Disaster recovery as a service buyer's guide
Why this guide matters
Choosing the right Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution is a critical decision that can determine your organization's ability to survive a major disruption. The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks, coupled with the potential for natural disasters and system failures, demand a robust and reliable DRaaS strategy. A poorly chosen solution can lead to catastrophic data loss, prolonged downtime, and irreparable damage to your organization's reputation and financial stability. This guide provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating and implementing a DRaaS solution that aligns with your specific needs and risk tolerance.
What to look for
Evaluating DRaaS solutions requires a multi-faceted approach that considers technical capabilities, vendor stability, and operational readiness. Prioritize solutions that offer orchestrated failover and failback, continuous data protection, and immutable backups. Assess the vendor's ability to support your specific IT environment, including virtual machines, physical servers, and cloud-native workloads. Ensure the solution integrates seamlessly with your existing security tools and compliance frameworks. Finally, consider the total cost of ownership, including monthly licenses, burst compute costs, and data egress fees.
Evaluation checklist
- Critical Immutable backup storage
- Critical Proof of successful failback
- Critical Regulatory certifications (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2 Type II)
- Important Multi-cloud support (AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud)
- Important Automated monthly testing and reporting
- Important Integration with existing security tools
- Nice-to-have AI-driven anomaly detection in the replication stream
- Important Support for legacy systems
- Important Non-disruptive testing capabilities
- Critical Clear data egress policy
Red flags to watch for
- "Best effort" RTOs
- No support for legacy systems
- Hidden egress fees
- Untested recovery plans
- Single-region vulnerability
- Lack of compliance certifications
From contract to go-live
Implementing DRaaS is a strategic project that requires careful planning and execution. The process involves several distinct phases, starting with discovery and planning, followed by configuration, data seeding, testing, and validation. Rushing any of these phases can lead to significant problems down the road. A successful implementation requires close collaboration between your IT team and the DRaaS vendor to ensure that all systems and applications are properly protected and can be recovered quickly in the event of a disaster.
Implementation phases
Discovery
4-8 weeksApplication mapping, dependency analysis
Configuration
4-12 weeksNetwork setup, security configuration
Data Seeding
2-6 weeksInitial data replication
Testing
2-4 weeksFailover drills, user acceptance testing
Validation
2-4 weeksPerformance tuning, documentation
The true cost of ownership
Beyond the monthly license fee, several hidden costs can significantly impact the total cost of ownership for DRaaS. These include professional services for implementation, data egress fees for failback, training costs for IT staff, and burst compute charges during disaster events. Careful budgeting and contract negotiation are essential to avoid unexpected expenses and ensure a predictable TCO.
Compliance considerations for DRaaS
DRaaS solutions must comply with industry-specific regulations, such as HIPAA for healthcare and SOC 2 for finance. Ensure the vendor's recovery data centers meet these compliance standards and provide proof of certification. Their recovery site becomes your site during a disaster, so your audits will include their facilities. Evaluate the vendor's ability to provide compliance and audit reporting.
Your first 90 days
Post-implementation success is defined by the transition from backup to resilience. The first 90 days are critical for establishing a solid foundation and validating the DRaaS solution's effectiveness. This includes verifying agent installation, conducting single-server and application stack failover tests, and establishing alerting mechanisms. A full-scale disaster drill should be conducted and a certificate of readiness issued for the board of directors.
Success milestones
- All agents installed
- Initial replication complete
- Single-server test boot successful
- Alerts flowing to IT team
- Application stack failover test successful
- Full-scale disaster drill conducted
- Certificate of Readiness issued
Measuring success
Success with DRaaS is measured by the ability to quickly and reliably recover from disruptive events. Don't just measure uptime. Instead, measure testing recency and drift analysis to ensure the plan remains aligned with new software releases. KPIs should be measured monthly to ensure the plan remains aligned with new software releases.