The Complete Disaster Recovery as a Service Guide

Data is the backbone of modern businesses.

Any data loss will severely impact productivity, sales, customer experiences, and profitability.

Every business needs robust measures implemented that ensure critical data recovery, minimise data loss, and maintain business continuity during disasters.

However, managing and synchronising company-wide data backups for rapid recovery has historically been costly and complex.

The availability of cloud-based Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solutions helps simplify these processes and speed up data recovery times.

But what exactly is Disaster Recovery as a Service? And how is it any different from the regular cloud backup? Does it guarantee zero downtime? What would it cost to implement this kind of Disaster Recovery Service?

These are some of the most common questions we get asked by businesses looking to implement a disaster recovery strategy. We’ve created this guide to help businesses understand what DRaaS is and how it ensures operational continuity.

What is Disaster Recovery as a Service?

DRaaS is a cloud computing service model that allows organisations to back up their data and IT infrastructure in a secure third-party cloud environment.

This service model provides all the necessary disaster recovery elements through a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, enabling businesses to regain access and functionality to their IT infrastructure after a disaster.

One of the best features of Disaster Recovery as a Service is that organisations don’t need to own or manage all the resources required for disaster recovery — that’s all managed by the service provider.

In the event of a system breach or IT failure, DRaaS ensures quick recovery of business operations. However, for disaster recovery in the cloud to be complete, DRaaS must be integrated with other components of the business continuity strategy.

Less Downtime Means Less Loss
The financial impact of downtime can be enormous:

The infamous 14-hour Facebook outage in 2019 cost the company £71 million in lost revenue.
The average hourly cost of infrastructure failure is around £78,800 per hour ($100,000).
While the costs of downtime vary, you can use a basic formula to estimate the financial impact on your own operations: Divide your annual sales by your operating hours each year, then use that figure to estimate how much you could potentially lose for each hour of downtime.

Although it’s difficult to quantify, you should factor into your calculation the negative ripple effects of business disruption, such as damage to brand reputation, lost customers, and missed opportunities. You also need to consider paying staff when they can’t work – this could even be multiplied by 2 as every hour they don’t work is also an hour of lost productivity.

DRaaS Vs Traditional Data Backups

DRaaS and data backups are both essential components of a comprehensive data protection strategy, but they serve different purposes.

With Disaster Recovery as a Service, a service provider shifts an organisation’s computer processing to its own cloud infrastructure in the event of a disaster. This allows the business to continue operating — even if its original IT infrastructure is destroyed or compromised.

In contrast, Backup as a Service only duplicates data with a third-party provider, but not the ability to process that data. Since BaaS only safeguards data and not the full infrastructure, it is generally less expensive than DRaaS.

BaaS is used to archive data so it can be retrieved should the primary data storage fail. But, to ensure business continuity, it must be paired with other disaster recovery tools.

Does DRaaS Guarantee Zero Downtime?

No. DRaaS cannot completely eliminate downtime.

However, it significantly reduces recovery time following an outage by isolating critical functions and restoring service to help your team resume work quickly.

The Importance of DRaaS in Regulatory Compliance

Many industry regulations demand that organisations implement DRaaS solutions. All businesses that handle personal data and operate in the EU and UK must also comply with GDPR. These include:

Healthcare

NHS Digital guidelines mandate that healthcare providers protect patient data and ensure data availability even in emergencies.

DRaaS solves this by ensuring secure data backup and quick recovery of patient records and other sensitive information.

For instance, a hospital using DRaaS can quickly restore patient records after a cyber attack, limiting the impact in a critical field.

Finance

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires financial institutions to protect customer data and ensure data integrity.

DRaaS solves this by providing secure backup and rapid recovery of financial records, helping institutions meet compliance requirements.

Government Institutions

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides guidelines for data protection and disaster recovery for public sector organisations.

Retail

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) mandates that retailers protect cardholder data and maintain secure systems.

When DRaaS is properly implemented, a retailer can quickly restore its payment processing system after a data breach.

Does Your Business Need DRaaS?

All businesses should have some disaster recovery capabilities.

Whether you’re a small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) or an international enterprise, losing critical data or customer information can cause severe damage. Smaller businesses face greater risks as they may lack the personnel and budget to protect against threats, potentially leading to business closure.

Extended periods without access to vital data can cripple your operations — whether due to human error, a ransomware attack, or an unforeseen natural disaster, the impact is often devastating.

DRaaS Cost Considerations

The cost to set up Disaster Recovery as a Service can vary significantly based on several factors such as the size of the organisation, the amount of data involved, the level of service required, and the specific vendor chosen.

Here’s a breakdown of the components that are often associated with the cost of a DRaaS solution:

• Initial Setup Fees: Includes consultation, initial data migration, and configuring the DRaaS environment.
• Subscription Fees: Recurring monthly or annual fees for the service.
• Data Storage Costs: Charges are based on the amount of data stored in the cloud.
• Bandwidth Costs: Charges for data transfer between the primary site and the DR site. Some DRaaS providers include this in their subscription fee while others charge per GB of data transferred.
• Recovery Testing Fees: Fees for periodic testing of the disaster recovery plan. How much and how often depends on the business and scope of testing required.

Our comprehensive Disaster Recovery as a Service solutions are designed to meet your data protection needs. With AAG, you can deploy your data protection solution quickly with hardware and servers that are always ready to restore data and software from backups.