10 Cloud Backup & Disaster Recovery Books Every CIO Should Know

Backup and Disaster Recovery Books give CIOs and cloud leaders the strategic and technical insight needed to protect modern infrastructure. We selected these books because they present complex disaster recovery concepts in a practical, easy-to-apply format.

Essential Backup and Disaster Recovery Books for Cloud Resilience

These Backup and Disaster Recovery Books reflect the shift from legacy data center recovery to cloud-native infrastructure resilience.

4. Hybrid Cloud Disaster Recovery: A Complete Guide 

Hybrid Cloud Disaster Recovery: A Complete Guide  by Gerardus Blokdyk

• A structured, assessment‑driven framework that helps leaders evaluate, plan, and optimize hybrid‑cloud DR with strong governance and risk controls.
• Structured Hybrid Cloud Disaster Recovery Self-Assessment: Identify gaps, clarify priorities, and ensure all critical DR tasks and outcomes are fully implemented.
• What to build and have in your DR Actionable Dashboard: Get a dynamically prioritized DR roadmap with checklists, templates, and an Excel dashboard that shows exactly what to do next.

5. Rethinking Disaster Recovery: The Impact of Cloud Computing 

Rethinking Disaster Recovery: The Impact of Cloud Computing by Bryan Strawser

• Rethinking Disaster Recovery explores how cloud computing fundamentally reshapes continuity planning, offering modern strategies for faster, more flexible, and more resilient recovery.

6. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning for IT 

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning for IT Professionals by Susan Snedaker

• A comprehensive reference for building enterprise‑grade continuity and DR programmes that align technology, governance, and organisational risk.

7. Multi‑Region Cloud Resilience & Replication

Multi‑Region Cloud Resilience & Replication by Josh Amber

• A focused guide to designing multi‑region architectures that ensure continuity, failover, and disaster recovery at global scale.
• Build multi-region cloud architectures: Practical guidance on replication, load balancing, and disaster recovery across AWS, Azure, and GCP to achieve high availability.
• Practice with 60 failover exercises: Step-by-step scenarios covering replication failures, traffic management, disaster recovery testing, and multi-cloud setups.

8. Zero Trust: Resilient Cloud Network Architectures

Zero Trust: Resilient Cloud Network Architectures by Josh Halley, Dhrumil Prajapathi, Ariel Leza and Vinay Saini

• A strategic look at building secure, trustworthy, and resilient cloud networks capable of withstanding modern cyber and operational threats.

9. Cyber Resilience: Defence in Depth Principles by Alan Calder

 Cyber Resilience: Defence in Depth Principles by Alan Calder

• A concise guide, from the CEO and Founder of IT Governance Ltd, to implementing layered defense strategies that strengthen organisational resilience against cyber disruption.
• Security Foundations for Modern Organizations: Covers core security principles, risk management, defense in depth, and practical implementation guidance to address today’s fast-moving cyber threat landscape.
• Reference Guide to Security, Backup & Disaster Recovery Controls: High-level, standalone chapters outlining best-practice controls -including resilience, backup strategies, and disaster recovery planning -to strengthen organizational protection.

10. The Disaster Recovery Handbook by Michael Wallace & Lawrence Webber

The Disaster Recovery Handbook by Michael Wallace & Lawrence Webber

• A comprehensive, step‑by‑step manual for building enterprise‑grade DR programmes.
• Practical Tools, Templates & Checklists: Includes project management guidance, communication plans, pandemic considerations, and ready-to-use forms to prepare for and recover from real-world disasters.

How ControlMonkey Supports Backup and Disaster Recovery Strategies

Reading about cloud backup and DR is one thing, operationalizing those best practices across real cloud environments is another. That’s where ControlMonkey comes in. It takes the principles covered in these books and turns them into living, automated workflows for Cloud Config and Cloud operations.

ControlMonkey delivers Disaster recovery for cloud infrastructure and 3rd Party configuration ensuring organizations can restore how their cloud was configured.

Don’t Leave Your Cloud and SaaS Out of Disaster Recovery

Traditional backup tools secure data. ControlMonkey secures configurations, SaaS, and your cloud control plane

Close Back Infrastructure Gap →

2 Backup Books to Complement Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Strategy

Now that we’ve covered disaster recovery, it’s worth sharpening your broader cloud resilience strategy.

These cloud backup books are essential reading, giving CIOs and security leaders the insight and hands‑on know‑how needed to protect the business when it matters most.

1. Backup & Recovery: Inexpensive Backup Solutions for Open Systems 

Backup & Recovery: Inexpensive Backup Solutions for Open Systems by W. Curtis Preston

• A foundational guide that demystifies backup architecture and offers practical, cost‑effective strategies for protecting data across diverse systems.

2. Cloud Storage Forensics 

Cloud Storage Forensics by Ben Martini, Darren Quick and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo

• A technical guide to investigating, validating, and securing cloud‑stored data, giving security teams the insight needed to manage risk and maintain integrity.
• Investigate and Validate Cloud Backup Evidence: Introduces an evidence-based framework for identifying, preserving, and analyzing data remnants across cloud backup platforms and client devices.
• Understand Legal and Recovery Implications of Cloud Backup: Covers proper procedures, service provider coordination, and compliance considerations to ensure backup data can support investigations and disaster recovery efforts.

Cyber Resilience in 2026: Data + Infrastructure + Network Control Plane

Data Backup alone is not enough. Protect your cloud configurations, SaaS apps, and control plane from costly downtime.

See How ControlMonkey Protects Cloud DR →

3 Backup and Disaster Recovery Podcasts for Cloud Leaders

If you prefer to learn on the move or absorb insights through conversation rather than text, these podcasts offer sharp, practical perspectives on cloud backup, data protection, and resilience.

1. The Backup Wrap‑up
   • Curtis Preston’s long‑running show covering everything from backup fundamentals to modern cloud recovery strategies, delivered with deep expertise and real‑world clarity. 
2. Data Protection Gumbo
   • Energetic, opinionated, and always current. A lively take on data protection, storage, cloud backup, and cyber‑resilience trends.
3. AWS Podcast – Resilience & Recovery Episodes
   • A highly practical series of episodes from AWS experts exploring backup strategies, multi‑region resilience, DR patterns, and cloud‑native continuity best practices.

Communities for Backup and Disaster Recovery Professionals

Veeam Community Hub

One of the most active global communities for cloud backup, DR, cyber‑resilience, and data protection  – even if you don’t use Veeam. Frequent expert AMAs, webinars, and deep technical discussions. Learn More

Rubrik Community

A highly active hub focused on backup, disaster recovery, and cyber‑resilience. Ideal for leaders who want deep technical discussions, real‑world recovery insights, and best practices for securing and restoring critical data across hybrid and cloud environments .Learn More

LinkedIn Groups Focused on Cloud Resilience

Active professional communities where CIOs, architects, and security leaders share insights on cloud reliability, DR, and data protection.

•  Cloud Disaster Recovery Professionals
•  Cloud Backup & Data Protection Expert

Take Control of Cloud Resilience with ControlMonkey

In today’s cloud‑driven enterprise, CIOs are defined by how well they control complexity, reduce risk, and keep infrastructure resilient. That requires more than experience, it demands discipline, visibility, and the right automation.

ControlMonkey delivers exactly that. It enforces cloud governance automatically, exposes hidden misconfigurations and drift, and keeps environments consistent, compliant, and recoverable. It gives technology leaders clarity and control by removing the noise and operational guesswork.

Books build knowledge. ControlMonkey enforces resilient cloud infrastructure, SaaS configurations, and disaster recovery guardrails automatically. Book a Live Cloud DR Demo →.