A Disaster Recovery (DR) Plan is a set of processes that enable the government to manage and recover from unanticipated occurrences. Cloud Computing can serve as an important foundation of a solution that includes rapid recovery. For example, using Cloud Computing, the government can regularly duplicate the production data environments. Should a disaster occur, the government would be able to rapidly recover using the Cloud at a much lower cost than maintaining an entirely redundant data center.

As described, one way to achieve a Cloud-based DR solution is to create procedures for synchronizing data with the Cloud. These procedures include using the strong data encryption to meet specific agency requirements.

Synchronization also requires the creation of system images that have the same operating systems, tools, core applications, and libraries as the target production systems. A repository is created for authentication keys, and for operation plans that describe how to enact the DR Plan.

Regular testing of the restoration process verifies the processes, system images, etc. are synchronized and ready. By automating DR processes, an agency can programmatically run DR tests as often as it desires and use testing tools to validate the success of the event. This type of solution allows the government user to have confidence the DR system will work when needed. It will also reduce the cost of both the infrastructure and manual labor involved in traditional redundant DR methodologies.