As more and more businesses rely on data to drive operations, make decisions and serve customers, data digitisation should be a priority for every organisation handling sensitive data. Unforeseen events like cybersecurity threats, hardware failures, and natural disasters make it even more important for today’s organisations to have sound backup solutions.
But with so many options to back up your business data, what should you choose: on-premises traditional backup or cloud-based disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS)?
You’ll also need to choose a reliable hosting partner, such as BlackBox Hosting, to fortify your business data backup strategy. Before you make any decision, explore this article to understand the key differences between backup and disaster recovery as a service, and to decide which one is best for your business.
What is a Traditional Backup?
Traditional backup uses conventional means to regularly copy data to a secondary location, which is usually physical and on-premises. It typically involves replicating your primary system data to external hard drives, network-attached storage (NAS), tape drives, or to an off-site location.
This type of backup is like having a spare tyre in your car boot. Just like you’d use the spare to replace a flat, if your business data is impacted by a disaster, your data can be restored from this secondary copy.
Traditional backups use any of the following methods to back up your data:
- Full Backup: This method copies all selected data at once to create a full backup to restore later.
- Incremental Backup: By following this method, you only save the changes made since the last backup, and reduce storage needs and time.
- Differential Backup: This method is similar to incremental backup. The only difference is that it saves all changes since the last full backup. It may need more space, but it allows for faster recovery than incremental backups.
It’s also common for businesses relying on backup software or hardware to automate their backup processes.
Pros of Traditional Backup
The key advantages of traditional data backup include:
- Your business has complete control over hardware and infrastructure
- You’ll benefit from a potentially quicker recovery if the backup site or secondary site is well-maintained
- Most IT teams are familiar with this process
- This backup option works well for non-critical data and small data sets
Cons of Traditional Backup
Some of the setbacks of using a traditional backup solution are:
- You’ll have to pay high upfront and ongoing costs for physical and on-site backup infrastructure
- You need IT experts for monitoring backups
- Maintenance and testing tasks can be time-consuming
- Quick scaling up of resources can be difficult
- Restoring data can take hours or even days, depending on the complexity and method of backup
- There’s always a risk of incomplete or outdated backups
What is DRaaS?
Disaster Recovery as a Service, or DRaaS, is a cloud-based solution that supports businesses with a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery plan. Unlike traditional backups that solely focus on backing up and storing your data in a secondary storage, cloud disaster recovery as a service does more. DRaaS can replicate your business’ complete infrastructure, including applications, servers, and configurations.
DRaaS ensures that you’re always prepared to move to a secondary system that’s a replica of your main infrastructure in case of a disaster or breakdown. Dependable providers like Redpalm offer managed services, including DRaaS, to minimise any downtime and get your operations back up and running.
Pros of DRaaS
The advantages of disaster recovery as a service are:
- A subscription model means lower upfront costs
- You can rely on the DRaaS provider for end-to-end managed services, including setup, testing, and maintenance
- Cloud disaster recovery as a service is easily scalable to match your business’ needs
- You can upgrade to advanced features, like automated failover and recovery from cybersecurity incidents
Cons of DRaaS
DRaaS does have a couple of setbacks:
- You have less direct control over the infrastructure
- The chances of vendor lock-in are higher
Key Differences Between Traditional Backup and Disaster Recovery as a Service
Which features make traditional backup and DRaaS unique? Here are the main differences between the two:
| Feature | Traditional Backup | DRaaS |
| Speed of Recovery and Restoration | In the event of a disaster, restoring data from traditional backup systems can be time-consuming, particularly with large volumes of data. Having a traditional backup solution could extend your business downtime, particularly if you need to retrieve backup data from off-site storage. | Cloud disaster recovery as a service offers recovery and restoration within minutes, depending on confirmation. You’ll be able to seamlessly switch your operations to your provider’s cloud DR while maintaining productivity with minimal downtime. DRaaS supports your business continuity plan. |
| Budget | The costs associated with traditional backup depend on the volume of data, storage type and location, and may be lower initially, but can add up as your business grows. | Cloud disaster recovery as a service can be much more cost-effective than traditional backups. The compute resources are reserved and are only used when you declare a disaster. |
| Scalability | Traditional backup systems, especially on-premises and physical backup devices, need additional investments to scale, which can be difficult. | Gain greater scalability, allowing your business to adjust resources at any time according to your needs. It’s possible to benefit from all this without any major capital expenditures. |
| Management | With traditional data backup systems, the onus is usually on your business’ IT team to manage backup schedules, ensure data storage is properly managed, and handle restoration manually when needed. | A cloud disaster recovery as a service is usually fully automated and managed by a dedicated team that carries out regular failover testing, automated updates, and real-time replication for seamless recovery. |
| Business Type | Traditional backup methods are best suited for businesses with non-critical applications that can tolerate some downtime. | If your business runs mission-critical applications that need high availability, quicker recovery in failure, and minimal downtime, a cloud disaster recovery as a service is best for you. |
| IT Resources | If your business has a dedicated in-house IT team to manage backup and restoration processes, traditional backup solutions are more suited for you. | Some providers can offer fully managed cloud disaster recovery as a service without the need for more staff, capital expenditure, or increased workload. |
In Conclusion
The choice between traditional backup and DRaaS ultimately depends on your organisation’s priorities. Traditional backups remain an option for companies that handle non-critical data, can tolerate downtime, and manage backups in-house. However, as cybersecurity threats get sophisticated and downtime grows more costly, many businesses are finding that backups are no longer enough. Consider DRaaS if you need high availability, quick recovery, and operational continuity in the face of unexpected circumstances.
Whichever option you choose, ensure you have a sound backup and recovery plan in place in sync with your business goals and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead.
