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Recovery as a Service (RaaS) is a cloud-based disaster recovery solution that simplifies the process of protecting and recovering data.
By leveraging cloud infrastructure, RaaS eliminates the need for on-premises hardware and software, reducing costs and complexity.
RaaS solutions typically offer automated backup and replication capabilities, ensuring that data is always up-to-date and easily recoverable in the event of a disaster.
This eliminates the risk of data loss and minimizes downtime, allowing businesses to quickly get back up and running.
RaaS solutions can also be scaled up or down as needed, making it a flexible and cost-effective option for businesses of all sizes.
What is Recovery as a Service?
Recovery as a Service (RaaS) is a type of disaster recovery solution that goes beyond just backing up data. It involves mirroring or replicating company servers off-site as recovery instances in the cloud.
In RaaS, the service provider takes care of the complete disaster recovery process, allowing the client to continue business as usual. This is a significant advantage over Backup-as-a-Service (BaaS), where the onus falls on the client to restore infrastructure in the event of a disaster.
RaaS involves replicating systems at intervals specified by the service level agreement (SLA), ensuring that business-critical data is always up-to-date and secure.
Key Features and Benefits
Recovery as a service offers several key features and benefits that make it an attractive option for businesses. With DRaaS, you can have your data replicated and hosted by a third-party provider, providing failover in the event of a disaster. This allows businesses to offload the maintenance and management of disaster recovery functions, making it a cost-effective solution.
Businesses can leverage disaster recovery capability without having to invest in secondary data centers. DRaaS enables organizations to operate remotely while normal processes are restored, making it an ideal solution for businesses with lean IT teams. Faster recovery is vital to avoid costly downtime and ensures your business remains competitive and compliant.
DRaaS provides a critical bridge for businesses to operate remotely while normal processes are restored. With DRaaS, you can have your data replicated and hosted by a third-party provider, providing failover in the event of a disaster. This allows businesses to offload the maintenance and management of disaster recovery functions, making it a cost-effective solution.
Standard features of DRaaS include Tier 3 Data Centers with SSAE 18 Certification, NetApp All-Flash, Encrypted Storage, and VMware ESXi Hypervisor. Other features include Encrypted Data Transfers, Unlimited Data Transfer, Compression, and Multiple Recovery Points.
Here are some of the key benefits of DRaaS:
- Faster recovery
- Cost-effective solution
- Leverage disaster recovery capability without secondary data centers
- Operate remotely while normal processes are restored
- Ensure business continuity and compliance
Businesses can choose from various DRaaS providers, each offering different features and benefits. When selecting a provider, consider factors such as ease of use, recovery time objectives (RTO), and recovery point objectives (RPO).
Data Protection and Disaster Recovery
Data protection and disaster recovery are crucial for businesses to minimize data loss and ensure continuity. DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) and BaaS (Backup as a Service) aim to minimize data loss in a disaster event, but DRaaS emphasizes short-term data retention, preserving infrastructure, security models, and system state for datasets.
DRaaS providers focus on the speed at which critical workloads can resume following an incident, often making it more expensive than BaaS. DRaaS protects data via continuous replication, allowing for rapid recovery of the latest version of critical data.
Businesses should consider the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), which is the duration of time within which a business process must be restored after a disaster, to avoid unacceptable consequences. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost from an IT service due to a major incident.
Data Protection Purposes
BaaS and DRaaS aim to minimize data loss in a disaster event. BaaS focuses solely on long-term data retention, while DRaaS emphasizes short-term data retention.
DRaaS providers preserve the infrastructure, security models, and system state for the company's datasets. They also focus on the speed at which critical workloads can resume following an incident.
DRaaS is often more expensive than BaaS due to its comprehensive nature, encompassing infrastructure, applications, security models, systems, and rapid recovery.
Businesses can choose between BaaS and DRaaS based on their specific needs and priorities. For instance, companies with limited budget might opt for BaaS, while those with high uptime requirements might prefer DRaaS.
DRaaS ensures that business-critical data, systems, and applications stay secure and readily available for businesses during a crisis.
Data Loss Counteractions
BaaS protects your data via local and offsite backups, making it easier to restore company data in case of a disaster.
The primary focus of BaaS is reducing long-term costs of retaining data, but this can result in a more lengthy restoration process.
DRaaS, on the other hand, focuses on speedy recovery reliant on data replication, allowing organizations to recover the latest version of critical data.
DRaaS continuously copies data changes from the primary production environment to cloud storage, ensuring security and system state.
During an outage or data loss event, DRaaS enables failover to the disaster recovery site, allowing IT teams to get the primary location up and running again.
Here's a comparison between BaaS and DRaaS:
DRaaS ensures that business-critical data, systems, and applications stay secure and readily available during a crisis.
