What is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)?

Learn how the DRaaS process can help provide IT availability for your business.
Same Term – Different Meanings

With businesses relying more and more on technology for their critical operations, data protection and systems availability has become a concern that is extending beyond the IT team and into the executive boardroom. To address these concerns, many providers are developing new solutions, technologies and services promising to make IT Disaster Recovery easier and less expensive. With such a wide range of options labeled as Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), it can be difficult to understand what exactly the term means and how it can support your business’s needs.

 

“Without a robust DR infrastructure, a fire, a flood, an earthquake or even a really bad storm could not only take a business offline, it could take it out completely. Organizations increasingly rely on digital technologies for basic operations, and if the IT infrastructure is destroyed and data is permanently lost, it may be impossible to restore operations.”

– Doug Hazelman: Vice President, Product Strategy, Veeam

Defining the Components of DRaaS

At the most basic level, DRaaS is the process of replicating and hosting servers and their data via a third party provider with the purpose of enabling a failover option in the case of an unexpected interruption or event.

To help create a more complete picture of the DRaaS process, let’s take a closer look at its major components:

Replication of data

Replication

Replication is the process of duplicating data from a production environment and transmitting it to the third party host. Since most organizations have not fully-virtualized their infrastructure, the replication technology should have the capability to frequently capture both virtualized and non-virtualized (physical) servers. This is often referred to as a “Hybrid” solution. In instances where data is constantly added and changed, frequent data snapshots are essential in order to prevent data loss during failover.

failover

Failover

Failover is the transitioning of end-user access during an event to the third party hosting environment. A DRaaS solution should provide a simple, straight-forward process for declaring and failing over to the replicated environment. The speed in which the solution can “stand up” the replicated environment corresponds directly to the impact on business operations. Integrated tools and support should be in place so that failover can occur, even if your IT is unavailable.

failback

Failback

Failback is the process of transitioning user access from the third party failover site back to the original production environment. Once the impacted environment is fully up and running again, the DRaaS solution should have processes and tools in place that allow for a seamless switch back to production. Immediately following failback, replication processes should be re-engaged to ensure continuous protection.

IT Resiliency with DRaaS

When DRaaS is implemented correctly, it can provide more than just an “insurance policy” for your technology, because end users never experience the “disaster” in the first place. Active replication, along with a well-documented failover and failback process, delivers resiliency for your IT systems, providing the always-on user experience that customers and employees expect from modern business. When the cost savings of the cloud are leveraged, DRaaS is significantly less expensive and resource intensive than fully replicating your existing production environment.

 

“IT resiliency / business continuity is a must in today’s environment. The baseline assumption should be that IT components (i.e. servers, operating systems, networks, etc.) will fail at some point. And that the business functions that those systems support should continue to be supported and maintained.”

– Allan Leinwand: Chief Technology Officer, ServiceNow

 

At InterVision, we understand that your critical systems, applications and business files are some of your most important assets. Seamlessly bridge any interruption with our tailored Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). So your business stays on, no matter what.

 

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How to Compare Cloud Failover Targets for DRaaS