News in the Channel - issue #12

DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE

all production and cloud connectivity. Assess what applications you need to have backed up and running to operate as a company. This analysis often helps you to better form RTOs, which in turn helps to form a cost benefit analysis on the different types of backup and recoveries available on the market.” Immutable backups Resellers also need to keep on top of the trends within DRaaS when they are talking to customers, such as the importance of immutable backups. “Seeing that data is the lifeblood of most organisations, and the loss of your data or access to your data would affect the running of your business, immutable backup is the ultimate safeguard against data loss in the event of ransomware attack or other serious data related event,” says Rob. “Having immutable backups in place provides the assurance that if the worst does happen, your servers, applications and data can be brought online quickly, allowing your business to continue operating with minimum disruption – addressing one of the major concerns of businesses today. “We suggest that businesses beg, borrow and steal from other budgets in order to ensure they have a good backup and DR solution in place. There are cost effective solutions out there that can be employed, but the old adage of you get what you pay for comes into play – especially when it comes to dealing with a data loss scenario that involves a ransomware attack. The key thing is to ensure that the backup data is immutable, and whatever DR solution is put in place, it is tested on a regular basis.” Greg agrees on the importance of immutable backups. “When a bad actor breaches a system, they go for the business’ backups,” he says. “They destroy the backup first because they don't want you to be able to recall that. Now that's why you have multiple copies of the backup off site that they can't get to and delete them. Ours is an immutable cloud, and we can't even delete that.” Trends Cost management is a key focus from customers when it comes to DR, Blake adds. “There is demand from customers for paying only for what is used in the DR environment, leading to more organisations wanting to leverage public cloud services,” he says. Another trend is the increasing desire for greater customer control, adds Jamshaid.

“Today’s customers want to manage things like billing and be able to scale their system based on demand, all while maintaining a comprehensive view of all interactions and operational data when transitioning back to their primary system,” he says. “As a result, providers are developing solutions that ensure uninterrupted visibility of the customer journey, even as system usage shifts during DR.” Future DraaS is growing in popularity, and this is set to continue for the foreseeable future. The evolution of services will also continue, with artificial intelligence (AI) set to play an ever- increasing role. "Generative-AI will play a larger role in disaster recovery,” says Blake. “AI will provide engineers and leaders with a better understanding of events. AI offers better insights into the scope of disaster recovery environments based on usage patterns and administration, meaning emotional elements will be reduced as AI can diagnose issues and suggest potential solutions." Jamshaid added that AI is already having a bearing on DR solutions. “That will only grow over time,” he says. “We’re already seeing organisations making large investments to their legacy systems to implement AI tools such as self-service and knowledge management for agents and supervisors. However, these all have varying degrees of success. “In contrast, modern DRaaS solutions will have AI inbuilt and offer greater value than their traditional predecessors. Such is the extent of the capabilities on offer in DRaaS solutions that AI can be used to provide customer services, allowing agents valuable time to transition to the DRaaS solution and bridge knowledge gaps. Offering greater maturity in capability and ease of use, exposure to these modern DRaaS solutions will leave adopters reluctant to return to their legacy systems. “The capabilities that AI offers are clearly extensive – allowing users to influence the customer journey, back-office workflows, and operational quality management. Within the world of DRaaS, when systems are configured appropriately with AI at the core, users can access a complete solution that provides the required business continuity assurance. It’s an exciting time for the sector with much in store, but one thing is for certain – all signs are pointing towards increased DRaaS adoption across businesses going forward.”

“

Resellers

also need to keep on top of

the trends within DRaaS when they are talking to customers, such as the importance of immutable backups.

”

Andy Brown technical services director – advanced solutions UK

uk.tdsynnex.com

“

We suggest that businesses beg, borrow and steal from other budgets in order to ensure they have a good backup and DR solution in place.

”