By mirroring the complete infrastructure on virtual servers in fail-safe mode, organizations can be assured of faster disaster recovery.
DRaaS also reduces CapEx costs and frees up workforce for more strategic initiatives.
It's a natural fit for SMBs that can't afford a secondary data center for disaster recovery.
Midmarket enterprises are also increasingly adopting DRaaS for its scalability and cost-effectiveness.
Cloud DR is the most cost-effective and scalable option, storing critical systems, data, and applications in a cloud data center.
Cloud disaster recovery allows an organization to keep entire virtual environments ready, reducing recovery time to minutes or even seconds.
Companies can rely on either a private or public cloud to counter physical equipment failures.
Annual DR tests demonstrate effectiveness and provide proof to auditors that your data is recoverable within the required RTO.
Choosing a Provider and Planning
Choosing the right DRaaS provider is crucial to your business's recovery. There isn't a one-size-fits-all DR solution, so you'll need to combine backup computer software technology with a reliable DR strategy.
Businesses must have a solid understanding of their business and technical goals driving their DR plan and pick a solution that fits their unique needs and budget. With hundreds of vendors and diverse options, organizations must consider many aspects when choosing a DRaaS provider.
To make the right decision, consider a DRaaS provider that offers features such as infrastructure management, operational risk assessment, and critical components analysis.
Choosing a Provider and Planning
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Choosing a DRaaS provider requires careful consideration of your budget and needs. DRaaS may vary in scope and cost depending on your DR requirements.
Your replicated data storage capacity, software licensing, hosted computing infrastructure, and bandwidth are major components that can affect the licensing price. This means you'll need to assess your current infrastructure and data storage needs to determine the best fit.
DRaaS can be licensed on a per-machine, per-usage, or per-volume basis. This flexibility allows you to choose a plan that suits your specific needs.
Choosing a Provider
Choosing a provider is a crucial step in disaster recovery planning. There isn't a one-size-fits-all DR solution, as the disaster recovery solution requirements are as unique as your business.
You'll need to consider many aspects when choosing a provider, including your business and technical goals driving your DR plan. This will help you pick a solution that fits your unique needs and budget.
Expert consultation can be helpful in navigating this process. If you're confused about which Disaster Recovery Solution to choose, you can call a provider for a free consultation with their DRaaS experts.
Organizations choose DRaaS heavily due to the 3-2-1 backup rule, which stipulates that you need three copies of your data, two formats for your backup, and one of those backups stored off-site.
Here are the three types of DRaaS models to consider:
Cloud-based disaster recovery is the most cost-effective and scalable option, allowing a cloud data center to store critical systems, data, and applications.
Accessibility
As you're choosing a provider and planning for disaster recovery, accessibility is a crucial aspect to consider. You need to ensure that users can access internal applications during a crisis.
Your DRaaS vendor should be able to explain how users will access internal applications during a disaster. Ask them about the virtual private network (VPN) and how it will work.
The customer's connection to the cloud is also important. Learn how the domain name system (DNS) will work to ensure accessibility to internal systems and data during a disaster.
Location
When choosing a provider, location is a critical factor in disaster recovery.
Disasters can be region-based, so it's essential to launch your cloud data center far enough away from your region to ensure efficient recovery.
The cloud in which it is done (public or private) and the geographies/or areas where it is done are all critical aspects that determine swift disaster recovery.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud disaster recovery is a flexible option that combines the benefits of public and private clouds.
It uses a public cloud and a private data center, keeping costs down and meeting regulatory needs.
This method is ideal for organizations that want to maintain control over sensitive data while still leveraging the scalability of the public cloud.
With hybrid cloud disaster recovery, you can keep entire virtual environments ready, reducing recovery time from a business disruption or outage to minutes or even seconds.
This is because a cloud data center stores critical systems, data, and applications, making it easier to recover from a disaster.
Hybrid cloud disaster recovery is a scalable option that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of your business.
It's an option that's worth considering, especially if you're looking for a cost-effective way to protect your data.
By using a hybrid cloud approach, you can ensure that your data is secure, compliant, and easily recoverable in the event of a disaster.
Rto/Rpo Customization
Choosing the right Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is crucial for your business continuity plan. It's essential to tailor your RTO and RPO targets to your specific infrastructure and resource optimization guidelines.
Your RTO and RPO should be customized according to the criticality of your applications and your budget. This will help you choose the right RTOs and RPOs for your business.
Disaster recovery planning is essential for all businesses handling sensitive data, and your plan should be tailored to your specific needs. Different disaster recovery plans work for different businesses, so it's crucial to choose the right one for you.
Choose RTOs and RPOs that fit your business needs, and don't be afraid to adjust them as your business grows or changes. Your disaster recovery plan should be flexible to accommodate these changes.
