In the not-too-distant past, disaster recovery (DR) strategies were primarily designed to recover from natural disasters like a flood, fire or power outage. But with the rise of ransomware, recovery from cyberattacks is now a much more crucial part of any DR strategy. These attacks can be harder to detect and respond to – but whatever the case may be, your organization needs to be ready.
One of the best early use cases for the public cloud is disaster recovery. The combination of pay-for-use billing and on-demand availability make public cloud a natural fit for workloads that are considered essential, but for the most part, not continuously in use. That’s why CDW Cloud Services has partnered with Commvault to provide a cloud-based disaster recovery solution that allows you to leverage Commvault backups and CDW’s cloud expertise, in combination with Microsoft Azure.
How does cloud backup work?
Recovering to the cloud can make your DR strategy more cost-effective by quickly deploying storage and compute when necessary, and then turning it off when it’s no longer required. That’s why recovering your data to one or multiple clouds should be part of any DR plan.
At CDW, our Cloud Services team uses Commvault’s LiveSync™ technology to link VMware or Hyper-V-based backups to a corresponding “warm” DR environment in Microsoft Azure. The service consists of three distinct elements – setup, monitoring and response. Let’s take a look at each of the three service elements below.
Setting up disaster recovery in the cloud
If you are already using Commvault, CDW will provide configuration of LiveSync™ for existing Commvault protected workloads. Our Cloud Services team can also help with the design, configuration and implementation of a cloud-based DR environment, including:
- Backup infrastructure (eg. CommCell or Media Agent etc.)
- Azure instances mapped to corresponding protected workloads
- Storage configuration
- Secure connectivity between production and DR environments
Monitoring your cloud-based backups
CDW provides monitoring of LiveSync™ logs to ensure accurate, ongoing replication between production and DR workloads. We also offer annual testing of backup and restore procedures (“test restores”).
How CDW helps you respond to a DR incident
At CDW, we provide intensive post-incident support to execute your DR playbook and rapidly achieve baseline restore so you can access all DR infrastructure. Your workloads are also transitioned to CDW’s Premium Cloud Management Service on an ongoing basis for the duration of the time they are running in Azure.
3 cloud-based disaster recovery benefits from CDW and Commvault
Still wondering how CDW and Commvault can help you manage disaster recovery in the cloud with Microsoft Azure? Here are a few more benefits:
Cost-Effective – Commvault’s LiveSync™ technology allows Azure-based resources to remain shut down when in stand-by mode. This approach dramatically reduces the carrying costs of the DR environment when not in use.
Fully Managed – When a DR failover is executed, workloads are immediately transitioned to our industry-leading cloud management team for the time they remain active in Azure. You do not require in-house cloud expertise. CDW can also run DR drills and failover testing on customer’s behalf.
Secure Design – Our certified architects design each solution using Microsoft Azure and Commvault best practices. We build all the cloud resources using a secure and automated Azure Landing Zone which reduces risk, time and costs.
To learn more about CDW’s cloud solutions and services, visit CDW.ca/cloud
