Everything you need to know about “DRaaS”

Since a dedicated DR site can be expensive to maintain and scale, many organizations are looking to outsource the costs. Replacing the costs of a secondary site (hardware, software, power, cooling, maintenance, etc.) with a predictable monthly expense is a very attractive option. DRaaS has become increasingly popular as a way for organizations to reduce the time, resources, and costs of hosting and managing their own DR solution. 

Benefits of DRaaS

DRaaS providers do this every day, so they are knowledgeable about getting environments online quickly and can help you avoid common mistakes. They also serve as additional resources that are focused on your data center recovery when you need it most.

Working with a qualified DRaaS provider, you can expect to realize the maximum benefit of all of your DR planning – seamless failover, efficiently orchestrated recovery, complete support, and managed failback.

DRaaS Options

• Managed Service: A fully managed service, where all of the secondary site infrastructure is provided at a rental cost and the tasks of managing and invoking the replication and recovery process are controlled by the service provider.  For organizations that are not familiar or confident with implementing or managing a DR solution — or simply don’t have the resources to do so— this can be a very useful option.
• DIY Service: Alternatively, a hosted DIY service may be selected, in which case the  secondary site infrastructure will be provided as before, but the process of managing the disaster recovery solution will be controlled by the customer.  For those happy with taking on this responsibility, a DIY service can be a cheaper option than a managed one.

Important to Remember

The type of disaster recovery solution used to protect your data will be dependent on the service offered by the provider.  Ensure you know what solution you will be getting in order to fully evaluate the service and potential benefits.