Disaster Recovery Journal

Before considering cloud-based data protection, it is important to first understand the basics of cloud, which can sometimes be foggy (at best). With trade magazines and publications defining the "cloud" in a number of different ways, IT managers and executives are often confused about the true meaning of the term; however the recent maturation of cloud-based services has helped the definition become more focused.

 In a nutshell, there are two main types of cloud-based data protection services: public and private. The public cloud is where data is on a shared infrastructure. In a private cloud, data is on dedicated infrastructure and the owners of that data share no part of it with others. There are variations of the public and private cloud, including combinations of the two that result in a "semi-private cloud," but for the sake of clarity, we will stay away from that topic.

How does watching football on Sunday translate into to-do’s for Monday?  More than 100 million people watched the Super Bowl on Feb 3rd, they were expecting a great game and some good entertainment.  What they got was almost a disaster for CBS.  In the recovery planning business, we are always trying to minimize the likelihood of an incident becoming a disaster.  CBS did an excellent job of this on Sunday.

When the power went out in half of the Superdome and the game was stopped unexpectedly, CBS did a good job of keeping people entertained for the 34-minute delay.  While they likely didn’t plan for the lights going out in half of the building, they did have a contingency plan for the power going out and as a result were able to keep most fans watching the commercials and the announcers.  The numbers aren’t available yet, but they might have sold more commercials because of the extra prime-time viewership the “abnormality” created.