Patent ID: 8805989

Claim:
A data processing system for hosting virtual machines in a cloud computing environment comprising: a first production cloud, operated at a first data processing platform at a first location, and for providing a set of virtual machines to a first set of customers; a second production cloud, operated on a second data processing platform at a second location; the second data processing platform also operating a continuity production cloud for the first set of customers; a cloud management service for: maintaining configuration of the set of virtual machines in the first production cloud as two or more Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) for a specific customer in the first set of customers; selective enablement of a business continuity service for failing over selected elements of the production cloud to the continuity production cloud on a per-customer and per-VDC basis, such that only a subset of the VDCs for the specific customer are enabled for failing over to the continuity production cloud, and wherein the selective enablement for failing over is further for: reassigning network addresses; updating firewall rules; creating virtual private networks; configuring load-balancing options; creating virtual local area networks; and bringing online VMs as specified by the user for each continuity enabled VDC.