What to Prepare for Cloud Outage

Cloud Computing is good. However, any outage like the one we saw from Amazon EC2 last week will be scary for any SMB that is 100% dependent on cloud computing.

Granted that we are at the early stage of cloud computing so it is more likely to see outages. As technology matures, it will be less likely to get outages like that. For example, how often do you get an electricity outage?

Well, we still live through the early stage of cloud computing, so what to prepare for a cloud outage?

1. Have a Backup Plan

If you are using cloud storage as the primary source of your work, you need to have a backup plan. For example, if you are using Google Docs, Box.net or Amazon S3 as the primary business document management system, you can create backups to local PCs. This article discuss how to use Gladinet Cloud Desktop to backup cloud storage to local PC. The same technique can also be used to backup files from one cloud service provider to another cloud service provider.

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2. Using Multiple Cloud Storage Services

For consumers, there are many free cloud storage services around, such as Microsoft SkyDrive (25G), Google Docs(~7G), Amazon Cloud Drive(~5G), Google Picasa. It will be good to use all of them and backup family pictures and files to each other. Using Gladinet Cloud Desktop, you can mount all of them in as virtual folders and do drag and drop to transfer files from one to the other.

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For business, users may prefer to use Amazon S3, Windows Azure Storage, Rackspace Cloud Files and etc. business class cloud storage services. There is a cost factor if using multiple cloud service providers. In this case, the most critical data can go to all the service providers.

3. Backup to Multiple Cloud Storage Services All-at-Once

Using Gladinet Cloud Desktop or Gladinet Cloud Backup, it is possible to backup to multiple cloud storage service providers at the same time.  For business users, there shall be a balance between cost and redundancy. For example, mounting both Amazon S3 US-East bucket and Amazon S3 US-West bucket and backup to both is a good practice.

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Related Posts

BASIC Cloud Storage Use Cases

Cloud Storage APIs & Universal Connectors

Backup Cloud Storage to Local PC

Three Primary Cloud Storage Use Cases on Your Desktop

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