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Neither cloud nor on-premises backup is universally safer or faster for a utility. Choose for each workload based on its recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), criticality, connectivity, site hazards, security controls, compliance scope, and tested ability to restore. Cloud can separate copies geographically and provide managed infrastructure; on-premises copies can support local recovery when external connectivity or a cloud service is unavailable. For critical workloads, independent copies across failure domains—sometimes a carefully designed hybrid approach—can cover more failure modes than relying on one location.
What the choice means for utility recovery
A backup is a copy of data or system state; disaster recovery is the ability to restore a usable service. A utility may have intact files and still be unable to resume operations because it lacks compatible compute, applications, configurations, identity services, encryption keys, software licenses, network connections, staff authority, or a safe restoration sequence.
Set recovery objectives by workload, not by storage location. The RTO is the target time to restore a service; the RPO is the maximum acceptable amount of data loss, usually expressed as a time interval. A system with a short RTO may need ready-to-run compute and a tested failover path, not just a backup copy. A tight RPO may require more frequent, verified copies and the network capacity to create them.
- Business IT: Email, finance, customer-service systems, and file shares may be candidates for cloud, on-premises, or hybrid recovery, depending on their objectives and dependencies.
- Operational technology (OT) and bulk electric system (BES) functions: Treat control-related workloads separately. A general recommendation to use cloud is not a determination that a particular OT workload is operationally suitable or compliant.
- Other utility workloads: Classify data and systems by service impact, sensitivity, recovery needs, and applicable obligations before choosing a design.
NERC’s September 2023 BES Operations in the Cloud white paper frames cloud use as workload-specific. It identifies availability, latency, throughput, criticality, redundancy, failure rate, and recovery time as relevant requirements, and discusses options such as redundant communication paths, private networks, multi-region cloud, and hybrid failover. It is guidance for evaluation, not blanket approval to move grid operations to cloud.
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Cloud and on-premises compared
| Decision factor | Cloud backup or recovery | On-premises backup or recovery | Question for the utility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geographic failure | Can place copies in separate regions, depending on the provider design and configuration. | Needs a separate site or off-site media to avoid hazards affecting the production location. | Could production and recovery be hit by the same hazard? |
| Connectivity during recovery | Depends on network access, bandwidth, provider availability, and account access. | May permit local restores without an external cloud link, if local infrastructure remains available. | What can be restored if wide-area connectivity is down? |
| Administration and security | The provider operates some layers; the utility retains responsibilities under the shared-responsibility model. | The utility or its contractor manages more of the infrastructure and maintenance. | Who can alter or delete copies, and are privileged accounts separated? |
| Ransomware isolation | Separate accounts or tenancies, least privilege, deletion controls, and immutable storage may help when correctly configured. | Offline, disconnected, immutable, or otherwise isolated media may limit attacker access. | Can compromised production credentials reach or destroy recovery copies? |
| Restore performance | Depends on provider service, region, workload architecture, and network throughput. | Depends on local storage, compute, hardware compatibility, and staffing. | Has a realistic test shown the RTO and RPO can be met? |
| Cost and operations | May shift some infrastructure expense to service fees; total cost depends on storage, retrieval, network, retention, and support. | Requires facilities, hardware refresh, power, protection, staff, and maintenance. | What is the lifecycle cost at the required retention and restore scale? |
| Data location and control | Assess provider region, contract, data residency, and which party owns each control. | Physical location and access controls are managed or contracted by the utility. | Where does protected information reside, and who can access it? |
| Portability and dependency | Provider-specific features and recovery dependencies may complicate exit or recovery with another provider. | Hardware, software, and media formats can become incompatible or obsolete. | Can recovery run on alternate infrastructure? |
Neither column guarantees service restoration. Provider data-center redundancy does not by itself recover the utility’s application, identity, network, or operating environment. NERC notes that cloud service providers can experience outages, so outage exposure belongs in the utility’s resiliency and continuity assessment (NERC, September 2023).
When cloud backup is a good fit—and what can still fail
Cloud can be useful when a utility needs geographic separation without operating every recovery facility itself, or when its workload, network, contract, and recovery design support cloud restoration. A cloud copy can remain outside a production site’s physical hazards, but only if its region and account arrangements actually separate it from those hazards and from production’s administrative failure modes.
Cloud recovery depends on more than stored data. Account compromise, deletion permissions, encryption-key access, configuration mistakes, provider outages, network loss, and misunderstandings about the division of security responsibilities can all obstruct restoration. Separate cloud tenancies or other environments may reduce some shared risks; CISA also recommends keeping copies outside the cloud environment where needed (CISA #StopRansomware Guide).
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- Confirm which identity system, administrators, and credentials are required to access backups after a production compromise.
- Establish how encryption keys are protected and recovered if ordinary identity or key-management services are unavailable.
- Review service terms, region selection, recovery support, retrieval and network dependencies, and data-location obligations.
- Measure restore throughput for the actual workload; a successful upload or backup job does not prove that a large restore will finish within the RTO.
