Backup as a Service (BaaS) vs. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) both provide peace of mind by warehousing mission-critical data in the cloud. So what’s the difference? Orchestration and workflow are the key components, according to a recent video blog by Jason Buffington, Enterprise Strategy Group principal analyst. Those, in turn, affect agility and business outcome.
“From a data flow perspective, most backup technologies transform the data as part of transmitting it to the secondary repository, on-premises or in the cloud, which is what necessitates doing some kind of a restore to get it back,” Buffington says. “That transformation usually optimizes for storage, but it can limit the immediate usability or the recoverability of the data unless you restore it or basically transform it back to its original state.”
On the workflow side, imagine an organization with backup copies of virtual machines (VMs) that power an application, authenticated by Active Directory and connected to middleware. “You can’t just highlight those eight VMs, right-click and say, ‘power on,’ ” Buffington says. “You have to have a workflow. You have to have automation that’s defined in advance and runs when you need it.”
Such enabling orchestration and automation mechanisms also support sandbox testing.
“You can test the ability to bring VMs online without impacting production, or you can test the recoverability or the restorability of VMs with even granular data within that VM on a regular basis,” Buffington says.
Read "DRaaS Provides Williamsburg, Va. and Other Localities Peace of Mind" to learn more about how state and local governments are taking advantage of Disaster Recovery as a Service.
