Avoiding Common Mistakes When Choosing a DRaaS Provider

To get the most from Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), you need to choose the right service provider. With that in mind, here is a detailed guide to avoiding common mistakes when choosing a DRaaS provider for your organization.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Here are the 7 most common mistakes to avoid when choosing a DRaaS provider.

Not evaluating recovery objectives

When selecting a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) provider, failing to assess your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) can lead to significant operational challenges. The RTO defines the maximum acceptable time to restore systems, while the RPO specifies the maximum acceptable data loss.

If these objectives are not clearly identified, you risk choosing a provider whose services may not align with your business’s operational needs. For example, an RTO of 4 hours for a critical application but a provider that can only guarantee 12-hour recovery could severely impact your operations.

Ignoring scalability and flexibility

Businesses grow and change over time, so your DRaaS solution must be adaptable. Ignoring scalability and flexibility can result in outgrowing your provider’s capabilities or paying for resources you don’t use.

A rigid solution may not accommodate changes in data volume, infrastructure, or business priorities, leaving you unprepared for future challenges.

Always choose a provider that can scale with your organization and offers flexible configurations tailored to your evolving needs.

Overlooking compliance and security standards

With increasing regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA, ensuring your DRaaS provider complies with industry standards is critical. Overlooking this can lead to fines, reputational damage, and data breaches. Moreover, a provider’s security measures should align with your organization’s standards to safeguard sensitive information during recovery processes.

Underestimating costs

Cost underestimation is a common issue, as some businesses fail to account for hidden fees or overprovisioned resources. DRaaS costs can include setup fees, data storage, bandwidth usage, and testing charges.

Without understanding the full cost structure, businesses may encounter budget overruns. Ensure transparency in pricing and evaluate whether the solution delivers value for its cost, considering downtime savings and operational continuity.

Skipping vendor reliability checks

Vendor reliability is critical in disaster recovery scenarios. Skipping due diligence, such as reviewing service-level agreements (SLAs), customer testimonials, and performance records, can lead to choosing a provider that falters during critical moments.

Assess the vendor’s history, technical expertise, and uptime guarantees to ensure they can meet your disaster recovery requirements consistently.

Not testing the solution

A DRaaS solution is only as good as its ability to perform during a crisis. Failing to test the solution regularly can leave you unprepared for real-world scenarios. Tests help verify recovery times, uncover potential gaps, and familiarize your team with the process.

Ensure the provider supports periodic, non-disruptive testing to validate the effectiveness of the solution and refine recovery procedures.

Choosing based on price alone

While cost is an important factor, selecting a DRaaS provider solely based on the lowest price can be detrimental. Low-cost providers may lack advanced features, robust support, or sufficient scalability.

Prioritize the provider’s reliability, compliance, and ability to meet your recovery objectives. A well-rounded solution may cost more upfront but will save money in the long run by minimizing downtime and data loss.

Tips for making the right choice

The number one tip for making the right choice of DRaaS provider is to avoid choosing solely on price. Focus on value, reliability, and features rather than opting for the cheapest option, which may compromise quality.

Here are 7 more important points to consider.

Define your recovery objectives: Clearly outline your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) to ensure the provider can meet your requirements.

Assess compliance and security: Verify that the provider adheres to relevant industry regulations (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) and offers robust security measures, such as encryption and multi-factor authentication.

Evaluate scalability and flexibility: Choose a solution that can grow with your business and adapt to evolving needs, including changes in data volume and infrastructure.

Review SLAs and reliability: Scrutinize service-level agreements (SLAs) for guaranteed uptime, response times, and overall reliability. Check references, customer reviews, and vendor track records.

Understand cost structure: Look for transparency in pricing, including setup fees, testing costs, and storage charges, to avoid unexpected expenses.

Check testing capabilities: Ensure the provider supports non-disruptive testing to validate the effectiveness of recovery plans and uncover gaps.

Consider support and expertise: Opt for a provider with 24/7 support and proven technical expertise to guide you during crises.

Conclusion

Choosing a DRaaS provider is an important decision for any business. By avoiding common mistakes and focusing on key points, businesses can be confident of finding the right partner for their needs, wants, and budgets.