Incident Response Policy: Cloud Backup and Business Continuity
This paper outlines an incident response policy for Gem Infosys, a small organization with a modest IT infrastructure. It examines three core components: disaster recovery, business continuity planning, and incident response team formation. The paper argues that cloud-based services — particularly Zetta DataProtect — combined with a master/slave asynchronous data replication model can safeguard critical data and maintain operations during failures or attacks. Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) subscriptions further enable remote business continuity. The policy also specifies the internal and external personnel who should compose the incident response team, ensuring coordinated action when physical infrastructure is compromised.
- Introduction: Overview of the three-part incident response policy
- Disaster Recovery Through Cloud Services: Using Zetta DataProtect to back up physical infrastructure
- Business Continuity Planning: PaaS, SaaS, and asynchronous replication for continuity
- Incident Response Team: Internal IT and external cloud provider personnel roles
- Conclusion: Summary of cloud-first incident response strategy
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds abstract policy concepts in a specific organizational context (Gem Infosys), making recommendations concrete and actionable rather than generic.
- Connects all three policy components — disaster recovery, business continuity, and team formation — to a single technical solution (Zetta DataProtect and cloud services), giving the paper internal coherence.
- Explains the master/slave asynchronous replication model in accessible terms, demonstrating technical understanding without sacrificing readability.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper applies a solution-mapping approach: it identifies organizational requirements first, then selects and justifies specific technologies that meet those requirements. This deductive structure — from need to solution — is a common and effective technique in applied IT policy writing, and it is reinforced by brief source citations that lend credibility to specific technical claims.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an overview of the policy's three pillars, then dedicates one paragraph each to disaster recovery, business continuity, and incident response team formation. A brief conclusion synthesizes the recommendations. The structure is linear and policy-memo-like, suitable for a professional or academic IT management audience at the undergraduate level.
Introduction
It is critical for organizations to develop and readily have available an incident response policy to address their various business and information technology needs. There are several pivotal factors to account for in such a policy, including various aspects of creating and maintaining an incident response team, business continuity planning, and a disaster recovery process. Perhaps one of the most encouraging facets of developing such a plan is that there are many advances within the IT space that can help facilitate the components of these three areas. Specifically, there are a number of options involving cloud computing and data replication, as well as remote Software-Oriented Architecture and services delivered through the cloud, that can help make such a policy effective if it ever requires implementation. The utilization of cloud computing and its many services, in addition to prudent data replication, should enable an incident response policy that supports business continuity for Gem Infosys.
Disaster Recovery Through Cloud Services
Perhaps the most vital part of this policy is the disaster recovery process, which the utilization of certain cloud services can certainly assist with and, in many cases, actually ensure. There are a number of cloud services that provide the kind of infrastructure that can readily back up the physical infrastructure that Gem Infosys utilizes. That infrastructure consists of only 10 PCs, a single firewall, a pair of web servers, three file servers, a Windows Active Directory, and a broadband internet connection. A Software as a Service offering such as cloud backup solutions can singlehandedly "offer data backups and disaster recovery for a multitude of files, databases, and entire servers" (Harper, 2014), let alone for the rather modest IT infrastructure and its associated data that Gem Infosys deploys.
In this regard, one of the most salient aspects of this policy is to subscribe to Zetta DataProtect's service, which enables organizations to continuously replicate data to the cloud regardless of appliances. Thus, in the event of a firewall breach or some other attack on its physical infrastructure — including its servers — the company will have a backup copy of its data in the cloud.
Business Continuity Planning
In terms of planning for business continuity, it is essential for Gem Infosys to subscribe to additional cloud services. One of the most viable aspects of doing so is that such subscriptions and services can be utilized only in instances in which they are necessary — such as during times of failure or even when conducting maintenance. Due to the cloud service model, companies pay only for services when they are used. Thus, the company should leverage additional Platform as a Service (PaaS) options and Software-Oriented Architecture that provides the same kind of software it utilizes via its Windows 2008 Active Directory. Doing so will enable it to continue doing business from wherever it can establish an internet connection — including via mobile technologies, in some instances. The company will therefore have continuity in the event of failures and during periods of downtime due to routine maintenance to its physical infrastructure.
However, it is necessary for the company to maximize the aforementioned cloud options — the deployment of Zetta DataProtect and subscription services to additional PaaS and Software as a Service (SaaS) options — by replicating data to the cloud via a master/slave asynchronous replication model. This model writes data to a master database prior to replicating it to slave databases, such as that found with Zetta DataProtect. It replicates faster and offers greater availability than other models and, in the event of failure, will continue attempting to replicate data (Harper, 2014). Once the failure is resolved, it then replicates only data updates rather than entire copies of data.
Conclusion
By following the outlined plan, it is possible for Gem Infosys to respond in close to real time to any sort of attack or misfortune that might create a situation in which it experiences network downtime. The crux of this incident response policy is to back up the company's data in the cloud via Zetta DataProtect, and to do so continuously using a master/slave asynchronous replication model. Additionally, the company should utilize other cloud options for PaaS and SaaS that will allow it to function remotely in the event of failure and to maintain business continuity. The incident response team should involve both internal IT staff and external cloud service personnel to ensure coordinated, effective response at every level.
References
Harper, J. (2014). Cloud data protection. Dataversity. Retrieved from
Harper, J. (2014). Data replication: the crux of data management. Dataversity. Retrieved from
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