Backup as a Service vs. DR as a Service

One of the most important pieces of information we can impart to our customers – in fact, to any company – is that data backup and disaster recovery services are, most definitely NOT the same. We repeat: having a backup solution does NOT mean you have a disaster recovery plan! While these services may sound similar, it is crucial that a company does not make the mistake of believing that their routine backup operations have them covered in the event of an outage or disaster. The best way to illustrate this difference is to start with the basics: what are backup and disaster recovery?

• Backup-as-a-Service: Simply put, backup-as-a-service is the regularly scheduled process of copying your data/files to removable media. This can be through a tape backup, a secondary computer or a cloud hosted backup solution. It is important to have a backup solution in place as it protects your data in case of theft or lost company property (i.e. leaving a laptop behind in a cab), employee accidents (i.e. deletion of files) or technical issues (i.e. hardware failure). With backups, companies can access copies of their data/files and restore them easily should any of the above incidents arise.

• Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service: An easy way to look at a disaster recovery (DR) solution is that it is similar to a backup service, but not only is the data copied off site, the compute requirements (hardware, operating systems, subsystems, applications, etc) are duplicated in a manner that will allow them to be used in the event of a disaster.as well. For example- A declared “disaster” can be your entire network crashing, bringing down your customer facing website. With a disaster recovery plan, your website, applications, and databases can be switched over with minimal interruption. Your IT department can address the issue while your business is able to operate as usual.

While backups are important, companies can be most proactive and ensure full protection by upgrading to a disaster recovery plan. Here at Connectria, we offer one of the broadest and most cost‑effective DR solution sets in the industry ‑ enabling you to deliver IT Disaster Recovery at the right price and the right recovery times to meet your organization’s needs. Discover why customers such as RehabCare chose Connectria for their Disaster Recovery services. Managed backups are included in all of our managed hosting plans.