Is DRaaS the Right Fit for Your Organization’s Disaster Recovery Needs?

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a popular disaster recovery (DR) solution. Despite this, however, it is not necessarily the right solution for every organization. With that in mind, here is a straightforward guide to deciding if DRaaS is a good fit for your organization.

Understanding your organization’s DR needs

Here are the five key factors to consider when assessing your organization’s DR needs.

Risks: Identify potential threats and evaluate the potential financial and operational impacts of disruptions on each area of the business.
IT assets: Assess current systems and dependencies and identify the quantity and nature of data.
Recovery Time and Point Objectives (RTO and RPO): Determine the acceptable downtime and level of data loss for critical systems.
Security and compliance: Ensure DR plans align with regulatory and industry standards.
Scalability: Plan for future growth and changes in operations.

When DRaaS makes sense for your business

These are 5 strong indicators that DRaaS makes sense for your business.

Limited IT resources: Your organization lacks the staff and/or infrastructure for an in-house disaster recovery solution.
Hybrid or cloud environments: As a cloud solution, DRaaS is a natural choice for other cloud environments.
Ransomware concerns: DRaaS offers proactive protection and rapid recovery to minimize data loss.
Restrictions on capital expenditure: DRaaS can be implemented with little to no upfront costs.
Rapidly changing business: Your business operates in a dynamic environment requiring scalable recovery options.

When DRaaS may not be the right fit

By contrast, these are 5 strong indicators that DRaaS may not be the right fit for your business.

Existing in-house capabilities: If you already have extensive DR infrastructure, then you may not gain any meaningful benefit from DRaaS.
Comprehensive in-house expertise: Your IT team already manages DR effectively without external assistance.
Tight data sovereignty requirements: Regulatory constraints may prevent storing data in third-party clouds.
Low latency tolerance: Latency in cloud-based recovery might jeopardize your RTO.
Limited connectivity: Poor internet bandwidth could hinder effective recovery.

DRaaS vs. traditional disaster recovery solutions

DRaaS uses public cloud infrastructure and so has minimal to no upfront costs. Ongoing costs can usually be paid by subscription and/or on-demand. DRaaS is highly scalable, flexible and easy to manage. They do, however, require organizations to entrust third-parties with the care of their systems and data.

Traditional disaster recovery (DR) solutions use on-premises or remote backup sites with physical infrastructure. This means that there is usually significant upfront expenditure although ongoing costs may be lower.

Traditional DR solutions are much less scalable and flexible than DRaaS. They are also more complex to manage. They do, however, ensure that organizations have full control over both their infrastructure and their data.

Factors to consider in choosing DRaaS

It’s important to consider these 7 factors when choosing a DRaaS provider.

Security and compliance: Ensure the provider has robust security and can demonstrate compliance with relevant regulations and laws.
Reliability: Assess uptime guarantees and the provider’s track record for service availability.
Recovery Time & Point Objectives (RTO & RPO): Verify that the provider meets your RTO and RPO requirements.
Scalability: Choose a provider that can grow with your business needs and handle increased data volumes.
Support: Check that current and former customers are/were happy with the support offered.
Ease of integration: Ensure compatibility with your existing infrastructure.
Cost: Balance the provider’s pricing model with your budget and required services.

How to assess your business’ DR readiness

Look closely at these 7 factors to assess your business’ DR readiness.

Risk assessment: Identify potential threats (e.g., cyberattacks, natural disasters) and their impact on operations.
Current IT infrastructure: Evaluate whether your systems are resilient and capable of supporting recovery needs.
RTO & RPO: Determine your organization’s acceptable downtime and data loss limits.
Compliance requirements: Ensure your DR plan meets industry and regulatory standards.
Data backup: Ensure critical data is consistently backed up and accessible.
Staff training: Verify that your team is prepared for disaster recovery procedures.
Testing: Regularly test recovery processes to identify gaps and areas for improvement.

Case studies of businesses choosing DRaaS

Here are three case studies of businesses choosing DRaaS.

Retail chain: A large retail chain with multiple stores nationwide chose DRaaS to protect its customer data and transaction systems. They needed a solution with minimal downtime and quick recovery during peak shopping seasons. DRaaS allowed them to scale quickly and cost-effectively while ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.

Healthcare provider: A healthcare organization implemented DRaaS to safeguard patient records and ensure HIPAA compliance. The provider’s existing on-premises DR was too costly and complex, so DRaaS offered a more reliable and secure solution with automated backups and faster recovery times.

Financial institution: A regional bank adopted DRaaS to support critical financial applications and avoid costly downtime. With a highly regulated environment, they required a DR solution that offered robust security, real-time backups, and minimal recovery time, which DRaaS delivered efficiently.