Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1182534
Amazon Web Services – Architecting for HIPAA Security and Compliance Page 42 audits down to the packet layer on their virtual servers, just as they do on traditional hardware. They also can track any IP traffic that reaches their virtual server instance. A customer's administrators can back up the log files into Amazon S3 for long-term reliable storage. Under HIPAA, covered entities must have a contingency plan to protect data in case of an emergency and must create and maintain retrievable exact copies of electronic PHI. To implement a data back-up plan on AWS, Amazon EBS offers persistent storage for Amazon EC2 virtual server instances. These volumes can be exposed as standard block devices, and they offer off-instance storage that persists independently from the life of an instance. To align with HIPAA guidelines, customers can create point-in-time snapshots of Amazon EBS volumes that automatically are stored in Amazon S3 and are replicated across multiple Availability Zones, which are distinct locations engineered to be insulated from failures in other Availability Zones. These snapshots can be accessed at any time and can protect data for long-term durability. Amazon S3 also provides a highly available solution for data storage and automated back- ups. By simply loading a file or image into Amazon S3, multiple redundant copies are automatically created and stored in separate data centers. These files can be accessed at any time, from anywhere (based on permissions), and are stored until intentionally deleted. Disaster recovery, the process of protecting an organization's data and IT infrastructure in times of disaster, is typically one of the more expensive HIPAA requirements to comply with. This involves maintaining highly available systems, keeping both the data and system replicated off-site, and enabling continuous access to both. AWS inherently offers a variety of disaster recovery mechanisms. With Amazon EC2, administrators can start server instances very quickly and can use an Elastic IP address (a static IP address for the cloud computing environment) for graceful failover from one machine to another. Amazon EC2 also offers Availability Zones. Administrators can launch Amazon EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones to create geographically diverse, fault tolerant systems that are highly resilient in the event of network failures, natural disasters, and most other probable sources of downtime. Using Amazon S3, a customer's data is replicated and automatically stored in separate data centers to provide reliable data storage designed to provide 99.99% availability.