It is impossible to overstate the importance of an effective backup and disaster (BDR) recovery solution. If you can’t recover data following a natural disaster, system failure or cyberattack, your business may not survive. Even a short interruption in service can be financially crippling — new research from Datto finds that the average cost of downtime has increased nearly 600 percent over the past three years.
In spite of the risks, studies consistently show that up to three-quarters of small to midsized businesses (SMBs) don’t have an effective BDR plan in place. Conventional solutions requiring organizations to duplicate the entire production infrastructure and associated operational processes are too costly and complex for all but the largest enterprises.
The cloud is democratizing data protection, however. Cloud-based DR-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solutions give smaller organizations options that are both cost-efficient and easy to implement.
Simple, Yet Comprehensive
DRaaS enables near-real-time data backup and restore operations from offsite IT infrastructure — without the cost and complexity of running a duplicate data center complete with redundant software licenses, network lines and management. You just pay a subscription fee for on-demand access to systems and services from a third-party provider.
In addition to providing an offsite repository for backup data, DRaaS solutions ensure business continuity in the event of a system failure. A virtual machine (VM) mounted in the cloud can take over primary server operations during failover. Once the outage is resolved, normal operations are seamlessly restored to primary devices.
Infrastructure is only part of the picture, however. DRaaS providers also offer multiple services such as DR planning and testing, real-time data replication, data security, and ongoing management and support.
Datto’s Unique Approach
Services and capabilities vary widely, however, and organizations should do due diligence in selecting a DRaaS provider. Datto’s DRaaS solution has become a powerful component of our portfolio of managed backup solutions because of its comprehensive feature set. One feature that sets Datto apart is its private cloud, which is built exclusively for the use of partners such as Verteks and our customers. This limits the risk that comes with backup to a public cloud.
Unlike private clouds, public clouds operate on the “shared responsibility” security model, which means providers must secure their cloud infrastructure, but customers are responsible for their data and applications. In other words, providers don’t guarantee that data sent to their servers can be recovered in the event of a failure. The Datto cloud includes multiple security layers to protect client data, all backed by a team of in-house security experts.
Other important characteristics of the Datto DRaaS solution include:
- Data immutability. Backup data in Datto’s private cloud is immutable, which means it cannot be altered or deleted. That means you can be confident in backups even in the event of a ransomware attack.
- Geodiversity. Many BDR solutions only have onsite data replication, which won’t do any good if the main site becomes incapacitated. The Datto cloud enables geographic diversity, or geodiversity, by ensuring data, applications and systems are replicated in a separate location.
- Predictable costs. Public clouds use variable price tiers that can make storage costs unpredictable from month to month. They also charge egress fees for moving data out of the cloud, which can make large restores very expensive. Datto’s flat-fee billing removes such uncertainty.
Verteks is uniquely qualified to support Datto solutions. As a Blue Diamond Partner, we are among the top 2 percent of all Datto partners globally, with deep understanding of the company’s entire backup and DR portfolio and access to the most highly trained Datto support engineers. Give us a call to learn more about leveraging Datto’s DRaaS solution to safeguard your critical data assets.
