Here are a few disaster recovery (DR/BC) and business continuity statistics for you to know: 45% of un-planned downtime is due to hardware failure. That 48% of IT providers indicate phishing emails as the cause of ransomware and another 36% say lack of employee training is to blame for cyber security mishaps and data breaches
There is a new reality facing businesses these days. Disaster Recovery Journal stated in this article that the 2017 hurricane season was the costliest one to date, with total property losses as high as $200 Billion. California’s wildfires were about the same – $180 Billion.
What is disaster recovery as a service?
To better understand the concept of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), let us first have a word about traditional Disaster Recovery (DR) mechanisms. In any traditional DR setup, an enterprise needs to setup a dedicated physical DR site.
This involves Capital Expenses (CapEx) related to hardware and the equipment. Secondly, a dedicated DR site is a constant source of recurring Operating Expenses (OpEx). Therefore, a traditional DR mechanism is not much of a financially viable option.
In the case of DRaaS, you outsource your DR operations to a specialized Cloud Service Provider (CSP) like dinCloud. In DRaaS, an enterprise no longer needs a dedicated DR site, and its accompanying overhead costs.
Lastly, with DRaaS, an enterprise can migrate from a CapEx to a purely OpEx cost model, in which you pay only for the cloud resources you actually use. A DRaaS is readily scalable, on the fly, as your business needs change.
What elements should a disaster recovery plan contain?
An elaborate Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is very important for enterprises in today’s super competitive business environment. Every single minute of disruption or downtime can have serious financial and brand image ramifications.
Some of the elements of a well designed DR plan should include the answers to questions like, will the DR plan be on site or Cloud based. What are the mission critical workloads and processes which need to be given top priority in the event of a disaster?
A good DR plan must also incorporate the capabilities of seamless remote work, a scenario that has been thrust into the limelight in the post pandemic world we now live in. A good DR plan is never stagnant, and needs to constantly evolve as per changing needs.
Why is disaster recovery important for businesses
Disaster Recovery (DR) has become a critical component of strategic planning at the enterprise level. Today’s business environment is super competitive, and disasters cannot be allowed to wreak havoc with an enterprise, or its critical operations.
This by no means implies that disasters will never happen. Instead, the whole idea behind a robust DR strategy is based on the presumption that disasters are inevitable. What sets one business apart from the other is its level of preparedness for such disruptive scenarios.
In today’s business operations, which are powered by digital technologies, a disaster may translate into service downtime. This can result in potential revenue losses to the tune of several thousand, or even millions of dollars.
So, DR strategies should never be viewed by businesses as something they may, or may not have. The only question is whether to deploy the DR strategy on premise, or go for cloud based Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), the latter being a much better option.
Other statistics show that businesses who fail to plan or have inadequate Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) plans in place, will ultimately not survive such an event. According to Netserve365, up to 45% of businesses do not recover from a significant event.
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So, you have to re-contemplate the true impact of incidents that pose business continuity disaster recovery challenges to your entity. In addition to the hit that you take in terms of finances and reputation, there is whole new dimension to it and that’s regulatory compliance.
If you operate in certain highly regulated entities, you simply can’t afford a break-down that is not immediately taken over by a robust business continuity mechanism. Failure to do so may now result in additional financial liabilities, which will only make matters worse.
Disaster-Proof your Business
73% of companies are failing at disaster readiness. Yes, 73%, and disasters are not just limited to the natural kind. Man-made disasters, such as those caused by malware or hacking can paralyze the operations of a business just as easily. It’s not enough to just back up data to multiple locations. A true BC/DR solution encompasses 3 vital areas:-
- Apps and Servers
- Database and Directories
- User desktops and files are accessible regardless of the device.
CIO has compiled a list of 12 ways to disaster-proof your business after speaking to the industry experts, and we thought we would share our top 4.
- Apply the 80/20 rule. In the CIO piece, Sungard Availability Services vice president, Product Management and Recovery Services, Michael de la Torre, shares how businesses need to conduct a data assessment and determine which data is the most critical. “Not all data is created equally…By applying the 80/20 rule, a company can shortlist its critical data and applications to decide which 20 percent is the most crucial to protect,” he says.
- Work with a trusted partner. Symantec Senior Manager of Backup and Recovery, Peter Elliman, says “Use an experienced partner to ensure your [storage and disaster recovery (DR)] solution meets the needs of your business and the capabilities of your IT department.” Additionally, we would add that you work with a partner that is transparent in their pricing structure and allows scalability and flexibility as you grow.
- Make sure data is encrypted. Both in-transit and at rest. Look for providers that have AES-256 Encryption as well as is SSAE 16-TYPE 2 compliant data centers. At the very least, your DR/BC provider should offer encryption at rest.
- Follow the 3, 2, 1 rule. Doug Hazelman, vice president of Product Strategy for data protection provider Veeam, suggests that businesses utilize the 3, 2, 1 rule, which translates into 3 backups that are maintained on 2 different mediums, with one of those being offsite.
3 Ways To Implement a BC/DR solution
If you found some statistics around DR and BC rather unsettling, there is something you can do to ease the burden. Here are 3 ways your business can implement a BC/DR plan in a seamless manner:
- Snapshots — A snapshot is a non-application aware feature that’s built into most modern storage arrays or implemented on top of a local disk as part of the operating system (i.e., using Logical Volume Manager in Linux). Snapshots are easy to configure, quick to execute and are low cost compared to other methods of BC/DR. Businesses can easily recover data using snapshots in case of any disaster or business continuity related event.
