Disaster Recovery As A Service - DRaaS Can Work For Almost Any Disaster

A disaster may be defined as any situation which results in almost extreme or almost irrecoverable loss. That is a loose definition but as it applies to a company it could mean many things and particularly the loss of valuable information or equipment. In times gone by most companies would try and protect against irrecoverable losses of equipment or date by storing duplicates in what they hoped was a safe location. They might also try and have backup hardware for emergencies. This could be a hefty investment which basically had no purpose until something catastrophic occurred. Those were virtually the only options until Disaster Recovery as a Service - DRaaS, entered the picture.

Disaster preparedness has traditionally been been overlooked, or a huge a money sink that the company hoped would never be used. However with the new approach to internet services recovering from a disaster using a service model rather than the traditional in-house based model, has gained a lot of support and may make financial sense for most companies. Many companies can do without a computer and the data contained therein for only a very short time before they becomes financially insolvent if their business is internet related.

The solution can be found for many disaster situations in the DRaaS model. For example a company which stores all its data on the computer and which also stores backups of the data in the same location might be hit by a natural disaster such a tornado and though the hardware might be speedily replaced, the data may well be completely irretrievable. Backups do no good if they are subject to the same conditions that destroyed the primary.

Disaster Recovery as a Service however might be part of a company's emergency plan. The data may well be stored on an internet site which charges them a monthly fee to keep their data safe. Emergency hardware can be brought in and the data restored and the company able to function at least minimally. This service may cost monthly but will usually be more reliable than hoping that the same disaster does not destroy their backups as well as the primaries.

Computer hardware might be maintained for emergency back up use but in such cases part of the plan would be that such back up systems be safely placed in a secure location off site. A monthly fee might be charged but it can assure a company can be back up and running in hours as opposed to struggling for weeks. This part of the disaster recovery plan might be unnecessary for some companies, or vital to others.

There are also services which can help manage disaster recovery on an ongoing basis. Experts can advise a company no matter what the size, of their various potential risks and help draw up a plan for almost every eventuality. These plans might include software which helped backup the data, storage of data in an off site and secure location and even more. This is a service which most business owners hope they will never need to use, but preparedness can also save a company from ruin.

While disaster recovery plans were usually a cobbled together affair, they can be seamlessly integrated into the company today. These plans might include everything from a fire to a local disaster or even a security breach of the system. While the IT department may well be capable and well trained to perform every day tasks, disaster preparedness is a specialized field and the most effective plans are often those prepared by experts in that field.

For more information on how to prepare your company for a DR plan visit Disaster Recovery as a Service.