Disaster Recovery as a Service: 4 Reasons You Should Consider Working With an MSP

Savvy businesses take steps to protect data and essential IT systems. The problem is that these same businesses put most of their efforts into keeping data safe without considering the impact downtime has on their business. According to Gartner, downtime can cost as much as $5,600 a minute. And, while most businesses have a plan for safeguarding data, few have a plan for getting their systems back online before downtime becomes too much for their bottom line to bear. These businesses can benefit from a disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) offering from an IT managed service provider (MSP). Whether you have an internal IT team that needs a hand or you’re just trying to take extra precautions, here are some of the reasons you should consider working with an MSP to help with your DRaaS needs.

Disaster Recovery Expertise

Beyond certifications, courses, and practical domain knowledge, MSPs have tons of experience keeping businesses up and running. Because MSPs work with many different kinds of clients, they’re familiar with a wide variety of different systems, software, scenarios, and network setups. Put simply, these folks know a thing or two. Plus, with an MSP you can often benefit from an entire team of experts—not just one or two IT pros. That means you’ll get different perspectives and a lot of know-how, all from a single vendor. That’s tough to replicate on your own unless you have deep pockets. Leaning on an MSP’s experience improves your chances of getting up and running quickly when downtime threatens your business.

Ease of Management

Backing up systems is pretty straightforward if you know what you’re doing. But, when it comes to keeping businesses productive no matter what, backups aren’t enough. For the average business, disaster recovery (DR) requires a bit more expertise than they’re likely to have on their team. Between planning, setup, and management, it’s something most businesses simply don’t focus on. With an MSP you don’t need to worry about anything beyond your participation in planning and regular DR testing. You won’t need to assess multiple vendors or learn how to use new solutions. There’s no research or investment in hardware, nor are there hours spent setting anything up. With an MSP, businesses get all the benefits of an effective DR solution without any of the associated headaches.

Contract Service Levels

Service-level agreements (SLAs) dictate the specific thresholds that must be met for the services that an MSP provides a business. With regard to DRaaS, SLAs help you establish recovery time objectives (RTO)—how quickly you must recover after a downtime event—and recovery point objectives (RPO)—how much data loss is tolerable. These two metrics help you understand exactly what hardware and services you need from an MSP. With these metrics established and included in SLAs, you can rest easy knowing your MSP will do everything it can to ensure it meets the objectives you’ve outlined together.

Value Beyond DRaaS

Last, MSPs don’t only offer DRaaS. If you find yourself in need of network security, cloud computing, antivirus, or any other IT-related services, MSPs can help. As with DRaaS, MSPs bring formidable knowledge and experience to the table so you can focus more on your bottom line and less on your IT infrastructure. As you think about DRaaS, it’s helpful to consider the other ways an MSP can help you streamline your systems, enhance productivity, and reduce the amount of time and effort you put into maintaining IT systems.

Final Thoughts

If your business needs an easy and effective approach to DRaaS, working with an MSP is a great choice. By saving time and leaning on the proficiency of an entire team, your business will be far more likely to overcome a failure event. Do a quick search online for nearby IT providers. Pay special attention to those that offer DRaaS or business continuity services so they can help prepare you for the worst downtime events.