News in the Channel - issue #12

DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE

Cloud changes The growth in use of the cloud also helps with DR services. As James Watts, managing director of Databarracks, notes, using the cloud as a DR site is one of the best use cases for cloud computing. “Costs are kept low, but you can rapidly scale up resources when you need them for testing or in real disaster invocation,” he says. “It’s also ideal for outsourcing, meaning customers can rely on getting the highest standard of DR whenever they need it, but don’t need to overstretch internal resources. It means organisations have more freedom to focus on core business and innovation.” Jamshaid agrees that the cloud has changed DR services. “Traditionally, organisations had to integrate DR into their existing technologies, resulting in duplicate infrastructure footprints that required regular and time-consuming upgrades and support,” says Jamshaid. “In addition, those legacy solutions that share upstream services between primary and backup systems quickly become unusable in critical situations due to single points of failure – rendering them unfit for purpose. “The cloud presents an ideal alternative

for DR services – offering a cost-effective, quick-to-enable and more reliable solution for organisations.” But Jamshaid warns that it would be unwise to think that a move to a cloud-based DRaaS solution automatically equates to success. “Not all cloud solutions are made equal,” he says. “Indeed, cloud solutions are at the mercy of providers, who are in turn reliant on public or private cloud infrastructure that can incur technological failures, and some solutions don’t offer the appropriate business continuity planning that is vital to the success of cloud- based DR solution. Organisations considering a move to a cloud-based DR system should do their research, considering smaller providers as a more reliable alternative.” The cloud also brings complexity, as Andy Brown, technical services director – advanced solutions UK at TD SYNNEX, notes. “The introduction of services and deployment options such as IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and external data services, has brought an element of complexity to creating a business-focused DR strategy,” he says. “As businesses transition to the public cloud from legacy infrastructure their needs change, and so will the DR

Jamshaid Anwar director of product management

ipintegration.com

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