The big 3 cloud providers experienced 10 service disruptions, combined, in September 2020. These disruptions show the importance of a backup plan for mission critical systems.
The cloud is a beautiful thing. It gives businesses a way to keep all of their information highly secure and highly organized. The cloud provides cost savings, waste reduction, ways to stay modernized, more ways to automate systems and processes and more. When businesses turn to digital transformation, it almost always involves cloud migration. This is a good thing because it keeps businesses modernized, which keeps systems and processes running at peak performance and reduces fragility. The problem is, the cloud is subject to service interruptions, which can be a big problem if you’ve built mission critical functions on top of it without creating a backup.
All three major cloud providers (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, AWS) have experienced service disruptions in the last month. According to downdetector.com, AWS experienced 6 outages in September, Azure had 3 outages and Google Cloud experienced just 1 outage. When outages occur, even if the time it takes to remedy the problem is only a few hours, the impact on businesses worldwide is made obvious by the firestorm on social media.
Cloud products should be architected to not have a single point of failure, unless they are intended to fail closed for security. Which is why it’s important to architect software, not just build, and likewise expertly plan cloud migration not just move your current DC setup. After proper planning, followed by efficient execution, proper testing of any configuration settings or security protocols prior to prod deployment should be done every time. Whether it’s a pen test to ensure security hasn’t changed or a functional/regression test to ensure the changes don’t break another area, it’s important. Planning and stability matters, even when something fails. It’s never “if” there’s a disruption, but when.
When you have your mission critical systems built on top of a cloud-based service and expect it to work 100% of the time, you instantly fail because it creates a single point of vulnerability. Cloud outages are rare and often have their own built in failovers, but like any system, you still have to expect some level of failure. No single engineered solution will work 100% of the time, and past performance doesn’t preclude future failure. Well architected systems have a backup plan for vital systems and critical processes. Or they have an expected degree of failure with an elegant means in which to handle the failure and deal with any backlog as systems come back. Yes, these three cloud giants are typically able to resolve problems relatively quickly, but how much business can you lose during those disruptions? What happens to your business if the disruption takes days or more to fix?
If you haven’t yet moved your business to the cloud, it is definitely something to consider. Previously, we outlined the many benefits of cloud migration. Your best bet is to hire an expert to help you with the transition, and while they’re helping you with that, ask them to help you set up a backup plan for when there are service disruptions.
If you’ve already migrated to the cloud but have not put a backup in place, it is imperative that you consult or hire an expert to help put that together. You want to ensure that whatever plan you put in place will work like it’s supposed to and isn’t reliant on any single point of failure.
Anytime you’re dealing with the cloud, it is usually best to discuss your needs with someone who understands how the cloud works, what you can do with it and how to keep your business running in the event of a disruption. This is your business, your livelihood, the livelihood of your employees. You also want your customers, business partners and clients to have a safe, secure and stable experience with your products. This isn’t something you trust to just anyone, make sure you vet the person or company you choose to help you. Be sure to look at their customer base and reviews before making a selection.