DRaaS vs. Disaster Recovery: 3 Things to Know

The loss of data due to an attack or natural disaster can devastate companies’ finances and reputations – and even force some to close their doors. As a result, many businesses are sharpening their focus on business continuity, and they’re weighing whether they should invest in an on-premise Disaster Recovery (DR) solution or work with a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) provider.

So how to decide? Start by knowing these three things about DR and DRaaS:

1. What is Disaster Recovery (DR)?

Disaster recovery (DR) is your system’s ability to recover quickly and continue operating as close to normal as possible despite unexpected disruptions, which can range from cyberattacks and equipment failures to natural disasters. A recent survey of businesses by the Uptime Institute found that 31 percent experienced an IT downtime incident or severe service degradation in 2018 compared to 25 percent in 2017, for reasons ranging from power outages and network failures to software and human error.

In traditional DR, an enterprise owns and manages its own DR strategy through measures that include: (1) duplicating data through tape backup or imaging; or (2) replicating their production environment to a secondary DR location. Please note that a DR plan is just one component of a business continuity plan.

2. DRaaS defined

As the cost of downtime from disasters rises in terms of productivity, reputation and dollars – to the tune of an estimated $5,600 per minute – and with new threats like increasingly volatile weather events, businesses of all sizes are rethinking their respective IT disaster recovery plans, including the implementation of a DRaaS solution.

Popular with enterprises who demand optimum reliability of their DR plans, or simply lack the internal resources to manage DR themselves, DRaaS is currently used by an estimated 40 percent of U.S. enterprises, while another 20 percent are planning to implement DRaaS in the near future. Unlike conventional DR platforms, which reside on the physical premises of an enterprise, DRaaS is a fully managed service whereby an organization “rents” secondary site infrastructure from a third-party vendor who employs cloud computing for data backup and recovery by creating snapshots of data at scheduled intervals.

3. Why is DRaaS growing in popularity?

The growing popularity of DRaaS lies in its potential to:

• reduce cost
• ease implementation
• uncover your company’s level of risk
• customize solutions for your unique business
• free up your employees to focus on your core business

In closing

Disaster Recovery is an insurance policy that you hope you never have to claim – more like car insurance than life insurance. The key issue for most companies is balancing the cost of your “premiums” against the coverage your policy provides. DRaaS delivers a cost-effective way to achieve this.