Digital Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) has become an essential component of the hybrid cloud. Users expect continuous access to their applications and data even in an outage or disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan helps them achieve these objectives—several DRaaS providers on the market offer slightly different services, pricing models, and features.
Choosing the best DRaaS provider for your business can be challenging, given the number of options. Therefore, it is essential to understand your company’s needs before selecting one.
How do you know if a potential DRaaS provider is trustworthy or not? What should you look for when choosing an ideal candidate? This article provides detailed information on selecting the best DRaaS provider for your business.
What Is a Disaster Recovery Plan?
A disaster recovery plan is a critical component of any business continuity strategy. It is a detailed plan that outlines how an organization will respond to a major disruption, such as a natural disaster or data center outage. A disaster recovery plan aims to minimize downtime and ensure that critical business functions are quickly resumed.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a cloud-based solution that can provide failover capabilities in an outage. DRaaS solutions are typically deployed in multiple data centers, so another can take over if one site goes offline. This helps ensure mission-critical applications and data are always available. Here’s how to choose the right DRaas provider for your business.
Know Your Business Requirements Before Selecting a Provider
Before taking the plunge and signing up with a DRaaS provider, you should know your business requirements. Understanding your business requirements will help you evaluate potential providers based on your needs and requirements.
You should ask questions like: What type of data loss are you preparing for? How many users or applications will be affected? What is the overall uptime expectation? What are the compliance and legal requirements? Lastly, what are the budget and cost expectations? These questions will help you identify the provider that meets your specific needs and requirements.
It would be best if you chose a flexible DRaaS provider that is easily customizable to suit the needs of your business.
What Type of Data Loss Are You Preparing For?
Knowing the type of data loss you are preparing for will help you evaluate potential providers. It would help to ask the provider about the data loss they are designed to cover. Data loss can happen due to natural disasters, accidents, or hacking incidents.
A complete data loss might result in a total loss of critical business information. Other types of data loss include partial loss, which affects a portion of the data, and architectural loss, which affects the system’s architecture.
For instance, partial data loss might affect sensitive information such as credit card details or health records. An architectural loss might result in a partial loss of user credentials. Natural disasters and extreme weather conditions are the most common reasons for data loss.
Check SLA and Cloud Service Agreements
Service level agreements (SLAs) and cloud service agreements are documents that outline each party’s obligations. DRaaS providers should provide an SLA that specifies the uptime, recovery time, and data retention.
It should also specify how the provider will handle the incident and how it will remedy the situation. For example, does the company have a failover when the service falls below the set levels?
Similarly, a cloud service agreement should outline the services, SLAs, and relevant terms and conditions. It should also specify the responsibilities of both parties. Both parties should sign the cloud service agreement. A signed agreement will help you hold the provider accountable and responsible in case of any issues or problems.
Assessing the Reliability and Durability of the Provider
You should evaluate the reliability and durability of the provider before selecting it. There are several ways to evaluate the provider’s reliability and durability. For example, you can assess the provider’s history, reputation, and reviews. You can also consider the type of certifications and licenses the provider has.
These factors will help you determine if the provider is reliable and durable. They will also help you understand whether the provider suits your business. You should select a provider that has been in business for at least three years.
Assessing Recovery Point and Recovery Time
When selecting a DRaaS provider, the recovery point and recovery time are major considerations. Ideally, the recovery point should be zero or near zero. The provider should be able to restore the data to the state where it was before it was lost. The recovery time should be quick and as close to zero as possible.
The provider’s RPO (recovery point objective) should be compatible with your RPO. Selecting a provider that can meet your RPO will help you get the best DRaaS service for your business.
Assessing Platform Resilience and Flexibility
The platform’s resilience and flexibility are critical considerations when selecting a DRaaS provider.
First, you should assess the provider’s current platform and potential growth. The provider’s platform should be scalable and expandable.
Next, what are the provider’s transition and transformation plan? Understanding this will help you know how the provider plans to transform its platform to meet your business requirements. The provider should be able to shift the platform to match the needs of your business.
Assessing the Provider’s Skills and Expertise
You should also assess the provider’s skills and expertise before selecting one. There are several ways to evaluate the provider’s skills and expertise. For example, you can assess the provider’s certifications and licenses.
You can also consider the type of services and solutions the provider offers. These factors will help you determine if the provider is skilled and experienced enough to meet your business requirements.
You should select a provider with experience and a proven track record. This will help you determine if the provider can meet your business requirements. It will also help you understand if the provider can supply the best disaster recovery plan for your business.
Final Words
As you can see, there are many factors to consider when choosing a Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) provider. However, by asking the right questions and researching, you can find a service that fits both your needs and budget.
How to Develop an IT Disaster Recovery Plan for Your Business
How to Develop an IT Disaster Recovery Plan for Your Business