Disaster Recovery as a Service is a dedicated solution that third-party providers offer to small and large businesses to ensure business continuity in case of a disaster. This cloud computing service model allows organizations to back up and replicate data and applications, enabling them to stay online even in the event of a local IT failure. DRaaS can be managed by an IT department, by a third-party technology vendor, or by an IT managed service provider (MSP).
DRaaS is an essential component of any organization’s business continuity strategy. IT outages can happen for a variety of reasons, from natural disasters to human error. In the worst cases, downtime can cause loss of revenue and damage to a company’s reputation. While many business owners are aware of the importance of having a solid disaster recovery plan, they may not know where to start. Fortunately, advances in virtualization and the advent of cloud computing have made DRaaS much more affordable for companies than it has been in the past.
The way a DRaaS works is that the IT department backs up and stores a complete infrastructure in fail-safe mode on virtual servers, which can be spun up and restored when needed. In the event of a disaster, processing will shift from the physical servers to the virtual ones as soon as they are available. This reduces recovery time significantly and can even make the switch instantaneous. The IT team must be careful to test and monitor the DRaaS solution, as it can introduce latency into some operations.
In the fully managed DRaaS model, third parties take full responsibility for disaster recovery. This includes managing the infrastructure, rerouting traffic from primary to secondary environments, and monitoring disaster recovery processes. This option is best for organizations that don’t have the time or expertise to manage their own DRaaS.
Assisted DRaaS offers some of the same benefits as managed DRaaS, but it doesn’t include monitoring solutions or IT support for disaster recovery activities. This is the cheapest option for most businesses. In the self-service model, the organization is responsible for planning and testing their own disaster recovery procedures. It’s also responsible for hosting their own backup infrastructure on virtual servers in a remote location. This can be a good option for organizations with dedicated IT experts who are familiar with disaster recovery.
The self-service model has a lower price tag than the fully managed option, but it can be more expensive for some organizations. This model is billed on-demand, according to usage, or through ongoing retainer agreements. While this option is less flexible than the other two, it’s a good choice for smaller companies that don’t have the expertise or resources to manage their own DRaaS. With these options, the IT department can focus on day-to-day operations while ensuring that their critical applications will be up and running in the event of a disaster. By reducing the risk of outages, it frees up resources that can be used to drive business growth and development.