Disaster Recovery Services Should be Part of Your Cloud Strategy

As businesses pursue digital transformation, their key assets are shifting from physical infrastructure to data. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and other kinds of analytics rely on data to power their algorithms. Data is now the most valuable asset for many businesses; not just customer and financial data, but operational data as well. Loss of that data for even a short time can bring operations to a standstill. And yet, legacy disaster recovery services and solutions such as offsite tape repositories don’t provide the immediate and dependable response needed to meet today’s business demands.

It is no surprise then that the latest trend in disaster recovery is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). Relying on the cloud to provide flexible, scalable backup resources, DRaaS is always on and always available. Disaster recovery services provide the fastest options for restoration of operational and other kinds of data, and it can automate many of the tasks. Along with the agility and speed of recovery that DRaaS makes possible, it also provides increased flexibility, improved security and saves you money. Having access to your backup data without having access to computing to run your business is only part of the equation in a disaster.

In traditional disaster recovery, IT maintains or has access to a second, standalone data center for the disaster recovery operations. This duplication includes storage and compute resources as well as duplicate network resources such as firewalls, routers and switches. There are also extra operational processes such as configuration, maintenance and support. In addition, there is the time needed to access the equipment at the second site as well as the time needed to re-route network traffic to this new location.

The manual side of disaster recovery can be the Achilles heel for many businesses because their backup operations are manual. This puts the burden on data center employees, who unless the business is very big, are often caught up in other day-to-day operational tasks. It is not always easy to ensure backup tasks remain on the daily to-do list despite more pressing short-term issues.

Rapidly growing businesses also need to expand their redundant data center to match the growth of the business. This can impose the need for significant expenditures at a time when all available Capex is being used to increase productive capacity. As with manual operations, long-term strategic issues such as disaster recovery often fall lower on the priority list when the business is consumed with short-term issues.

Cost-effective and Reliable Disaster Recovery Services for Businesses of all Sizes

Disaster recovery services address most of these shortcomings. The pay-as-you-go approach of cloud services is one of the principal drivers of the trend to the cloud, and it is no different with DRaaS. It moves disaster recovery to the expense side of the ledger where it can more closely match the ebbs and flows in revenue, and it ensures that precious capital resources are available for expanding productivity to meet growing demand.

Disaster recovery services can automate the tasks associated with replication, backup and restoration. The cloud provider takes over the day-to-day operations, administration, and maintenance of the DR data center and associated services, which frees IT to focus on the more pressing concerns of managing the fast-growing digital operations side of the business.

In addition, disaster recovery services can also assist in disaster avoidance. Failing over just one or a few Virtual Machines (VM) and running those workloads from a Cloud site without having to formally declare a disaster and initiate all of the associated actions with disaster declaration can be invaluable.

Documenting and automating the restoration process or “run book” of Virtual Machines (VM) with your DRaaS provider through the use of features such as Failover Plans can ensure that the appropriate steps are taken more rapidly and without having to make those decisions during the disaster declaration process, since they were determined well in advance.

The DRaaS provider also brings their expertise and experience in handling disaster recovery and prevention daily; whereas most business’s IT departments will only occasionally deal with data restoration tasks and may never experience a full-blown loss of data — at least, not until it happens.

Your DRaaS provider can work with you to develop your Disaster Recovery Plan. They can help you to assess the risks and business impacts, lay out the best ways to prevent data loss from occurring and help your IT staff to prepare for how best to respond and recover from various disaster scenarios. Finally, they can help you to test these systems regularly to ensure that the plan is comprehensive and update it when new threats emerge.

This last point is perhaps the most significant. Cyber-security threats are the area most prone to rapid change, and the area where it is most difficult for IT departments to stay current. Again, the DRaaS provider is singularly focused on the security of their data center operations and is completely attuned to the current state of security threats. Their infrastructure is also separate and apart for that of the businesses they serve which offers additional protections through these barriers.

In this era of digital transformation, the cloud is playing a key role in the development of information and operational technologies. It allows businesses to be more agile, responding quickly to shifts in demand and enabling them to be more flexible and adjust their offerings and services to optimize the customer experience. Cloud providers offer the latest capabilities and leverage the most advanced technological platforms. Every business today needs to put cloud at the heart of their business strategy and, now more than ever, that includes disaster recovery services.

Thrive to the Rescue

Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Experts

Thrive is a trusted global provider of comprehensive cloud, data protection and security services.

Since 2001, Thrive has provided these robust and secure managed cloud and disaster recovery solutions from a scalable multi-tenant infrastructure, supported by our first-class in-house technical team. Thrive delivers highly flexible and responsive solutions with outstanding value and service, using state-of-the-art technology to offer ultimate protection and peace of mind.

We are driven to be your trusted partner and to ensure that we deliver a Thrive Experience that meets your business requirements with the reliability, scalability, and support that your business demands.

Contact us today to discover your options around DRaaS Veeam managed appliance for VMWare and HyperV, DRaaS physical server replication, and other Thrive DR services that can help you to meet your operational demands while protecting and recovering your most valuable asset – your data.