Backup used to be on everyone’s mind. Then attention shifted to recovery. How able are we to get our data back? And how quickly?
But the hassle involved in arranging a disaster recovery (DR) site, replicating all data to somewhere else, doing regular backups, verifying integrity, protecting backups against malware and ransomware, testing recovery, and recovering data in the event of a disaster — all of this has driven more companies in the direction of recovery-as-a-service.
Here are some of the top trends in the recovery-as-a-service market:
See more: The Best Data Recovery Services
1. Testing and validation
Those putting lots of attention on disaster recovery (DR) and DR as-a-service (DRaaS) are moving beyond just having someone else take care of backup and recovery of their systems. They want evidence that recovery will take place.
“One of the significant trends we are seeing is the evolution of DR and DRaaS to focus on testing and validating recovery,” said Laura Shafer, senior director of product marketing, 11:11.
“For a long time, it was enough for organizations to have a business continuity plan that included a DR that was tested once a year. That’s no longer enough.”
Testing is something now that is done far more often. For some organizations that means providing application testing and end-user testing. For others, it may involve scenario- or event-based testing where the IT team simulates a common situation and then validates recovery.
This helps the organization see whether it is realistic to recover from the latest point-in-time backup or snapshot during the simulation of a power outage or hardware failure.
“This trend is putting more pressure on IT teams to test DR more frequently,” Shafer said.
“Which is another reason why, regardless of the DR solution you are using, it’s imperative to be able to prove that you can recover when you need to recover.”
2. Desktop-as-a-service
Providers offering recovery-as-a-service often work in tandem with those offering desktop-as-a-service (DaaS). Sometimes, one provider offers both.
It makes sense, after all, for those providing DaaS to add recovery of those desktops should they ever go down, suffer a hack, or lose data.
“Desktop-as-a-service is a managed service that takes care of any and all matters related to the procurement, management, maintenance, and performance of organizational PCs and laptops,” said Val King, CEO, Whitehat Virtual Technologies.
“Our program also protects businesses by addressing the most critical components of security: information governance, business resiliency, cybersecurity, and professional compliance.”
3. Lower life cycle costs
When it comes to traditional IT or DR hardware, procurement processes only account for 20% of overall costs. The other 80% is absorbed on life cycle costs.
For desktops and laptops, it is spent on deployment, management, maintenance, support, replacement, and disposal of devices. In DR, it is spent on maintenance, troubleshooting, hardware replacement, software updates, data migration, and backup.
The recovery-as-a-service model eliminates the burden of the 80% of costs incurred across the lifetime.
“Instead of paying for the cost of hardware and software, then paying IT personnel to manage and maintain the desktop infrastructure, everything is available for one low monthly fee,” said King with Whitehat Virtual Technologies.
This reduces infrastructure and IT management costs, while helping businesses avoid costly CapEx and hardware refresh costs.”
4. Tighter security
Security challenges are ramping up for companies.
Ransomware and other malware, phishing, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are prevalent.
The as-a-service model comes with built-in security features that are often far more extensive than those available in many organizations. Client sites are monitored by trained personnel who are constantly on the lookout for anomalous behavior, misuse of ports, or other signs of an ongoing or imminent attack.
5. Solving the talent shortage
In any case, the IT talent crunch is bad and is getting worse. It is getting harder and harder for organizations to find the skilled IT, DR, and security personnel they need.
As a result, critical functions are often in neglect due to the lack of people to take care of them. That’s one of the reasons why urgent patches go undeployed, why backup schedules fall behind, and why recovery is such an uncertain thing.
“IT roles are getting harder to fill, up 6% from 2020,” said King with Whitehat Virtual Technologies.
“Recent studies by both Gartner and KPMG stated that 65% of organizations were having a very hard time finding talent. It costs more to keep talent and work with them to evolve their skill sets.
“Outsourcing continues to be a key release valve to help solve these problems. Hiring temporary/gig IT workers is another path that continues to find success.”
See more: 5 Top Business Continuity Trends