In the new IT stack, technology is inherently networked. From base infrastructure layers into platform-level tiers of technology and then upwards to applications, data and additional intelligence and analytics services, the topography of networking is multi-textured and complex.
That networking effect works to connect networks to networks, but before that external action, it also works to connect the lower substrate layers on an IT installation with the higher tiers as we journey upwards to the User Interface (UI), or to the point at which an IT service connects with another machine.
Given the 3D (or perhaps 4D) honeycomb of interconnected blocks that now comes together to form the increasingly cloud-native nature of the modern IT double-helix, it is perhaps no surprise that the term ‘IT stack’ has been popularised, but have C-suite managers built its foundational backbone strong enough to withstand the toughest tasks and functions?
Cloud can do ‘most’ things
If we’re looking through the Cloud Services Provider (CSP) menu of functionality options, we tend to find that cloud can do ‘most’ things you would expect a standalone high-powered computer or server to be capable of. Where the core CSPs are not always specialist practitioners (after all, they need to run datacenters and keep the heartbeat going), the IT industry has developed a raft of operational vendors who can be called upon for specific functions.
Working in this precise space is Cohesity. Keen to self-style itself as a next-generation data management company, Cohesity offers the kind of Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering that organisations need when they realise their core cloud service doesn’t extend to exceptional precision-engineered Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities.
Making sure the new cloud IT stack has the power to self-sustain itself in terms of Disaster Recovery, the firm has launched a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), based around Cohesity SiteContinuity, a technology designed to provide automated failover and failback orchestration for business continuity and disaster recovery. Cohesity DRaaS takes this a stage further by adding the ability to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) itself as a recovery location for failover and failback in modern cloud deployments.
“There has never been a more critical time to offer disaster recovery as a service,” said Matt Waxman, vice president of product management, Cohesity. “In an age of crippling ransomware attacks, the number one concern many IT leaders have is maintaining business continuity if they get hit. DRaaS can help organizations recover quickly and cost effectively. As with other Cohesity SaaS and on-premises offerings, customers can manage everything through the Cohesity Helios multi-cloud platform. It’s simplicity redefined.”
Product functions
Specific product functions from Cohesity include the ability to minimise downtime and data loss: This reduces the risks of potential downtime and data loss with snapshot-based backup and near-sync replication that together help ensure all data is captured and ready to failover in the event of disaster or cyberattack.
The company says that customers can easily design recovery plans and assign Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and design them in minutes (rather than weeks, which has often been the case in the past) to deliver the right level of resiliency across a broad range of applications while meeting business requirements.
“Cohesity combines Disaster Recovery orchestration, snapshot-based backup, near-sync replication and seamless failover to the public cloud in a single comprehensive offering – all managed through a single user interface to significantly simplify disaster recovery operations,” said Waxman.
He further talks of his company’s ability to reduce idle infrastructure by using on-demand pay-as-you-go cloud infrastructure from AWS in the event of a disaster or test drill.
“Cohesity uniquely supports standard AWS infrastructure, such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), in a DRaaS model. Customers also can speed up time to value by quickly spinning up a Disaster Recovery strategy without having to procure additional hardware or physical datacentres,” said Waxman and team, in line with the company’s latest news.
Recover in the cloud
If there is a key theme emanating from this story and the IT market trends playing out here, it is the ability for organisations to go cloud-native and do not just ‘most’ but ‘all’ the things they can do back down on Earth. That means every thing and every action that the sysadmin, database administrator, software developer and every other IT engineer would normally do with physical machines, but now as a cloud-based action.
This is why this sector of the IT industry talks about the ability to ‘recover in the cloud’ going forwards.
What that actually means in practical terms is, a company like Cohesity (other cloud-native backup and disaster recovery specialists are also available) will create a working IT architecture where secured copies of different datasets and data flows are kept safe for a precise period based upon the use case and bring that data forwards in the event of a system outage, hack or some other form of corruption occurring for any reason.
Fluffy (easy to use) solid clouds
When all of that happens and it can be automated and dovetailed with physical on-premises IT resources (as is the case with Cohesity) and all viewed through one platform on one UI, then the cloud is fluffy in terms of happy usability, while also being strong enough to stand on.
