Implications of Choosing Cloud Technologies

Disaster recovery is the planning and the systems used to restore data and keep an organisation working after an attack or a disaster, such as a fire, flood or theft.

Before an organisation chooses a cloud service, it should read the provider's disaster recovery policy. This policy should show how often data is backed up, where those backups are kept, and how quickly the service and the data can be restored after a failure. The organisation then has to judge whether those arrangements suit its own needs. A business that could cope with losing a day of orders has different needs from one that must be taking orders every minute, so the backup frequency and recovery times in the policy matter.

Backups held away from the site

Cloud backups are normally kept in the provider's data centres, well away from the organisation's own buildings. If the organisation's premises are damaged, the backups are not destroyed with them. For example, Harbour Lane Bakery stores its customer orders in a cloud service. A burst pipe ruins the office and its computers, but the order records are still held in a data centre 200 miles away, so the bakery can carry on trading as soon as replacement equipment arrives. Cloud services therefore reduce the harm to an organisation's data when its own premises are hit by an attack or disaster.

The organisation's own policy

The organisation still needs its own disaster recovery policy. That policy explains how staff keep working and how data is recovered if the cloud service becomes unavailable. Who backs up which data, and who restores it afterwards, should be agreed with the provider before the service is chosen, so that each side knows exactly what it must do when something goes wrong.

Security of data means protecting it from unauthorised access, loss or damage. When data is kept in the cloud it sits on hardware in a data centre run by the provider, not on a machine you can see, so protecting it becomes a job shared with the provider.

What to check before you commit

An organisation should know where its data will be stored, including whether it is held in another country, because the laws and safeguards around it may not be the same as at home. It should also check the provider's security procedures and features to make sure they are adequate for the data being handed over. A provider holding records for thousands of customers is a tempting target for cyberattacks, so strong security from the provider is essential.

For example, a chain of dental surgeries moving patient appointments and treatment records to a cloud service would ask which country the servers are in and what security procedures the provider follows before signing up.

What the organisation still owns

Once the data is in the cloud the organisation has no direct control over how the provider stores and manages it: it cannot walk into the data centre or change settings on the servers. That does not hand over every responsibility. Data in the cloud is only as secure as the accounts used to reach it, so the organisation must still set access controls (who may view, edit or delete each record), enforce strong passwords, and set rules for how staff use the service. Choosing a provider therefore means balancing the provider's protection against the organisation's own duties for accounts and staff behaviour.

accounts = {"Priya": "admin", "Tom": "staff", "Ali": "staff", "Nina": "admin"}

admins = []
for name in accounts:
    if accounts[name] == "admin":  # only these accounts can change access rights
        admins.append(name)

print("Accounts with full control:", admins)

Output:

Accounts with full control: ['Priya', 'Nina']

Maintenance is the work of keeping computer systems running correctly and safely. It includes installing software updates, fixing faults and keeping security protection up to date. It is wider than repairing broken hardware: it also covers monitoring and security updates.

Cloud maintenance is usually carried out automatically by the cloud provider. The organisation does not install the updates or repair the service itself.

Benefits for an organisation

• Saves money: the organisation does not need its own IT technicians for this maintenance work.
• Saves time: the provider takes care of updates and technical problems, freeing staff to concentrate on their usual work.
• Fixes problems quickly: the provider monitors the service, so faults can be found and fixed sooner. This means less downtime and less disruption for users.
• Helps protect data: the provider keeps security software and hardware up to date, reducing the risk from known security weaknesses.

For example, a group of dental practices uses a cloud appointment booking system. The provider automatically installs updates to the booking software and keeps its security protection current. When the appointment list stops loading one morning, the provider's monitoring alerts its support team and they fix the fault. The practices do not pay an IT technician to do these tasks, and reception staff do not spend time installing updates.

What the organisation still does

Provider maintenance does not mean the organisation has no IT work. It may still need staff with the expertise to manage user accounts, train users and deal with minor issues. The provider looks after the service, but the organisation still has responsibilities.

Downtime is when a cloud service is unavailable to the people who need to use it. During downtime, users cannot open files, save work or use the features of the service until it is working again.

What causes downtime

Downtime can happen for several reasons. A system update may take the service offline while software is changed or improved. A cyberattack, such as one that floods the service with traffic, can stop it responding. A lost internet connection at the organisation's end also causes downtime for its users, even if the provider's service is running normally.

The provider decides when maintenance and updates take place. This means downtime can happen at a time the organisation cannot control, such as during its busiest period. For example, a dog-grooming salon that keeps its appointments in a cloud diary might find the service offline for an update on its busiest Saturday, so the groomer cannot check which dogs are booked in and owners cannot book a slot.

Why short downtime matters

Even a short outage can seriously affect an organisation that relies on the service. Staff may be unable to do their work, and customers may be unable to use the service, so sales or bookings can be lost.

Being available at all times is not a benefit of maintenance. Maintenance is about updates and fixes, and it can actually cause downtime. Availability is a separate benefit of cloud services.

A cloud service is software or storage that an organisation uses over the internet, with the provider running it in its own data centres. Setting one up is usually quicker and easier than setting up a local server, because no server hardware has to be bought, delivered, installed or given space on site. The organisation can sign up and start using the service with little delay.

Cloud services are often easier to run than a local server too. There is no on-site server for the organisation to house and manage, so staff spend less time dealing with the equipment. A quick start, though, does not mean there is nothing left to do.

Work that still needs doing

• Configuration: someone must choose the settings the organisation needs, such as folder structures, sharing rules or booking options.
• User accounts: accounts must be created for each person, with the right level of access.
• Staff training: users must be shown how to use the service effectively and how to handle data responsibly, for example not sharing login details.

Imagine you run a youth theatre that starts using a cloud-based ticket booking service. You could begin without buying a server, but you would still set up ticket types and prices, create accounts for box office volunteers and train them to use the system correctly. The setup is quicker, not automatic.

Performance is how quickly and effectively a cloud service responds to the user. It is not a single measurement: it depends on how responsive the service is to a user's actions, how complex the task is, the devices used and the communication technologies available.

What affects performance

The organisation needs a reliable, fast internet connection. Without an internet connection, users cannot access or store their data in the cloud at all, and slow speeds increase the time taken to upload and download files. If several people upload photos to a shared online album at the same time, each upload takes much longer on a slow connection than on a fast one.

Demanding or complex tasks take longer to complete and need more bandwidth, which is the amount of data that can be sent along a connection in a given time.

The capability of the devices used matters too. An older tablet with little memory may struggle to display a cloud document smoothly, even when the connection itself is fast.

Cloud compared with a local server

Cloud services are often thought to be slower than a local server, but in most cases this is not true. A local server can only use the processing power and storage that have been installed on it, so it may slow down when many people use it at once. A cloud provider has a large pool of machines and can allocate extra resources when they are needed, so performance stays steadier as demand changes.

Compatibility

Some performance problems happen when a provider's own products or services are not fully compatible with the systems an organisation already uses. A file saved in the provider's own format may open slowly or lose features when it is used in another program.