Your company’s data is the lifeblood of your organization. If it gets lost, damaged, or stolen, it can have catastrophic results for your business.
To mitigate the effects of potential data loss, companies require their IT staff to backup critical data.
In any case, traditional backup programs and processes are not the least demanding to handle. Aside from having limited capacity like tape, servers, or discs, proprietary backup programs are too complicated to configure and indeed have compatibility issues with other software and hardware. Also, the staff must travel off-site just to store the backup data in a separate location.
As a result, you will find that a lot of IT staff choose to pretend that they backed up the data and just prayed that nothing bad will happen.
Fortunately, modern companies no longer have to deal with those issues anymore. With the rise of the cloud also comes a variety of IT administrations that are accessible as a benefit rather than being purchased. That includes Disaster Recovery as a Service or DRaaS.
What is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
DRaaS refers to the IT service offered by a third-party managed service provider that deals with the process of backing up company data in the cloud via the internet. Data is stored in a secure data center that can only be accessed through proper login and authentication.
In the event of data loss due to a disaster, natural or man-made, data can be recovered via the internet as well. In the event of data loss due to a disaster, natural and man-made, data can be recovered via the internet as well. The backup data can then replace the lost data to minimize disruption of operations.
The main difference is that the third party, your DRaaS provider, will be the one responsible for the whole backup and recovery process instead of your internal IT staff.
You may be asking, why should you entrust your data to a third party? Well there are a lot of benefits to going the DRaaS route including:
No Hardware Needed
Traditional data backup and disaster recovery software and programs generally need businesses to provide their hardware like tape, servers, or hard disks for data backup storage. They are just that, a proprietary program that will facilitate backup — nothing else.
With DRaaS, your data is stored in the provider’s own data center, on a private server. It is included in the subscription fee that you pay as an expense, instead of significant capital investment.
Secure Data Backup Storage
Cloud backup service providers employ the best security protocols available to protect their data centers, and in turn, to protect your data stored in them as well.
It includes encryption, regular security patches, consistent audits, and more. They employ a multi-layer security approach to cover most, if not all, their vulnerabilities.
Also, access to your data is in accounts protected by multi-factor authentication protocols. They secure your data at a level that your business cannot do on its own.
Easier Configuration and Testing
In the past, configuration and testing backup and recovery processes is a tedious task. There are incompatibility issues and storage capacity issues to worry about.
However, DRaaS typically comes with an online dashboard that automates most of the functions and tools included. The easy-to-use dashboard makes it easier to set up the backup process, including automated scheduling. After which, the company can test if the data was successfully backed up, and ready for recovery in the future.
Immediate Recovery
DRaaS regularly backs up data to the cloud via the internet. It also heeds that data recovery is the same. Instead of going to a separate location to retrieve the backup data, your business can simply download it through the internet.
You do not even have to be in the office. People with the proper credentials can recover the data from anywhere and on any device, as long as they are connected to the world wide web.
Frees Up Your IT Staff
Data backup and disaster recovery take a parcel of time and effort. If your IT staff does this for your business, it’ll eat up a lot of their attention, which takes away from their other tasks. By having a third-party handle information backup and disaster recovery, you’re removing a big-ticket item from your IT staff. It’ll allow them to focus on making a difference in your daily operations and even come up with new ways to increase productivity and efficiency.
Conclusion
The days of tedious and difficult data backup and disaster recovery processes are gone. By subscribing to a DRaaS solution, you no longer have to worry about backing up your important data. It will give you the peace of mind that in the event of a disaster, you can recover lost data immediately to minimize downtimes.
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