MODELING AND ASSESSMENT OF RELIABLE CLOUD STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE ASSETS
MODELING AND ASSESSMENT OF RELIABLE CLOUD STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE ASSETS

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive framework for evaluating the performance and reliability of a fully cloud hosted disaster recovery solution dedicated to the long term preservation of cultural heritage data. The study focuses on Microsoft Azure Recovery Service MARS, a platform that provides continuous, encrypted backup and granular recovery options designed to protect critical information against natural disasters, cyberattacks, and hardware failures. To ensure realistic results, we conducted year long empirical measurements in a live production environment that mirrors the operational conditions of institutions responsible for safeguarding digital cultural assets. Backup and restore jobs were executed on a dedicated virtual machine connected through a symmetrical 200/200 Mbps Internet link, allowing the collection of detailed metrics such as average data throughput, Recovery Point Objective RPO, Recovery Time Objective RTO, and monthly service cost. These measurements capture the true performance envelope of the cloud service, including the impact of network fluctuations and encryption overhead. Alongside performance monitoring, a system dynamics reliability model was developed to quantify end to end service resilience. The model represents the on premises data center, the Internet service provider ISP, and the Azure cloud as a series configuration and applies classical reliability theory to calculate time dependent availability. Mean time between failures and published service level agreements SLA were used to parameterize the simulation. Results reveal that while Azure infrastructure consistently delivers near perfect service availability (approaching eleven nines of uptime) the overall system reliability is ultimately governed by the weakest component of the delivery chain. Over a 15 day observation window the integrated system achieved an aggregate reliability of approximately 0.97, with the ISP connection identified as the dominant limiting factor. These findings provide a practical foundation for designing resilient digital repositories for cultural heritage institutions. They emphasize the need for redundant high bandwidth connectivity and continuous validation of recovery procedures to maintain strict RPO and RTO objectives. When such network safeguards are combined with the security, encryption, and long term retention features of Microsoft Azure Recovery Service, organizations can confidently implement a sustainable, standards compliant archival strategy capable of protecting irreplaceable cultural and historical artifacts for decades to come.

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