- Plan for provider or connectivity unavailability, including whether another independent recovery copy can be reached.
When on-premises backup is a good fit—and what can still fail
On-premises recovery can be advantageous when local access and control matter, or when a service must be recoverable without an external cloud connection. That advantage depends on the local site, power, hardware, staff, and network remaining available. A backup stored beside production may be lost to the same fire, flood, power interruption, physical intrusion, or compromised administrator account.
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Use a separate site or off-site media when the risk analysis calls for geographic separation. Keep appropriate copies isolated from ordinary production access. A local copy can shorten some restore paths, but it does not solve a regional disaster or an attacker’s access to shared credentials.
Physical or logical separation is not a substitute for testing. The UK National Cyber Security Centre warns that backups stored on premises or in the cloud are not resistant to ransomware by default; its ransomware-resistant backup principles were published and reviewed on 22 November 2024.
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How to design copies that survive different failures
For critical services, consider multiple copies in meaningfully independent failure domains rather than treating “cloud,” “local,” or “hybrid” as a security property. Independence can involve separate locations, credentials, administrative planes, connectivity, and recovery paths. A hybrid design that shares production identities, network access, or deletion authority may preserve the same weaknesses in two places.
- Classify the workload. Record service criticality, data sensitivity, dependencies, RTO, RPO, and any applicable regulatory scope.
- Map failure scenarios. Include site loss, regional event, power or network interruption, provider outage, account compromise, ransomware, accidental deletion, and loss of key recovery capability.
- Choose independent copy locations and controls. Decide which copies are local, off-site, cloud-based, offline, or otherwise isolated. Separate credentials and deletion privileges where possible.
- Design the recovery environment. Identify clean compute, compatible hardware, software and licenses, applications, network paths, identity services, and encryption keys needed to restore the service.
- Define the order and authority for restoration. Specify who may declare recovery, who can access protected copies, which services come first, and how staff and external parties communicate.
- Test representative restores. Verify copy availability and integrity, then measure whether a usable service can be restored within the target. Correct and retest failures.
CISA’s September 2023 guide recommends maintaining offline, encrypted backups of critical data and regularly testing backup availability and integrity in a disaster-recovery scenario (CISA #StopRansomware Guide). Immutability can help prevent alteration or deletion during a defined period, but it is not infallible: access and configuration still matter, and CISA cautions that misconfiguration can create cost and that immutable solutions may not meet some regulatory criteria.
Test restoration, not just backup completion
A completed backup job shows that a copy operation ran; it does not establish that the copy is intact, accessible after a compromise, compatible with available systems, or fast enough to restore the service. Test a recovery scenario that reflects the failure the design is meant to withstand.
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- Verify that the team can locate and access the intended recovery point without relying on compromised production credentials.
- Check integrity and, where applicable, the ability to decrypt data using a tested key-recovery process.
- Restore the application and its dependencies into a clean or alternate environment, not only a sample file.
- Record elapsed time, data recovery point, bandwidth constraints, manual steps, staffing needs, and failed assumptions.
- Practice restoration order, decision authority, incident reporting, and external communications with the teams expected to act.
FERC and NERC staff’s 14 September 2020 recovery-practices summary drew on interviews with experts from eight electric utilities of varying size and function. It highlights defined roles and authority, reporting, external communications, trained teams, containment planning, and learning from exercises and incidents. The sample describes the report’s input; it is not evidence that one backup location outperforms another (FERC/NERC recovery practices).
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Check compliance by workload, not by storage label
In the United States, FERC has authority over bulk electric system reliability, including approval of mandatory cybersecurity reliability standards. NERC is the certified Electric Reliability Organization and developed the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards. NERC’s catalog identifies CIP-009-6, “Cyber Security — Recovery Plans for BES Cyber Systems,” and CIP-011-3, “Cyber Security — Information Protection,” as mandatory subject to enforcement (FERC Cyber and Grid Security; NERC CIP Reliability Standards).
That does not mean every utility, backup, or cloud service has identical CIP obligations. Applicability depends on entity registration, system categorization, and the specific requirement. Have compliance staff assess the actual workload against current NERC and Regional Entity materials; a cloud or on-premises label alone does not settle the question.
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Make the decision by workload
Use the following questions to compare designs for each service, then select and test the option that meets the service objectives under the failures the utility needs to survive.
- What is the maximum tolerable outage and data loss for this service?
- Does the proposed copy remain reachable if the production site, network, identity system, or administrator account is compromised?
- Can it be restored if the cloud provider or wide-area connection is unavailable? Can it be restored if the local site is unavailable?
- Are recovery compute, applications, configurations, keys, licenses, network dependencies, and staff roles accounted for?
- Have restore time and data integrity been demonstrated in a realistic test, and can the team repeat the result?
- Do the contract, data location, access controls, lifecycle cost, portability, and applicable regulatory requirements fit the workload?
No general comparative cost, outage-rate, recovery-time, or effectiveness figures establish a universal winner. The useful comparison is the utility’s own tested recovery performance and full lifecycle requirements.
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