backup. If is not possible, just a different region of the company needs to be a must.

Choose a solution with a global infrastructure that can scale across multiple regions to distribute workloads and improve resilience.

Scalability is greatly enhanced by automation. Solutions that allow for the automation of disaster recovery processes, from failover and failback to testing and reporting, provide significant advantages. In our endeavors, we've integrated solutions with high automation potential, which not only reduced the manual workload for IT teams but also minimized the scope for human error, optimizing the DR process.

Seek solutions with automation features that enable seamless scaling based on predefined triggers or policies, reducing manual intervention and ensuring consistency.

Ensure the solution complies with relevant regulations and standards, especially as you scale operations across different jurisdictions or industries.

Ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations is critical for many organizations. DR solutions that offer built-in compliance tools and reports can significantly simplify the compliance aspect. For clients in heavily regulated sectors, such as finance and healthcare, we have chosen solutions that provide comprehensive audit trails and compliance reports, facilitating adherence to regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and others.

It's difficult to have all the things going smooth, but one of the worst thing is the need to deal with the compliance and government in a case of an incident. Having the documents and legal requirements being doing by a tool who proof the adherence is a very good thing in this moments. And having cloud who has many legal requirements can easy the process to comprovate the compliance.

Cloud and transparency in many places can't walk together. It's difficult to know about I/O usage, Bandwidth usage, cpu cycles in databases, etc.

While scalability is important, it must be balanced with cost. Solutions that offer a pay-as-you-go model can be particularly attractive, as they allow organizations to scale their DR needs without incurring unnecessary costs. In past projects, we have recommended solutions that provide transparent pricing models, enabling our clients to predict and control their expenses effectively

Evaluate the cost implications of scaling, including any additional fees for increased usage or resources. Look for transparent pricing models that align with your budget and scalability requirements.

Although there are many DR tool available in cloud but when it comes to cloud native tool from Hyperscaler, Azue Site Recovery is such tool which fits into many parameters like scalability, automation, cost optimized and easy to deploy.

Assess the provider's track record in handling scalability challenges and supporting clients during periods of rapid growth or unexpected demand spikes. Additionally, consider the ease of integration with your existing infrastructure and the level of support available from the provider to address scalability issues proactively.