- Backups — a Backup (as defined by Tech Terms) is a copy of one or more files created as an alternate in case the original data is lost or becomes unusable. Backups have many benefits, including continuous data replication between sites, application awareness and more. Backups give businesses the ability to restore entire volumes, files or virtual machines.
- Cloud BC/DR — Businesses can automate their BC/DR by replicating their data and applications to the cloud in case of a disaster. By having the data stored in an offsite, geo-redundant facility, businesses can help enable the continuity of operations in the event of a local, natural or man-made disaster.
Once you have decided in principle to have a robust DR and BC plan in place, the next vital question to ask yourself is, where to put this mechanism in place. Although setting up a dedicated disaster recovery site on premise is an option, but it is a very costly one in terms of financial, technical and IT resources.
Secondly, why add another layer of complication to your existing IT infrastructure once you have a highly robust DR and BC platform in the form of the Cloud. You don’t have to setup another dedicated disaster recovery site and then maintain it indefinitely due to a cloud disaster recovery plan in place.
This requirement can be adequately fulfilled by a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) like dinCloud. Over the cloud, you don’t have to bear any capital expenditure (CapEx) to attain DR and BC. Instead, the costing model is mostly based on the level of cloud resources you end up utilizing, making it a great option.
dinCloud to participate in the Nutanix .NEXT 2018 Conference
dinCloud is looking forward to sharing how an effective BC/DR solution can help the Nutanix ecosystem ensure the continuity of their Nutanix implementation by participating in the upcoming NEXT Conference this May. Look for the dinCloud booth during the expo and learn how you can ensure that your business survives for years to come.
Why Choose dinCloud for DR/BC?
Ultimately, the success of any cloud powered DR and BC mechanism will hinge on your Cloud Service Provider (CSP). There are a host of factors that you need to consider, which mainly include technical expertise, quality of the cloud infrastructure and the cost effect.
Being a premier cloud provider, dinCloud offers robust cloud disaster recovery services through a global footprint of strategically planned data centers. Having the added peace of mind in the form multiple data centers adds a whole new layer of assurance and peace of mind for you as an end user.
Regular “snapshots” or backups of your data are maintained at physically dispersed data centers to ensure maximum protection from loss. You get to decide the frequency and extent of the snapshots that you want to maintain. Here, you should go for a balance between practicality and costs.
One of the key benefits of taking DR and BC to the cloud is cost savings. The CapEx you save is just one key component of the costs when you move DR/BC over to the Cloud. With a reliable and established cloud provider like dinCloud, you get to enjoy a flat rate subscription based pricing model.
So, this gives you dual peace of mind in terms of both functionality and cost effectiveness. There are no hidden costs or unwelcome surprises in your cloud bill. Most importantly, dinCloud’s data centers offer a failsafe recovery mechanism that takes over in no time.
Post Pandemic DR and BC
A factor that has greatly impacted the DR and BC landscape lately is the Covid-19 pandemic. This crisis has exposed the inadequacy of a lot of non-cloud recovery mechanisms established on site. Currently, there is a serious trend of taking DR and BC to the Cloud, right where it actually belongs.
In the year 2021, it is expected that nearly 40-50% of enterprises will migrate towards cloud disaster recovery. The situation these days is rapidly evolving and by the time we reach the end of this year, cloud powered DR and BC may well exceed the above percentage.
Conclusion
Due to the multitude of DR and BC benefits you enjoy over the Cloud, more enterprises than ever are taking it to the cloud. What’s more important is to choose the right CSP that not only takes care of your existing needs, but also the future ones.
Contact dinCloud for further details about our reliable DR and BC services.
What is disaster recovery as a service?
To better understand the concept of Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), let us first have a word about traditional Disaster Recovery (DR) mechanisms. In any traditional DR setup, an enterprise needs to setup a dedicated physical DR site.
This involves Capital Expenses (CapEx) related to hardware and the equipment. Secondly, a dedicated DR site is a constant source of recurring Operating Expenses (OpEx). Therefore, a traditional DR mechanism is not much of a financially viable option.
In the case of DRaaS, you outsource your DR operations to a specialized Cloud Service Provider (CSP) like dinCloud. In DRaaS, an enterprise no longer needs a dedicated DR site, and its accompanying overhead costs.
Lastly, with DRaaS, an enterprise can migrate from a CapEx to a purely OpEx cost model, in which you pay only for the cloud resources you actually use. A DRaaS is readily scalable, on the fly, as your business needs change.
What elements should a disaster recovery plan contain?
An elaborate Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is very important for enterprises in today’s super competitive business environment. Every single minute of disruption or downtime can have serious financial and brand image ramifications.
Some of the elements of a well designed DR plan should include the answers to questions like, will the DR plan be on site or Cloud based. What are the mission critical workloads and processes which need to be given top priority in the event of a disaster?
A good DR plan must also incorporate the capabilities of seamless remote work, a scenario that has been thrust into the limelight in the post pandemic world we now live in. A good DR plan is never stagnant, and needs to constantly evolve as per changing needs.
Why is disaster recovery important for businesses
Disaster Recovery (DR) has become a critical component of strategic planning at the enterprise level. Today’s business environment is super competitive, and disasters cannot be allowed to wreak havoc with an enterprise, or its critical operations.
This by no means implies that disasters will never happen. Instead, the whole idea behind a robust DR strategy is based on the presumption that disasters are inevitable. What sets one business apart from the other is its level of preparedness for such disruptive scenarios.
In today’s business operations, which are powered by digital technologies, a disaster may translate into service downtime. This can result in potential revenue losses to the tune of several thousand, or even millions of dollars.
So, DR strategies should never be viewed by businesses as something they may, or may not have. The only question is whether to deploy the DR strategy on premise, or go for cloud based Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), the latter being a much better option.
