t3 art Cloud based backup DR, two men in server room

Ensure business continuity with cloud backup and disaster recovery services

Summary

Discover the difference between backup and disaster recovery, best practices, and trends.

Read time: 5 minutes

There is a fact every business owner and executive should know. 

Many businesses without a disaster recovery (DR) plan fail to survive a catastrophic data loss. 

Cloud backups and disaster recovery services and plans are essential to businesses today. If any doubters existed, the pandemic likely cured them of that doubt. 

Disaster recovery is critical to business continuity. Having the right systems in place can be the difference between minor disruptions to operations and huge financial losses. What are the right systems? That depends on your business and its needs.

And there are a lot of backup and disaster recovery options available. 

We’ll take a look at the relationship between backup and disaster recovery, the different types of backup and DR services available, further explore why DR is critical to business continuity, and share some key terms everyone should know when it comes to disaster recovery planning.

Is there a difference between backup and disaster recovery?

Yes, backup and disaster recovery are two entirely different principles.

  • Backup involves making a copy of your data. The backup should be stored off-site or ideally in the cloud.

  • Disaster recovery refers to the practice of having a plan and processes in place to deal with a disruption to normal business operations. 

Backup is an essential element of a disaster recovery plan, but disaster recovery itself includes all aspects of the business operations, including employee communication and safety, not just the business data.

Is your business prepared to survive a network outage?

Whether a catastrophe is manmade or a natural disaster, businesses of every size must be prepared to resume normal operations as quickly as possible after an unexpected interruption. Part of that is having a DR plan in place for IT systems and data.

The goal is to create a roadmap of actions that will minimize downtime, reduce financial impact, and maintain access to mission-critical data and customer records to ensure business continuity.  (The plan should also include crisis communication instructions for whom to contact to repair the damage or initiate failover systems, and protocols to alert external partners and customers in the event of a prolonged outage.)

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Article: Business Continuity: How DRaaS can limit the impact of these 5 major disasters

On demand webinar: Protecting your business by planning for disaster recovery

Article: 5 Reasons your organization needs a business continuity plan

Types of Backup and Disaster Recovery

There are two ways to go about implementing a DR backup plan for IT systems and data:

One is to build an exact physical replica of the primary infrastructure. This is a huge undertaking. It may also be of little use if the failsafe system is on-premises and affected by the same disaster as the primary network. Duplicating the IT infrastructure at a remote location solves that but is still an expensive proposition and requires redundant connectivity with independent internet service providers.

The second way is through the cloud. Migrating backup data to a cloud service provider stores data safely in an off-site data center without the burdens – and costs – of owning the servers and storage assets or maintaining infrastructure.

Many cloud backup providers also offer services to assist with your DR planning and implementation. This popular new approach to disaster recovery is called disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS).

Related content

Article: 3 Emerging Benefits of Disaster Recovery as a Service in the Post-Pandemic World 

If you’d like to know what a DRaaS solution would look like for your business, one of our representatives would be happy to speak with you.

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