Last week, Canadian Cloud Backup had the unique experience of being able to test and prove that our Disaster Recovery Plan works. On Friday, August 1, 2014, we had temporarily suspended our Data Center service to perform an upgrade to our VMWare. The scheduled downtime was 6 hours, at which point full service would resume. Prior to the temporary suspension of our service we had initiated contact with every client to inform them of the downtime, the expected duration, and to reassure that this would have no effect on their data which is already stored.

The Upgrade

During the upgrade process, the VMWare upgrade experienced a hiccup which would have extended the downtime well past the anticipated 6 hours. Knowing this, we reverted any changes made and returned to our original setup. We resumed our service (once again allowing all of our customers to continue their uploads and automated backup schedules), and let any backlogged backups catch up. Despite the upgrade failing, we were able to stay true to our word and get the service back within the aforementioned 6 hours, creating further trust and reliability for our clients.

Disaster Recovery Planning

During this upgrade process, we underwent a series of Disaster Recovery Planning steps so that we could guarantee our clients data remained safe, secured, and accessible. Without these steps, the failed VMWare upgrade would have likely not only lost our clients data, but also likely our company. The trust and promise that we are reliable and your data will always be safe with us would have been lost. However our intensive procedure guaranteed us that you would retain 100% of your data, and even in the event that something failed (as was what happened in this case), no damages would be incurred.

Disaster Recovery Planning is an important tool for all businesses. No matter what industry you’re in or the products or services you offer, planning for the worst and looking for a solution to prevent and deal with catastrophic failure is paramount to your survival. At Canadian Cloud Backup, we too undergo a series of well planned and executed Disaster Recovery steps for just that. Despite the failed upgrade, we were able to protect both your business and ours in the process. Our Disaster Recovery Plan accounts for the worst possible scenarios, and has a pre-planned solution to protect against everything.

The Future

What does this mean for the future? Well, simply put; we are a reliable service that you can count on with your data. Even in the event of a disaster (such as the case on Friday), we are prepared and able to make sure your data remains safe and secure. We plan for the worst, so you don’t have to. Using Canadian Cloud Backup is an important step in your own business’ Disaster Recovery Plan, and is one which you can rely on completely. We are currently working on a solution for the VMWare update, which will be rolling out in the near future. In the meantime, we continue to provide the best, most reliable service on the market. Don’t put your data and your business on the line with just anyone, use Canadian Cloud Backup as your solution to all your cloud services and know that your data will be 100% safe.