Running Head: CLOUD SERVICES 1
Wk 5 - Apply: Signature Assignment: Business Continuity and the Cloud
CYB 205 – Infrastructure Administration
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Introduction
Cloud services encompass a diverse range of services and resources that are offered to
customers and businesses over the internet. Some of the common cloud services include
databases, storage, software, networking and many more. According to Dowling, cloud
solutions have gained high popularity in the prevailing business landscape as they enable
business entities across diverse industries to enable large-scale services without incurring any
up-front investment (Voorsluys et al., 2011).
A comprehensive analysis of cloud services has been presented in the context of
business continuity and disaster recovery. The benefits, costs and risks associated with the
application of cloud services are thoroughly evaluated. The objective of the analysis is to aid a
business in making a decision on whether its critical systems like application, e-mail services,
and file servers must be moved to a cloud-based service or not (Voorsluys et al., 2011).
Cloud Services for Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Business continuity and disaster recovery in the context of cloud services
The concepts of business continuity and disaster recovery assist business entities to
prepare themselves in case a natural or manmade disaster strikes. These procedures make sure
that the digital and/or online assets of a business are safeguarded and the business operations
are not affected. In such challenging scenarios, cloud computing solutions play an
instrumental role as these cloud computing vendors safeguard the critical digital elements of
the business. The organizations that take business continuity to the clouds are able to ensure
uninterrupted data flow even when a disaster strikes (Arean, 2013). They are able to achieve
operational resilience in an effective and economical manner. Similarly, cloud solutions also
simplify disaster recovery as the cloud vendors maintain a backup of the customer data and
information over the cloud. As the recovery objective revolves around critical elements such
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as data, applications and systems, businesses using cloud solutions are able to recuperate and
recover when a disaster strikes (Marian & Hamburg, 2012). i
Importance of business continuity and disaster recovery
In the highly unpredictable and uncertain business landscape of the 21st century,
business continuity and disaster recovery are of critical importance for business entities.
Business continuity primarily focuses on ensuring that the business operations and processes
are carried out in a seamless and smooth manner even when a disaster strikes. The disaster
recovery process, on the other hand, focuses on restoring the data access as well as the
Information Technology ecosystem after a disaster takes place. It enables business entities to
return to normalcy as quickly and effectively as possible. According to Sahebjamnia et al.
(2015), in the prevailing competitive and uncertain business climate, organizations need to
integrate the concept of business continuity and disaster recovery so that they can smoothly
function (Sahebjamnia et al., 2015).
In the case of the specific business entity, it is a basic necessity to have a solid business
continuity and disaster recovery plan so that its operations and functions would not get
disrupted due to disasters. The plan would safeguard the firm’s information systems so that
they would be readily available.
Risk Assessment
Transferring of risks to the cloud provider
The decision to make the move to the cloud environment could enable a business to
transfer a diverse range of risks to the cloud service provider. One of the chief risks that would
be transferred to the vendor revolves around adherence to necessary legal and regulatory
elements relating to cybersecurity. It would be the service provider’s responsibility to adopt
the most effective and suitable cybersecurity measures that are aligned with the industry
standards. Similarly, the business would not have to incur any huge cost to manage its critical
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information systems such as file servers, and applications such as Human Resource (HR),
billing and payroll, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It would be eh
fundamental responsibility of the cloud service provider to effectively manage these digital
elements of the business. The cloud provider would also have to effectively adopt to the new
technologies while delivering consistent and quality services to the business. SO it would face
the risks that the evolving technological setting would present in front of it (Cloud Service
Providers, 2020). i
New risks associated with using cloud services
By integrating cloud-based solutions to support business continuity and disaster
recovery, the organization would be exposed to new kinds of risks and challenges. Some of
the main risks include the possibility of the violation of certain important compliance laws,
risk relating to identity theft, and the chances of cybersecurity attacks such as data breaches as
well as malware infections (Bouaynaya et al., 2018). The adoption of cloud solutions by the
business entity could also have an adverse impact in the form of diminished trust of customers
which could lead to the loss of the business revenue and profits. Even though the cloud
computing environment provides a host of benefits for businesses but it also gives rise to new
kinds of challenges that could threaten the very existence of the business. Thus the decision to
make the shift must be strategically made by giving due importance to a number of
considerations such as the established security framework, privacy aspects, etc.
Cost/Benefit Analysis
Costs associated with the cloud-based solution
Some of the main costs relating to the cloud-based solution that the business must take
into consideration include an increase in cybersecurity risk, lack of control over the data safety
and security, compliance-related concerns, vendor lock-in and restricted degree of control
over quality standards (Sharma, 2017). As the entire control of the cloud solution would be
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with the cloud service provider, the business would have to rely on the vendor to use its data
and carry out its business operations in the industrial setting. According to researcher Sharma
(2017), security would act as one of the major risk areas that could increase the overall cost for
the business in case there is a breach. The organization would have limited control over the
integrity, availability and confidentiality aspects while using cloud solutions (Sharma, 2017).
Benefits associated with the cloud-based solution
The key benefits relating to the cloud computing services that the business would
enjoy include the reduction in the IT-related costs and expenses, the high degree of scalability
and seamless business continuity. Instead of focusing on the technology-based aspects, it
could outsource the responsibility to the cloud service provider and it could lay emphasis on
the core competencies and business operations. According to Papulova (2017), the use of
cloud solutions could simplify a diverse range of IT functions for the organization and
simplify its functional aspects (Papulova, 2017). For instance, due to the cloud environment,
the business entity and the personnel could access the data at any time and from anywhere.
Some of the other benefits that the business would also enjoy include mobile storage and
energy saving (Papulova, 2017).
Conclusion
The comprehensive risk assessment and cost/benefit analysis has shed light on the fact
that the adoption of cloud services could support business continuity and disaster recovery.
But at the same time, a number of new kinds of risks could arise for the business in the form of
security risks, change in customer trust, etc. The decision to move to the cloud must be made
in a comprehensive manner by considering the associated benefits as well as risks. The move
would help the business to have a solid business continuity and disaster recovery approach in
place as the cloud solution would ensure that the information systems of the business is
available and protected during any contingency.
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References
Arean, O. (2013). Disaster recovery in the cloud. Network Security, 2013(9), 5-7.
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Bouaynaya, W., Lyu, H., & Zhang, Z. J. (2018). Exploring risks transferred from cloud-based
information systems: A quantitative and longitudinal model. Sensors, 18(10), 3488.
Cloud Service Providers. (2020). https://rmas.fad.harvard.edu/cloud-service-providers.
Marian, M., & Hamburg, I. (2012). Guidelines for increasing the adoption of cloud computing
within SMEs. Cloud computing, 7-10.
Papulova, Z. (2017). Cloud solutions in DMS, the application and the reality. New Trends and
Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 4(10), 369-378.
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.
Sharma, M.. (2017). Cloud Computing Risks And Recommendations For Security.
Voorsluys, W., Broberg, J., & Buyya, R. (2011). Introduction to cloud computing. Cloud
computing: Principles and paradigms, 1-44.
