Having disaster recovery (DR) procedures in place is necessary for organizations that require strong data and cybersecurity foundations. However, managing disaster recovery in-house is complex and doesn’t always translate to saving money compared to working with a provider—high labor costs are just one issue with managing disaster recovery internally.
As a result, disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is growing in popularity due to its cost-effectiveness and rapid data recovery times. In fact, DRaaS is currently a $10.7 billion market and is anticipated to reach $26.5 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.8% each year.
Below, we’ll explore the basics of DRaaS, including what it is, how it can help your organization, and what to look for in DRaaS service providers to help you navigate this cybersecurity solution.
What Is Disaster Recovery as a Service?
Disaster recovery as a service is a cloud-centric service model offered by third-party vendors that helps businesses with data backups, management, orchestration, and more.
To quickly resume business operations in the case of a local technological breakdown, DRaaS enables enterprises to back up data and applications offsite without the cost of a physical, alternate data center.
How DRaaS Works
Different from Backup as a Service (BaaS), DRaaS utilizes replication technology to automatically synchronize a system to the cloud environment. BaaS backups, on the other hand, are often carried out via an encrypted private network over the internet, and all files, data, and applications are brought online and restored in the case of a disaster.
Data Backup and Replication
If a disaster creates downtime through damage or an outage, DRaaS serves as a failsafe. Instead of hosting servers at the physical location of the company that owns the data, DRaaS replicates and hosts them at the facilities of the third-party vendor supplying the service, making it more convenient across the board for companies.
Failover and Failback Procedures
Failover is maintaining business uptime by seamlessly switching operations and data from one site to another during a disaster.
The importance of failover/failback procedures cannot be overstated. They serve as a safety net in case of downtime due to a disaster, which can result in losing thousands of dollars per minute. In fact, the average downtime cost per minute due to a ransomware attack is $8,662. As a result, the failover process should ideally happen quickly to avoid any possible downtime, which can pose a challenge for organizations without DRaaS.
For example, compared to colocation data centers, failover procedures with DRaaS are more convenient and quick. A disaster recovery as a service solution lets you failover to a predetermined cloud environment designed for DR, while with colocation failover, you may spend significantly more time and effort rectifying the situation since it can take days to restore data due to physical demands (like shipping data sets).
Virtualization and Cloud Technologies
Virtualized environments via cloud technologies offer optimized networking, memory, and storage of hardware by dividing the execution of these processes into several virtual machines (VMs).
Since DRaaS replicates an entire infrastructure on virtual servers in a cloud environment, you can keep running applications without any significant differences in the short term.
Benefits of DRaaS
Enhanced Data Security and Protection
Remote work is not going anywhere, which creates new cybersecurity vulnerabilities to address. For instance, company servers, devices, and apps may be protected by being in a data center or cloud, but end users using laptops from home offices are not protected.
Your data infrastructure backup will be more secure if you use a cloud-based disaster recovery system from a private provider that can help encrypt your data and mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities for end users who work remotely or in the office.
Minimized Downtime, Optimized Business Continuity, and Increased Customer Satisfaction
DRaaS enables faster recovery times for businesses that need their most critical assets and protected data back up and running as soon as possible to avoid downtime and dissatisfaction from customers. As a result, many businesses organize their data into tiers, with the most critical applications and data in the highest tier protected by DRaaS for a quicker recovery.
More Cost-Effective and Scalable Compared to In-House Disaster Recovery
DR systems installed in-house often require excessive hardware to perform. In contrast, DRaaS provides the same disaster recovery capabilities with convenient payment options that are ultimately less expensive than investing in an in-house DR system. Furthermore, because DRaaS is off-site, your operations will likely recover in a more timely fashion.
Potential Drawbacks of DRaaS
Data Privacy and Compliance
When it comes to safeguarding sensitive data during replication and recovery, compliance and security are essential. However, during DRaaS deployment, a lot of enterprises encounter issues regarding data privacy and compliance. This is because vendors are compliant with different cybersecurity regulations, so it’s crucial to find a provider that meets your exact compliance requirements.
Connectivity
Significant bandwidth is needed for DRaaS to duplicate systems and data to the cloud. If there is not enough bandwidth, there may be incomplete data replication, slow recovery, and data loss.
It’s important to ensure your DRaaS provider complies with all security and regulatory requirements as well as encrypting data before transferring it to the cloud for the most secure DRaaS. Additionally, you should ensure they have the bandwidth support to meet your needs.
The right provider can meet all of these needs and more.
Choose a Provider That Can Customize DRaaS Solutions to Your Needs
Ultimately, disaster recovery as a service is great for:
- Cost-effectiveness
- Quick disaster recovery
- Easier scalability
- Enhanced security
But to get the most out of your DRaaS, it’s essential to work with an experienced provider who can tailor a solution that fits your needs. That provider should be reputable and offer only the most up-to-date and tested technology options to render the best results.
Tec-Refresh checks all those boxes. From backup and disaster recovery services to network security and everything in between, we’re the only Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) you need to secure your most critical assets.
Contact our experienced team to learn more about how our DRaaS solutions can effectively work for your organization.