IT teams are struggling between operating in a reactive mode, with a primary focus on daily tasks, versus operating in a proactive mode and focusing on innovative projects to help transform their business. Both are necessary for your business and need to get done, but should your team do all of it? Have you thought about allowing someone else to guide you through the process while your internal team continues to focus on transforming the business?
Disaster recovery can take a lot of time to properly implement so it may be the right time to consider a third-party provider who can help with some of the more routine and technical aspects of your disaster recovery planning. This help can free up some of your staff’s valuable time while also safeguarding your vital data.
Some experts believe in the idea of DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service). They believe that data protection, although necessary, has very little to do with core business functionality. Organizations commonly outsource non-business services which has driven many to consider the idea of outsourcing all IT services.
Other groups believe that the idea of outsourcing data protection is not the right approach. An organization’s ability to quickly and completely recover from a disaster can be the determining factor as to whether a year later the organization will still be in business. The basic philosophy behind this type of thinking can best be described as: “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
There are merits to both sides of this debate. On one hand, by moving your data protection solution to the cloud, your organization can make itself more agile. Cloud data protection may also lower costs. On the other hand, managing data protection in-house gives the organization complete control over its data protection initiatives. A true balance is needed in order to be sure that data protection is done securely.
As with most things in business and in life, the best approach is a compromise between both sides. A better choice might be to take an approach that falls somewhere in the middle with DRaaS and BaaS (Backup as a Service). It is also essential when it comes to your online backups to strike a balance between spending too much time focusing on your backups and not thinking of them at all. After all, it’s important to know what’s going on with your data.
Given the critical nature of the backups and recovery of your data, it is crucial that you do your homework before deciding on a provider, and here are some of the things you need to consider:
- Service-level agreements that meet your needs.
- Frequent reporting, and management visibility through an online portal.
- All-inclusive pricing.
- Failover assistance in a moment’s notice.
- Do it yourself testing.
- Flexible network layer choices.
- Support for legacy systems
- Strong security and compliance standards.
These capabilities can go a long way toward allowing an organization to check on their data recovery and backups on an as-needed basis, while also instilling confidence that the provider is protecting the data according to your needs. Let the experts at TAG Solutions help you to determine the right backup and disaster recovery plan for your business needs. Contact us today!