Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a cloud computing and backup service model that uses cloud resources to protect applications and data from disruption caused by disaster. It gives an organization a total system backup that allows for business continuity in the event of system failure.

DRaaS enables the full replication and backup of all cloud data and applications while serving as a secondary infrastructure. It becomes the new environment and allows an organization and end users to continue with daily business processes while the primary system undergoes repair. DRaaS allows these applications to run on virtual machines (VM) at any time, even without a real disaster.

Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) involves a set of policies and procedures to enable the recovery or continuation of vital technology infrastructure and systems following a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery focuses on the IT or technology systems supporting critical business functions. Basically, DRaaS is cloud disaster recovery – when your DR technology solution resides in the cloud.

DRaaS is also available to organizations that employ on-premise solutions, making it a workable gateway and sandbox to test cloud computing. It requires an organization to replicate a system on the cloud hosting based service without discarding its on-premise system and, once backed up, enables testing of such a system.

Cloud-based services for helping to protect companies from the loss of mission-critical data in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. In addition to protecting data, Disaster recovery as a service(DRaaS) offerings help ensure business continuity by minimizing downtime and disruption to customers, clients and employees in the event of server failure or other disaster.

Disaster recovery as a service solution also typically offer more than just data recovery protection by additionally being able to replicate infrastructure and applications to help ensure full continuity of business operations. It operates in all kinds of platforms depending on the needs & purchasing plan for operating systems from the end users.

_{How to Select a DRaaS Service Provider?}

When selecting a DRaaS service provider, there are several key aspects to consider. You should seek a provider that offers data protection and automated options for business continuity, as well as DRaaS solutions.

You need to assess your organizations level of risk and spend accordingly. Some DRaaS service provider solutions only provide basic cloud storage and back up, while others provide true IT disaster recovery with business continuity, so that you know not only know where your data is backed up, but also how and when it will be restored.

If you are concerned about security in cloud computing, it’s important to do your due diligence in selecting a service provider. You want a provider that has the appropriate certifications and technology in place to keep your data secure.

DRaaS involves arrangement of a warm or hot live disaster recovery site as similarly consisted by the cheap VPS providers, which is a total replica of the company’s production environment. This can be done on a public cloud or on a VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) or in a hybrid environment – the choice for which rests with the organization.

DRaaS is customizable to meet the requirements of businesses of all sizes. If all the above benefits are appealing, but you do not have the required funds or resources, you can opt for either of the three models:

• Self-Service DRaaS –the vendor will provide you with all the required tools to assemble, monitor and perform the replications of your production environment, in preparedness of a disaster. The IT team of your organization will come into play for execution of the recovery procedures, when the outage occurs.
• Assisted DRaaS – While this is a very rarely provided option, the vendor will not only supply you with the needed resources but will also act as a trusted assistant to help you implement, test and manage your recovery plan. In the event of a disaster, the vendor will help fill in all the resource gaps, to ensure that your business meets its defined recovery objectives.
• Managed DRaaS – With all the responsibility lying with the vendor, this is most practiced form of vendor-based recovery options. The service provider manages all aspects of the recovery, with fulfilment of your recovery strategy as their top priority.

DRaaS provides the needed resilience to an organization by providing continuous mirroring of critical infrastructure and data to a high-availability cloud service, so that recovery of the business is possible within very few minutes of an outage. Some vendors also provide constant recovery management analytics to assess and validate the DR readiness of businesses.