In any business, especially in an IT firm, data is one of the key elements used in running daily operations. There are several ways in which a firm can store and protect its data. In the past, disaster preparation would often require IT staff to travel to off-premise data centers and/or copy corporate data onto tapes. However, advances in technology and computing platforms have enabled the creation of better and more scalable data storage mechanisms. These have paved the way for complete Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solutions that can be used instead of internal IT teams.
When data is breached or hacked into, uncontrollable losses will occur. To prevent this, many companies opt to have in place disaster response measures and even dedicated teams for managing such situations.
Today, you’ll find two main categories of computing: cloud computing and hardware server-based computing. This includes the use of DRaaS or traditional backup methods to protect and store data. With current technology, DRaaS offers several advantages over traditional backup and disaster recovery methods.
DRaaS is quite reliable and helps address many challenges, including mobility, portability and high performance, among other features. Traditional disaster recovery does not offer the capabilities that DRaaS can today. In the following section, we’ll look at some of the reasons why you should shift away from other methods and instead rely on DRaaS for disaster recovery.
Fewer Necessary Resources
DRaaS recovery data is stored in the cloud, which reduces the on-premises hardware requirements. Traditional disaster recovery services generally need expensive on-premises hardware and are complex to implement and manage.
DRaaS can be used for a group of critical servers or just a single server, something that may not be economically viable using traditional DR. This means companies can resume limited operations much more quickly.
Cyberattack mitigation
Cyberattacks pose one of the biggest threats to businesses. Earlier this year, the “WannaCry” ransomware attack made headlines when it took over 300,000 computers in 150 countries.
Cyberattacks also come in the form of email phishing scams, whereby scammers trick unwary employees to give out confidential information, and data hacks, whereby cybercriminals gain access to the company’s network and exploit sensitive data.
With DRaaS, you can mitigate these security incidents and prevent a disaster situation. In this type of event, you just invoke your DR plan to bring your applications live in the cloud using the most recent, clean copy of your data. When you have cleaned your production systems from the attack, you can replicate your cloud versions back to your data centre.
That beats negotiating with an attacker for your data back!
Lower Cumulative Costs
Most businesses do not have a good disaster recovery plan because they are concerned about the expenses. In general, backup and disaster recovery can be expensive if you choose methods which necessitate the purchase of hardware. For example, if you want to back up all your data in private servers physically, you must invest in the same number of servers as you have now. DRaaS is a solution provided by a third-party. Therefore, the hardware and software used for your disaster recovery strategy are owned by the service provider. Your initial investment will be small.
Easier testing.
Failover testing is now as simple as pointing and clicking, which takes a lot of the effort (and risk) out of testing. And, as I have made clear, if it isn’t tested regularly, it isn’t reliable.
DRaaS comes with a lot of really good tools for monitoring and protecting critical and sensitive information-and provides auditors with an easily verifiable “paper” trail.
Flexibility
Compared to more traditional methods of backup, DRaaS is much more flexible. The various DRaaS services offer clients more options in how to handle different business systems. Any enterprise using DRaaS solutions can select from a variety of recovery scopes, depending on the type of the disaster. These can include server failure, human-caused disasters, loss of power or building access, data hampering, and much more.
Rapid and Immediate Recovery
Your company can never be sure when a disaster might occur. If one does happen, how much downtime is acceptable? Each second the power is out or your servers fail means huge losses for your organization. With a DRaaS solution in place, you do not have to worry about this: if a disaster strikes, you will be able to restore normal operations within minutes.
Reliable Security
Security in DRaaS is commonly misunderstood, so choose your provider wisely. For example, it’s important to ensure that the provider is compliant with all the relevant regulatory bodies. In addition to making sure the data center itself is physically secure, you should also verify that data is encrypted in-flight and at rest. DRaaS providers should implement automatic systems to monitor the health of your data. For peace of mind, they should also be able to provide you with reports for any specified period.
Streamlines In-House IT Needs
Many small to medium-sized businesses do not have the IT expertise to manage disaster recovery solutions. Managing processes like data recovery or disaster prevention require knowledge of business process and a specific IT skillset. DRaaS allows businesses to leverage the expertise of the consultants providing a more effective way to implement a disaster recovery solution for your business.
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