The “Gotchas” of Disaster Recovery

Date posted: 24th September 2015

Many IT disaster recovery plans are providing false sense of security to leadership. Here are some common “gotchas” when implementing your disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Ignoring the Cloud or not taking full advantage of cloud’s benefits in disaster recovery

If you are only using the cloud for data backup or storage, you are ignoring a key component of what could be a life saver for your business. Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service from a Cloud Managed Services provider truly leverage the cloud to allow server failover, sandboxed DR testing, and more can significantly reduce your IT operating expenses, give you faster recovery times, and improve your company’s resiliency.

Thinking “do-it-yourself” will save money or time

Even if you feel like you can just code it or do it yourself by using “best of breed” technology and integrations, studies show that companies that typically approach data protection and recovery with a DIY mentality end up spending more money and not being able to achieve their recovery time objectives. A Cloud Managed Services provider can act as a trusted advisor to help guide you on the path to disaster-recovery-as-a-service.

Ignoring ease of access and time to recovery

Going for something that “just needs to work” is the wrong approach for IT resiliency. When you have to act quickly to recover files, applications, or entire networks you don’t want to mess around with an overly complicated solution or a product that requires extensive training and professional services.

Different solutions for physical vs virtual environments

Why implement different solutions when you can have one Cloud Managed Services vendor handle all your data recovery and protection needs? Deploying from a single pane-of-glass reduces complexity.

Ignoring applications in favor of data only

What good is it to have the data if you can’t turn on the servers or applications required to access and use it? When looking at protecting your data, take into consideration the systems and infrastructure required for people to access and use it for their daily work tasks.