12-27-21 | Blog Post
One of the most important considerations for a business these days is disaster recovery. With a proper disaster recovery solution in place, businesses can ensure continuity and restore any data that is either lost or corrupted with minimal interruption of normal business operations. Businesses that fail to have a disaster recovery plan in place may be at risk at of significant data loss.
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a cloud-based solution whereby data is backed up into the cloud. This cloud-based service is typically handled by third-party providers who have the responsibility of backing up the data as needed. The market share of DRaaS has steadily increased over the past several years as businesses have become more aware of its benefits; globally, DRaaS is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.67% between 2019 and 2027.
Despite its increased adoption, there are still myths about DRaaS that hinder some businesses from taking advantage of this cloud-based recovery system. Discussed below are five of these myths.
One common misconception about DRaaS is that it is an expensive solution to implement and can eat in a business’ profit margins. The truth, however, is that not having a DRaaS solution in place can result in significantly higher costs in the event of a data breach. In addition, DRaaS payment plans are typically flexible; using the pay-as-you-go model, you only pay for the services that you use. As such, you can easily tailor your DRaaS solution to fit within the confines of your budget.
While it is true that all DRaaS providers generally offer the same service, there significant variations in their technical specifications or levels of protection. One area of variation is the extent of availability; depending on cost as well as business needs, there are a range of availablity options to choose from – in simpler terms, how much data can you afford to lose and for how long can you experience an outage. DRaaS providers vary in their ability to address availability needs, so ensure that you do your research. Another area where DRaaS providers may vary is in terms of regulatory compliance; your chosen DRaaS provider should meet the regulatory needs of your business.
The truth is that all businesses of any size with a network infrastructure are susceptible to data loss or corruption. Accordingly, all businesses, regardless of size, should have a disaster recovery plan in place. With that being said, the disaster recovery needs of businesses can vary depending on their sizes. Enterprise organizations, because of the volume of data generated, typically have higher data recovery needs than their smaller-sized counterparts.
Some businesses expect to have no part to play in backing up their data as soon as the services of a DRaaS provider is engaged. While this is indeed possible, it is very cost-prohibitive and is typically outside the budget of most businesses. In reality, a business’ internal IT team still has a role to play despite the engagement of a third-party DRaaS provider. Some of the tasks that should be handled internally include data consistency and IP or router updates, among others.
The types of servers used by businesses could be either physical servers or virtual machines (VM). DRaaS can be used to back up data for both physical servers and VMs. However, not all DRaaS providers are able to support both physical servers as well as VMs; they can either support one or the other. To accommodate this, DRaaS providers typically offer multiple solutions, one for businesses with physical servers, and the other for VMs.
At Otava, we offer advanced, image-based VM replication and streamlined DRaaS solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. We have experts ready to work with you to set up a disaster recovery solution that meets your business needs. Contact us today for more information.