CHP says its current tape-based backup storage is mailed to an offsite location and is antiquated. It would take as many as three months to restore in the event of a full outage of the CHP data center, rendering email, Human Resources and other mission-critical systems unusable.
A state cloud-based solution, on the other hand, would enable a system restore in 24 hours or less.
"The CHP is out of compliance with having a disaster recovery solution fitting a department of its size and importance," CHP wrote in a state budget request.
CHP wants to buy the cloud-based disaster recovery solution through a subscription-based service it says will be added to the California Department of Technology's service catalog in 2017.
The highway patrol says this pay-as-you-go approach for cloud — an initial $1.2 million plus $979,000 annually (see graphic below) for maintenance and operation — is cheaper than the $6 million (plus yearly upkeep) it would cost to establish a dedicated redundant site of its own.
CHP says it stores hundreds of terabytes of data, and that volume is increasing as the department collects more video and audio files.
Source: CHP