RapidScale
RapidScale is a reputable provider of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). They offer a suite of services designed to meet demanding Recovery Point and Recovery Time Objectives.
Their expertise is built on the understanding that cloud-based disaster recovery is the most cost-effective and scalable option, allowing for recovery times as low as minutes or seconds. This is in contrast to traditional datacenter DR, which requires more careful planning to maintain business continuity.
With RapidScale, you can rely on a private or public cloud to counter physical equipment failures, providing a reliable backup solution. This is especially important for companies that lack in-house experts and need to outsource infrastructure management to a DRaaS provider.
RapidScale's unified services enable you to leverage a single pane of glass to protect your data, regardless of where it resides. This simplifies management and ensures compliance with security and regulatory standards.
Implementation and Management
With Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), you can delegate the burden of designing and executing DR plans to experts with extensive experience in managing data security and disaster recovery planning. This ensures business continuity and eliminates downtime.
Managed DRaaS ensures that the servers hosting your data are always up to date and ready to respond if the production environment fails. This is achieved through continuous monitoring and maintenance, allowing you to focus on your core business.
By leveraging DRaaS, you can also reduce the costs associated with real estate and operational expenses, such as heating and cooling. This is because you can eliminate the need to purchase equipment for on-premises data redundancy.
- Failover server can be chosen based on CPU or GB of RAM, implementation and management preferences
- Pay only for what you use with our pay-as-you-go plan
How It Works
A managed DRaaS model, like the one described in Example 8, takes over all disaster recovery responsibilities, from protection to testing and operation in a failover event.
The service provider handles everything, from data replication to DR testing, validation, and operation, guaranteeing a successful recovery during a disaster.
In a managed DRaaS model, clients still need to work closely with the service provider to keep all application, infrastructure, and service changes up to date.
A Managed DRaaS model is the best option if you don't have the internal expertise or time to manage a DR team.
The primary steps involved in the DRaaS process, as described in Example 2, include cloud computing enabling third-party replication and hosting of physical or virtual servers, offering backup services and failover in the event of a business disruption or outage.
Here's a breakdown of the steps:
- Cloud computing enables third-party replication and hosting of physical or virtual servers
- Offers backup services and failover in the event of a business disruption or outage
DRaaS shifts the responsibility of operating an off-site DR facility from the organization to the service provider, as explained in Example 3.
This means the provider handles data replication, hosting, and recovery services, allowing the customer to switch to an off-site DR environment when a disaster is declared.
A DRaaS service provider may use a software application or hardware appliance to provide failover for on-premise or cloud computing environments, as mentioned in Example 3.
Anything can be backed up in the off-site environment, from virtual machines (VMs) to on-premises servers and mainframes.
The SLA (Service Level Agreement) typically recorded in an SLA, as described in Example 3, evaluates and determines the client's unique needs and requirements for DRaaS.
The SLA guarantees a specified RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) for different workloads, as explained in Example 4.
DRaaS can help achieve aggressive RTO and RPO with cutting-edge replication technologies and automated and orchestrated recovery processes.
A redundant hardware setup, like the one described in Example 5, is deployed by Ace Cloud Hosting for Disaster Recovery as a Service.
This means data and applications in each physical server are replicated to another server, ensuring that even if a server malfunctions, the other server can take its place.
The failover process, as explained in Example 6, provides end-user access to a secondary site hosted by the disaster recovery service provider during a catastrophe.
Speed is paramount for DRaaS solutions, as any downtime can harm the business.
Here are some key features of DRaaS:
- Built-in orchestration and automation for live failovers and failover tests
- Failover server can be chosen based on CPU or GB of RAM, implementation and management preferences
- Pay only for what you use with a pay-as-you-go plan
- Eliminate buying equipment required for on-premises data redundancy, as well as costs associated with real estate and heating, cooling operational expenses
Resource Allocation
When you don't have the in-house expertise to design and execute disaster recovery plans, Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) can be a game-changer. DRaaS puts the burden of disaster recovery planning in the hands of experts with extensive experience in managing data security and disaster recovery planning.
By leveraging DRaaS, you can ensure business continuity and eliminate downtime. This is especially important for businesses that can't afford to be offline for even a short period of time.
DRaaS providers have the resources and expertise to design and execute disaster recovery plans that meet your specific needs. They can help you recover from data loss or system failures quickly and efficiently.
With DRaaS, you can focus on running your business instead of worrying about disaster recovery planning. This can be a huge weight off your shoulders and allow you to focus on growth and innovation.
Sources
- https://www.acronis.com/en-us/blog/posts/draas/
- https://rapidscale.net/managed-it/technology-solutions/disaster-recovery-as-a-service
- https://www.unitrends.com/blog/disaster-recovery-as-a-service-draas
- https://www.acecloudhosting.com/draas/
- https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-disaster-recovery-as-a-service-draas-solutions
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