ST May-Jun 2021

OPINION:
OPINION: DISASTER RECOVERY AS A SERVICE
A DRAAS PRIMER FOR SMBS
AS MORE AND MORE SMBS ARE ATTRACTED TO DISASTER RECOVERY
AS A SERVICE, FLORIAN MALECKI OF STORAGECRAFT OUTLINES THE
KEY COMPONENTS AND REQUIREMENTS OF A DRAAS SOLUTION -
WHAT IS IMPORTANT, AND WHY
Regardless of size, every business gets
hurt when downtime strikes. Small
and medium sized businesses (SMBs)
take a big hit when their systems go down.
An ITIC study found that nearly half of
SMBs estimate that a single hour of
downtime costs as much as US$100,000
in lost revenue, end-user productivity, and
IT support. That's why more and more by
SMBs are adopting Disaster Recovery as a
Service (DRaaS). One study shows 34
percent of companies plan to migrate to
DRaaS in 2021.
Cloud-based backup and disaster
recovery solutions are often at the top of
the list when considering DRaaS solutions.
Such an approach allows businesses to
access data anywhere, any time, with
certainty because the best disaster
recovery clouds are highly distributed and
fault-tolerant, delivering 99.999+ percent
uptime. This article is intended to help
SMBs understand the key elements of a
DRaaS solution, beginning with an
explanation of the basics of DRaaS.
DISTRIBUTED BACKUPS MAXIMISE
PROTECTION
Data replication is the process of updating
copies of data in multiple places at the
same time. Replication serves a single
purpose: it makes sure data is available to
users when they need it.
Data replication synchronises data
source - say primary storage - with backup
target databases, so when changes are
made to source data, it is quickly updated
in backups. The target database could
include the same data as the source
database - full-database replication - or a
subset of the source database.
For backup and disaster recovery, it
makes sense to make full-database
replications. At the same time, companies
can also reduce their source database
workloads for analysis and reporting
functions by replicating subsets of source
data, say by business department or
country, to backup targets.
MANAGING BACKUP IMAGES
As companies continue to add more
backups over time, they'll need to manage
these accumulated images and the storage
space the images consume. Image
management solutions with a managedfolder
structure allow companies to spend
less time configuring settings on backups.
But that's just the start. These solutions
can also provide image verification so that
backup image files are ready and available
for fast, reliable recovery and advanced
image verification that delivers regular
visual confirmation that backups are
working correctly.
To reduce restoration time and the risk of
backup file corruption, and also reduce
storage space required, image management
solutions can automatically consolidate
continuous incremental backup image files.
Companies can also balance storage space
and file recovery by setting policies that suit
their needs and easily watch over backup
jobs in the user interface, with alerts sent
when any issues arise.
Image management solutions allow the
management of system resources to
enable throttling and concurrent
processing. Backups are replicated onto
backup targets - local, on-network, and
cloud - so companies are always prepared
for disaster. The solution also allows prestaging
of the recovery of a server before
disaster strikes to reduce downtime.
CORE DRIVER FOR BUSINESS
CONTINUITY
Failover is a backup operational mode
that switches to a standby database,
server, or network if the primary system
fails or is offline for maintenance. Failover
ensures business continuity by seamlessly
redirecting requests from the failed or
downed mission-critical system to the
backup system. The backup systems
should mimic the primary operating system
environment and be on another device or
in the cloud.
20 STORAGE May/June 2021
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www.storagemagazine.co.uk
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