How Multi-Cloud Backup Solutions Can Prevent Data Disasters

Disaster recovery is just one piece of the multi-cloud puzzle. While safeguarding your data from outages is crucial, the benefits of multi-cloud extend far beyond. Additionally, multi-cloud strategies can lead to significant cost savings by enabling you to choose the most competitive offerings for your specific needs. 

This article explores how multi-cloud empowers organizations to leverage the best features and services from various cloud providers, fostering innovation and agility. 

What is multi-cloud?

Multi-cloud refers to using multiple cloud computing services from different providers within a single architecture. Instead of relying on a single cloud vendor, organizations distribute their computing resources, applications, and data across several cloud environments, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. This approach offers several advantages, including:

• Flexibility. Organizations can leverage each provider’s best features and services using multiple clouds.
• Resilience. Spreading resources across multiple clouds reduces the risk of downtime. If one provider experiences an outage, services can continue uninterrupted on another.
• Cost Optimization. Multi-cloud strategies allow organizations to utilize competitive pricing and avoid vendor lock-in.

How multi-cloud protects data

One key benefit of multi-cloud backup is ensuring the redundancy and availability of your data. By storing copies across different cloud platforms, you can quickly recover your information in case of an outage or disaster affecting one provider. This redundancy also protects against ransomware attacks, as your data remains accessible in another location.

Disaster recovery capabilities are also improved with a multi-cloud strategy. Even if your physical servers or a cloud provider experiences a critical issue, you can restore your data from another cloud within your multi-cloud environment. This creates an “air gap” that safeguards your information from unforeseen events.

Public cloud providers charge fees based on storage usage. A multi-cloud approach allows you to shop around for the most competitive rates and only pay for the storage you actually need. Additionally, depending on your data requirements, you can easily scale your storage capacity up or down.

Finally, a multi-cloud backup strategy with a solid disaster recovery plan can enhance business continuity. A centralized solution to manage everything ensures you can meet recovery time and recovery point objectives. This minimizes downtime and potential financial losses during an outage or attack.

Case Study: the UniSuper incident

UniSuper, an Australian superannuation fund with over 600,000 members, experienced a major outage that left its online account services unavailable for a week. The culprit behind the disruption was Google Cloud, which UniSuper migrated all non-production workloads to last year.

Google Cloud accidentally deleted UniSuper’s private cloud account due to a “one-of-a-kind misconfiguration” during provisioning. This unprecedented event resulted in a complete shutdown of UniSuper’s online services. While Google Cloud acknowledged the issue and apologized for the inconvenience, it took them a week to restore UniSuper’s services.

The outage was particularly concerning because UniSuper normally has backups with another provider to ensure quick recovery in case of outages. However, the Google Cloud error deleted the backups across both geographies, creating a significant delay in restoring services.

Fortunately, UniSuper was eventually able to leverage backups from another provider to restore most of their systems.

How multi-cloud helped UniSuper recover

The week-long outage experienced by Australian superannuation fund UniSuper is a cautionary tale for businesses relying solely on a single cloud provider. UniSuper’s decision to store backups with another provider in addition to Google Cloud proved to be a lifesaver. When Google Cloud’s unprecedented error resulted in the deletion of UniSuper’s private cloud account, these backups became the key to restoring critical systems and minimizing downtime. This redundancy, a cornerstone of a multi-cloud approach, ensures that data isn’t lost entirely in an outage with a single cloud provider.

Beyond safeguarding data, a multi-cloud strategy can significantly reduce downtime during outages. Because UniSuper had backups readily available with another provider, they could initiate the recovery process much faster than if they had relied solely on Google Cloud. This reduces disruption for businesses and their clients, as downtime can lead to lost productivity and revenue.

Best practices to implement multi-cloud solutions

When implementing a multi-cloud backup strategy, you must continuously monitor your cloud environments for performance, cost, and security. Use this information to optimize your resource allocation and identify areas for improvement. You should also establish clear governance and compliance policies for your multi-cloud environment. This ensures your cloud usage aligns with your organization’s security protocols and regulatory requirements.

Following best practices, you can establish a robust and efficient multi-cloud solution that meets your business needs and ensures data security, application performance, and business continuity.

Here are some best practices for implementing multi-cloud solutions to enhance data protection and disaster recovery:

Define your goals

Clearly identify what you want to achieve with a multi-cloud strategy. Is it cost optimization, improved disaster recovery, access to specific features offered by different providers, or a combination? Understanding your goals will guide your cloud selection and resource allocation.

Choose the right cloud providers

Research and compare cloud providers based on your needs, budget, security requirements, and compliance regulations. Consider factors like scalability, pricing models, and the services offered.

Follow the 3-2-1 backup rule

Maintain at least three copies of your data, stored in two different media, with one copy off-site. Multi-cloud environments naturally support this rule by providing diverse storage locations.

Implement cloud management platform (CMP)

A CMP can provide a centralized view and management of your resources across multiple cloud platforms. This simplifies monitoring, provisioning, and cost optimization across your multi-cloud environment.

Utilize automation and orchestration

Automate tasks like provisioning, configuration management, and patching across your cloud environments. This reduces manual errors, improves efficiency, and ensures consistency in your deployments. Orchestration tools can help manage and coordinate these processes across multiple cloud environments.

Implement robust security protocols

Ensure that each cloud environment is secured to the highest standards. To protect access, use IAM (Identity and Access Management), RBAC (Role-Based Access Control), and MFA (multi factor authentication). Regularly audit security settings and update them as needed.

Test disaster recovery plans regularly

Conduct regular disaster recovery drills to ensure that your multi-cloud strategy can effectively restore operations in the event of an actual incident. These tests help identify potential gaps and allow for continuous improvement of the recovery plan.