DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE
Disaster averted Disaster planning has been put in place by many businesses over the years, but as digitalisation changes the way we work, it also changes disaster recovery – and makes it much more complex – which means increasing numbers are looking to outsource it.
For any business, a disaster that results in downtime and not being able to run – anything from a flood to a cyberattack – can be, well, disastrous. For instance, 33% of UK businesses say they have lost customers following a disaster, according to CSO Online, while 40% of SMEs experienced eight or more hours of downtime due to a cyberattack. This is why disaster recovery (DR) plans should be essential. But while most businesses have a plan of some sort, it is not always kept up to date as it should be – especially in smaller businesses due to the time it takes – and this is why disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is gaining in popularity. Blake Jeffrey, general manager – security and identity at Intelliworx, says that DRaaS is becoming increasingly essential. “Organisations have stopped relying on the more traditional disaster recovery methods, including backups, and their reliance on cloud services claiming high availability,” he says. “This has been driven in part by a compliance shift within organisations, with cybersecurity insurance requiring more thorough methods to protect data in case of loss." Matt Paynter, vendor alliances director, UK and Ireland at Exclusive Networks, agrees that DRaaS is gaining significance. “We're seeing more businesses favour DRaaS over traditional plans due to its scalability, cost- effectiveness and automation,” he says. “In the ever-evolving digital landscape, DRaaS is becoming more prevalent in businesses cyber resiliency plans.” Jamshaid Anwar, IPI’s director of product management adds: “For businesses looking for a robust DR solution but without the large capital expenditure typically associated with traditional on-premise solutions, DRaaS offers a viable alternative. Not only are DRaaS solutions quick to enable, fully scalable to meet fluctuating requirements and offer more resilience than separate DR solutions, but they help organisations fulfil their green commitments, requiring less space and
resources than their traditional counterparts.”
Changing threat landscape Greg Jones, VP of business development for Kaseya within EMEA, says that while DR is the last line of defence, businesses should lead with it and look at the threat landscape, asking the question of when bad actors get into a business, what are the plans to mitigate that? “It’s not a case of if they get in because you need a mindset to think they are sophisticated enough to get in,” he says. “Businesses need to plan for the worst-case scenario. And anything better than that is a win. “MSPs need to be leading with this for all their customers, explaining to them the narrative behind this is not just backing up data, it is true business continuity. What happens if there's a flood and everything's down? Can you set up virtually and work from coffee shops, or from home? Whatever happens, can employees get into the system? “It's a changed landscape over the last few years. It used to be about protecting business systems in the event of floods, fires, that sort of thing. But now it's a lot more varied with online, cloud, data etc which means there's more threats but also more opportunities.” This changing landscape means there is more focus in DRaaS on online threats. “Having been in the industry for 20 years, I can comfortably say that backups, and more specifically immutable backups, have never been a hotter topic or more in demand as they are today,” says Rob Mackle, managing director (EMEA) and co-founder, Assured Data Protection. “Since the evolution of ransomware, more of our customers have been victims of ransomware attacks,” he adds. “In fact, it seems that ransomware attacks continue unabated, with the greatest number of attacks occurring in 2023. According to Statistica, as of 2023, more than 72% of businesses worldwide were affected by ransomware attacks. Any data that is needed for a business to function or has relative value and cannot be simply recreated needs to be protected.”
Blake Jeffrey general manager – security and identity
intelliworx.co/uk
Matt Paynter vendor alliances director UK and Ireland
exclusive-networks.com
38
Powered by FlippingBook