Answer
Business Continuity and the Cloud
Definition of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in the Context of the Cloud Services
According to Randeree, Mahal & Narwani (2012), business continuity is the ability of an organization or a company to maintain important functions during and after the occurrence of a disaster. Through a business continuity planning, risk management procedures and processes are established which are aimed to prevent mission-critical services interruptions and to reestablish immediate full functions of the organization. Cloud disaster recovery (CDR) is a strategy that involves backing up, storing and maintaining electronic copies in a cloud-computing environment as a measure of security (Kaura & Lal 2017).
The Importance of Disaster Continuity and Disaster Recovery to the Function of the Business
The main goal of disaster recovery in the cloud is to provide the organization with a way of recovering data and implementing failover in an event of a natural catastrophe or man-made disaster. Both businesses continuing planning and Disaster recovery are essential parts of overall risk management for the organization. Some risks that exist in the organization cannot be eliminated and therefore the implementation of business continuity plans and cloud disaster recovery prepares for potential disruptive events that might occur within the organization. In addition, disaster continuity and cloud disaster recovery are important because they provide the organization with a detailed strategy of how the business will survive and continue immediately after disasters and severe interruptions.
Identification of Risks That Can Be Transferred To the Cloud Provider Based On the Functions of the Business
Risk assessment is defined as a systematic process of evaluating all possible risks which might be involved in a planned or and undertaking activity (Aven & Renn 2009). The risks that can be transferred to the cloud provider include reduced risks of losing data, access of data by unauthorized personnel, risks of data deletions, visibility and control among the consumers, data leakages and incomplete date deletion as a result of transferring data over different devices. The reduced visibility and control occur during the process of transacting assets or operation to the cloud as organization losses control over the services.
New Risks Associated With Using Cloud Services Based On the Functions of the Business
The new risks associated with using cloud service are credentials can be stolen easily, Increased Complexity Strains IT Staff, insider abuse of authorized access and loss of stored data. Data stored in the cloud can be stolen. For example, if an attacker gains access to users cloud credentials through hacking or other means, the attacker can still have access to CSP’s services for the provision of additional resources. Furthermore, the attacker can influence the resources of cloud computing. In addition, if the attacker has an access to CSP administrator’s cloud credentials, may be in a position of using the credentials to access systems and data of agency (Khan & Hamlen, 2012. Data stored in the cloud can be lost as a result of malicious attacks, accidental deletion or physical catastrophic like fire and earthquake. Furthermore, loss of the data can lead to permanent loss of customer data. The risks of straining IT staff and the organization may end up losing skilled and experienced employees in the process. Furthermore, straining of IT staff creates a room for errors.
Risk assessment template
|
risk
|
likelihood
|
impact
|
|
Credentials are stolen
|
medium
|
Very high
|
|
Increased complexity strains IT staff
|
Very high
|
medium
|
|
Loss of stored data
|
low
|
catastrophic
|
|
Insiders abuse authorized data
|
low
|
high
|
Costs Associated With a Cloud-Based Solution for the Business
Cloud computing costs vary greatly with the cloud service required by the business. For example, file sharing and cloud storage services like Dropbox start with accounts that are free, although advanced features always come with paid plans. For the advanced features, the cost is a minimum of $20 monthly per user. Cloud recovery services and backup like Carbonite cost $59.99 each month (Foster, Zhao, Raicu & Lu, 2008). In addition, Amazon Web Services offer a wide range of cloud services which lets businesses use its data centers either on a pay-as-you-go basis or for free. The pricing of cloud-based software is also depended on the industry and provider. According to Grossman (2009) additional factors affecting the cost associated with a Cloud-Based Solution for the Business includes the number of users, contract terms, tech support and how the business will be distributing and launching the software across the company.
Benefits Associated With a Cloud-Based Solution for the Business
The benefits of cloud services are endless for the business. Cloud computing saves businesses money and time by promoting innovation, improving collaboration and boosting productivity (Knorr & Gruman, 2008). Cloud computing will enable the business access information remotely with any device which is compatible. Instead of storing business information in data centers which are susceptible to damage hence the risk of data loss, cloud computing stores data on the internet. It makes information accessible from remote locations with internet connectivity. In addition, cloud computing syncs data for all cloud-connected devices which keeps them updated with real-time information. Furthermore, in a cloud environment, the business will be in a position to access all file types, collaborate remotely when different people in different locations are working on the same project, and allow the use of applications.
Relation of the Risk Assessment and Cost/Benefit Analysis to the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for the Needs of the Business
The determination of external and internal risks is vital to the process of disaster recovery and business continuity (Sahebjamnia, Torabi & Mansouri, 2015). The risk analysis has identified the prevalent risk and the likelihood of their occurrence as well as the level of damage they could potentially cause. The data is used in conjunction with the business impact analysis results. The cost/benefit analysis has analyzed the different costs associated with cloud computing which will assist the organization in choosing the best cloud services provider. From the analysis, it is clear that cloud services are better than data centers. Therefore, the business should discontinue using datacenters and adopt cloud computing services to store its data.
References
Aven, T., & Renn, O. (2009). On risk defined as an event where the outcome is uncertain. Journal of risk research, 12(1), 1-11.
Randeree, K., Mahal, A., & Narwani, A. (2012). A business continuity management maturity model for the UAE banking sector. Business Process Management Journal, 18(3), 472-492
Sahebjamnia, N., Torabi, S. A., & Mansouri, S. A. (2015). Integrated business continuity and disaster recovery planning: Towards organizational resilience. European Journal of Operational Research, 242(1), 261-273.
Knorr, E., & Gruman, G. (2008). What cloud computing really means. InfoWorld, 7, 20-20.
Grossman, R. L. (2009). The case for cloud computing. IT professional, 11(2), 23-27.
Foster, I., Zhao, Y., Raicu, I., & Lu, S. (2008, November). Cloud computing and grid computing 360-degree compared. In Grid Computing Environments Workshop, 2008. GCE'08 (pp. 1-10). Ieee.
Khan, S. M., & Hamlen, K. W. (2012, June). AnonymousCloud: A data ownership privacy provider framework in cloud computing. In Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom), 2012 IEEE 11th International Conference on (pp. 170-176). IEEE.
Kaura, W. C. N., & Lal, A. (2017, March). Survey paper on cloud computing security. In Innovations in Information, Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS), 2017 International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
