Business continuity: Resilience in the Cloud

The modern business world has been fundamentally transformed by digitalization. With growing dependence on technology, the need for stable, secure and reliable IT solutions has increased as well. These solutions must not only meet everyday business requirements, but also ensure uninterrupted operations in the event of a malfunction. As one of the world’s leading business integration providers, SEEBURGER delivers an integration platform as a cloud service that helps companies optimize business processes, increase security and strengthen the resilience of the underlying infrastructure – so you can focus fully on your day-to-day business.

In the last few years of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and current geopolitical upheavals have highlighted the importance of stringent business continuity management (BCM). The topic is still treated hesitantly in many companies, due to the workload and costs involved. Cloud services with integrated business continuity functions can remedy this situation. Thanks to state-of-the-art technology and built-in redundancies, cloud services are available without downtime and offer fast and seamless recoverability in the event of an emergency. The cloud provider takes care of the work involved in setup and maintenance so that only minimal resources are used by the company itself.

Business continuity with the SEEBURGER Cloud Services

Data is the business foundation for modern companies, and the loss of data can have serious consequences. That’s why data security is at the heart of SEEBURGER’s cloud services. Security measures implemented include advanced encryption techniques and robust identity and access management. Strict data protection policies ensure compliance with legal and regulatory standards. By combining sound business continuity management strategies with innovative technologies, SEEBURGER Cloud Services support the continuous operations of corporate activities.

The SEEBURGER BIS Platform includes a number of features, such as ensuring maximum data security, disaster recovery options, multiple redundancy of all systems and comprehensive service level agreements (SLAs) that help minimize the risk of failure. Regular security checks and audits ensure that any vulnerabilities are promptly identified and remediated. As a result, security measures are always up to date and can withstand emerging threats. The “infrastructure-as-code approach,” in which system states are defined and automated processes are created for their recovery, ensures high availability and resiliency, as well as fast and efficient disaster recovery.

The role of redundancy for business continuity

The failure of service components can cause significant costs for the affected company, damage its reputation and lead to losses that go far beyond the immediate financial damage. Multiple redundant implementations of all components required for the service prevents impairment of operations even in the unlikely event of the complete failure of a service component. For this reason, SEEBURGER places particular emphasis on failure prevention in its data centers (at least Tier 3+) through multiple redundant systems. This enables SEEBURGER Cloud Services to ensure uninterrupted operations even in the event of individual component failure. This starts at the hardware level, including the power supply, where multiple server and storage systems are used to ensure that a failure of one system does not lead to a failure of the entire service. In addition, the networks are designed to continue functioning even if individual network connections fail. At the application level, multiple instances of each application are operated in parallel to ensure service availability even if an application component fails (active-active environment).

In addition to these measures, SEEBURGER performs regular backups at several geographically separated locations. This ensures that data integrity and availability are not impaired by local or regional failures. State-of-the-art disaster recovery techniques ensure rapid restoration of services in the event of an emergency.

The importance of service level agreements (SLAs) for business continuity

SEEBURGER offers comprehensive service level agreements (SLAs) that define the expected performance level of the cloud services. These SLAs set specific targets for availability and recovery times so that customers can rely on the quality and reliability of the services offered at all times. Compliance with these SLAs is ensured by regular reviews and tests. This enables potential problems to be identified and rectified at an early stage before they lead to an actual outage. They also enable SEEBURGER to continuously monitor the performance of its services and make improvements as needed.

The need for processes and continuous analysis

Business continuity depends on more than technical systems. Processes must also be established to allow business operations to continue seamlessly in unforeseeable situations such as a pandemic or a switch to a home office. Plans must be in place to allow for the replacement of individual employees or groups and to maintain operations under all circumstances. This often puts the robustness of implemented processes to the test, but also provides the opportunity to adapt and further optimize them.

To ensure business operations at all times, the business continuity strategy must also be able to adapt agilely to the fast-moving business world and its requirements. Continuous testing and requirements analysis that take into account data peaks, new technologies and scalability help identify and address vulnerabilities early on to ensure uninterrupted operations even in a changing environment.

SEEBURGER Cloud Integration Services: Improve efficiency, innovation & productivity

SEEBURGER Cloud Integration services offer the highest reliability and availability with maximum transparency. The security features inherent in the SEEBURGER BIS Platform and our certified operations guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of your data, processes and communication at all times, ensuring your business continuity at all times — so you can concentrate fully on your core business. Learn more about the topic in our webcast „Business Continuity in the Cloud: Continuous Operation and Maximum Resilience.“