Cloud computing is more than just technology’s latest catch phrase; cloud technology is everywhere, being   used directly and indirectly by enterprises, SMB’s government organizations, and other business with hosted . application platforms. In fact, it has been for some time now, and there will be no turning back. The latest.information on backup and disaster recovery technology seems focused entirely on the cloud: more secure, ..more cost effective, greener – but since the cloud is represented in many different forms from an IT standpoint, its applications will be determined by the specific needs of the enterprises, SMB’s government organizations, and other business whose data is at risk.

Private sector organizations as well as government agencies are already depending on various forms of cloud BDR, and security options are expanding and improving every day, including state-of-the-art BDR-to-BDR replication to two sites, and cross replication of multiple sites, which provides (almost) instant restoration for one or more servers.

With the incredible magnitude of mobile devices, applications, and social networking, consumers’ behavior is transforming the norm in information availability. No longer is retrieving the information instantly the main issue: protecting your data is today’s technological challenge, and for many, data backup cannot be secure enough or fast enough.

As devices become more relevant, more intelligent and more embedded into our day-to-day lives, we begin to expect that same seamless connected experience across the services we receive from our cities, governments, schools, etc.  The sheer volume of data stored digitally requires redundancy to make a business, organization or individual’s disaster recovery program worry-free. Virtual BDR-to-BDR and cross-replication offers data replication and archiving to another BDR device or data center of choice.

With cloud computing and the latest BDR and archiving technologies, businesses, governments, and industries can build more dynamic services to deliver goods and services to more quickly, and ensure greater access to a global market of opportunities and experiences without the fear of disaster-based data loss and the resulting shut downs that can bring productivity to a screeching halt.

Upfront, tangible cost savings are difficult to measure, but if you look at BDR-to-BDR and cross replication technologies as a means to achieving organizational agility through efficient virtualization processes, then the savings are more quantifiable. Virtual disaster recovery technologies will not answer all our IT issues, but it does open the door to look beyond a cache/archiving approach to IT and information sharing and determine what the next generation of data protection will look like, one that is reliable enough to evolve with the devices we use every day to operate businesses, organizations, and services.

For the public sector, virtual BDR technology could be the stimulus to implementing concrete measures for better utilization of energy and individual resources, remote collaboration, streamlined emergency response and disaster recovery, and much more. It can be the key to enabling government officials and agencies to better manage resources and at the same time, free up valuable technology and personnel to address mission-critical programs and services.

The conversations revolving around the evolution of cloud technology and all of its resultant innovations, including BDR-to-BDR replication and cross replication to multiple sites are critical to gaining a better understanding of how all this innovation will continue to open doors for newer, better data protection practices.

Tags | archiving, bare metal backup, bare metal restore, BDR, BDR cross replication, BDR-to-BDR replication, cloud backup, cloud computing, cloud technology, data backup and recovery, data protection, data storage, disaster recovery