Why DRaaS Is Critical to Your Business Continuity Plan

The rise of the pandemic spotlighted many disaster-related issues companies had ignored for far too long. Consider that a 2020 study by global consultancy firm Mercer found that more than half of companies had no business continuity plan to combat the virus's impacts. These companies played catch-up to competitors better prepared for disasters—in whatever form those disasters might take. To help companies be prepared, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has devoted an entire website, Ready.gov, to guide you in developing a business continuity plan that addresses whatever kind of disaster comes your way.

Business continuity planning covers every aspect of your business, but the pandemic’s forced, fast migration to remote and hybrid workforces exposed many more companies to new risks. Those risks have led to an even greater focus on data protection. As a recent survey found, one reason was that 69 percent of IT leaders say that ransomware attacks are a more significant concern in a hybrid work environment. And they are right to be concerned, with Homeland Security also saying that roughly $350 million in ransom was paid to malicious cyber actors in 2020, a more than 300% increase from the previous year.

Disaster Recovery: A Critical Component of Business Continuity

When the conversation turns to ransomware, business continuity depends on a proper backup and disaster recovery strategy. If your data is locked up and held for ransom, your business can't continue—until you get your data back. While there are many options for backup and disaster recovery, disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is one solution worth a closer look. Businesses certainly see things that way, as the DRaaS market is projected to see a 40.6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2026.

Why DRaaS?

Local backups may be enough to recover your IT systems from server failure or other common problems. But a site-wide disaster or a ransomware attack that locks up all of your systems could render those local backups useless. With DRaaS, you get a cloud-computing service model that lets you replicate your systems, data, and applications to a third-party cloud computing environment. A solid DRaaS solution should offer you everything from file and folder recovery and machine virtualization to instant failover of an entire site and network. That ensures you can recover no matter what happens to your data center or even your backup data center.

StorageCraft’s backup and recovery solutions can be paired with StorageCraft Cloud Services to give you complete and reliable business continuity. StorageCraft DRaaS is architected from the ground up to streamline data backup and recovery management so you can get critical systems back online quickly.

Anytime, Anywhere, Easy Access

An effective DRaaS solution should let you centrally manage your cloud backup and recovery processes using a simple, self-service online portal. That puts you in control of your data. Look for privacy and security measures that ensure only you can access stored backup images. And be sure you can execute a seamless failover during a disaster from wherever you are.

Structured for Your Requirements

Look for DRaaS offerings that let you select the service level you need to meet your business continuity requirements. Your options can range from basic, secure offsite cloud storage of your critical business backups with full-system restore to premium services that give you instant virtualization of your systems and data in the cloud in the event of a disaster.

Get Your Questions Answered

The best way to get a clear picture of what DRaaS can do for you is to talk to an expert. We suggest you schedule a demo with a StorageCraft engineer today.