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Redundancy in Cloud Computing: Key Benefits and Considerations

Gurbir Singh

Aug 04, 2022 / 4 min read

Synopsys Cloud

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Cloud computing allows you to duplicate data, systems, and equipment to ensure system downtime won¡¯t prevent you from keeping your business running. Redundancy in cloud computing provides a variety of benefits to chip designers.

Types of Redundancy in Cloud Computing

Process Redundancy 

To run a business, you must have processes within a digital architecture available. Some of these processes are more important for a business. You can figure which processes are most relevant to you by mapping out all the processes in your company and determining which require the most availability.  

It can be tempting to seek 100% availability for all processes, but that would necessitate fully redundant solutions for every process node, which can be costly. Instead, you should determine the appropriate level of service reliability by assessing the importance of each service to your company. 

 

Network Redundancy 

To determine redundancy, ask yourself the following questions:  

  • Are there multiple routes to the internet?  
  • Can another provider take over and handle the traffic if one goes down?  

Be sure to read your cloud providers¡¯ SLAs, especially ones regarding bandwidth, redundancy, and availability. Keep in mind that you don¡¯t necessarily receive network redundancy by using different providers. Some providers only deliver last-mile connectivity, relying on the same backbone as everyone else. 

 

Hardware-Level Redundancy 

Hardware redundancy refers to the fault tolerance of the machinery that runs the software. This can include contact center applications, collaboration tools, or customer databases. Hardware redundancy is mainly determined by cost. You can either co-locate your own devices or hire one of the major cloud providers to build, maintain, and design your environment for you. Depending on the cloud provider¡¯s expertise and your business needs, you can choose to mix both methods. 

 

Geographic Redundancy 

In the cloud, geographical redundancy in cloud computing replicates data between two or more different locations. These data centers should be far enough apart so that if one gets hit by a natural disaster, the other will stay safe and secure.

Benefits of Redundancy in Cloud Computing

Each type of redundancy in cloud computing offers several benefits for companies looking for an alternative to on-premises equipment reliance. 

 

High Availability 

High availability refers to keeping your main systems on one cloud platform and your backups and secondary systems on another. The redundant systems are then updated with the same data on both cloud instances. Workloads can continue with the backup provider if the primary provider goes down. 

 

Data Redundancy

Cloud providers usually have multiple data centers to mirror your data and apps. Although rare, system failures can occasionally wipe out your data. In such cases, redundancy in cloud computing can help ensure you don¡¯t lose your data. Furthermore, if one or two servers fail, you will still have a backup if you have a good redundancy plan in place. 

 

Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery

Your business must be able to function whatever issues arrive. When your network goes down, you shouldn¡¯t have to waste valuable hours waiting for it to get back up and running. Cloud computing will cut down on lost productivity by allowing you to treat your system failure like a minor hiccup. Consequently, you won¡¯t have to send your staff home because of an outage. 

 

Security

It is essential to maintain redundancy for cybersecurity. By leveraging redundancy in cloud computing, your organization can ensure state-of-the-art security measures and successful compliance audits. With redundancy, downtime won¡¯t leave your data vulnerable while the team isolates and resolves an issue. You can also keep your business going without interruption as your IT security staff deals with vulnerabilities and cyberattacks.

Cloud Redundancy and Chip Design

When it comes to chip design and verification, redundancy is an essential feature of any IT infrastructure. By relying on the cloud, you can replicate your data and IP at multiple redundant sites on your cloud provider¡¯s network. You can then back up the data and recover it from disaster more efficiently.

With redundancy in cloud computing, you can remove single points of failure for your chip-making process. You can either implement redundancy in standby mode¡ªwhere you maintain functionality even during a power outage¡ªor in active mode¡ªwhere you distribute requests to multiple redundant compute resources.

For chip designers, redundant cloud deployment is scalable, elastic, and fast. You can leverage redundancy to improve performance, collaborate, and manage projects.

Synopsys, EDA, and the Cloud

Synopsys is the industry¡¯s largest provider of electronic design automation (EDA) technology used in the design and verification of semiconductor devices, or chips. With Synopsys Cloud, we¡¯re taking EDA to new heights, combining the availability of advanced compute and storage infrastructure with unlimited access to EDA software licenses on-demand so you can focus on what you do best ¨C designing chips, faster. Delivering cloud-native EDA tools and pre-optimized hardware platforms, an extremely flexible business model, and a modern customer experience, Synopsys has reimagined the future of chip design on the cloud, without disrupting proven workflows.

 

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About The Author

Gurbir Singh is group director, Cloud Engineering, at Synopsys. He has a demonstrated history of leadership in the software industry. In his current role, he leads the development of the Synopsys Cloud product, which enables customers to do chip design on the cloud using EDA-as-a-Service (SaaS) as well as flexible pay-per-use models. Gurbir has run organizations to develop cloud SaaS products, machine learning applications, AI/ML platforms, enterprise web applications, and high-end customer applications. He is experienced in building world- class technology teams. Gurbir has a master¡¯s degree in computer science, along with patents and contributions to publications.

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