5 Key Components
Backup & Disaster Recovery or BDR is when an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) protects your data to ensure business continuity. It’s their responsibility to prepare your IT for a disaster, which can come in the form of a natural occurrence like a flood, or a manmade one like data theft.
How Does A BDR Solution Work?
It combines disaster recovery and a data backup solution to ensure your IT system’s uptime and maximum productivity. A BDR solution provides secure, continuous backups and fast data restoration using a cloud-based architecture.
It ensures that you and your staff can continue working from anywhere you have an internet connection in the event of a disaster.
What Kind Of Disasters Warrant A BDR Solution?
We don’t have many natural disasters that would close your office; perhaps the occasional earthquake, fire or flood.
But you could experience a fire in your office, broken pipes or vandalism that could keep you and your staff from accessing your computers, hard drives and servers.
Your IT system could also be shut down due to software or hardware failure, from human error, malware or data corruption.
What Should You Look For In A BDR Solution?
BDR requirements vary from business to business. But there are 5 key features that any company should look for…
- Hardware Compatibility
Your BDR Solution should offer the compatibility you need across all of your appliances. It should also provide flexibility for your users.
- 24x7x365 Technical Support
Disasters occur any time of the day or night. So you need a BDR solution that’s backed by a provider who will be there for you no matter what time of day or day of the week it is.
- Redundancy In The Cloud
You need more than just a backup onsite. If you can’t get into your office, then you can’t access your backup. Your BDR solution should leverage the Cloud for additional security and recoverability. It must have the capability to keep things running when disaster strikes.
- Proven Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
Downtime is costly. So it’s critical that you can recover your data quickly and easily. Look for an IT provider who can promise that RTOs are measured in minutes, not hours or days.
- Is Cost-Effective & Meets Your Changing Requirements
You have to watch every dollar you spend. Your MSP should keep this in mind. The BDR Solution they provide should meet your needs while not breaking the bank. And look for a provider who can scale your BDR solution to meet your changing requirements.
How Does The Cloud Provide For Disaster Recovery?
Business continuity after a disaster continues to be a significant concern for businesses. But with cloud-based data storage, you can keep your business running if your onsite data is destroyed.
A system that backs up your data to the Cloud in real time provides the recovery you need from data disasters. With the right managed backup system, your data will be recoverable whenever you need it.
With a cloud backup, data is backed up to a remote, cloud-based server. The data is stored in, and accessible from multiple distributed and connected resources that comprise a cloud.
- You and your staff can remotely access services using a secure log in application to back up files from your computers to the online storage server using an encrypted, secure connection.
- Enterprise-grade cloud backup solutions typically add essential features such as archiving and disaster recovery. Archiving features will satisfy any legal requirements for data retention.
- As part of your disaster recovery plan, the remote, off-site cloud storage ensures that the data remains safe if your local data is affected by a disaster such as a fire, flood, cyberattack or accidental deletion by an employee.
- Files and data are automatically saved to the cloud backup service on a regular, scheduled basis. The information can also be automatically backed up any time that changes are made.
- To restore a cloud backup, all you need is the IT service company’s specific application or web browser interface.
You want a cloud backup that offers the combination of fast, reliable backups and robust recovery solutions. Look for a solution that can recover from the Cloud in a few minutes.
With an enterprise-based backup to the Cloud you’ll:
- Protect your IT system from significant disruptions.
- Get your business back up and running in the event of a disaster.
- Have testing of your backups and recovery regularly as part of routine site maintenance.
- Receive backups hourly to a secure remote data center without human intervention; with logging and alerting that notifies about not just failures but on the absence of success (a fundamental distinction).
- Recover files and complete systems for periods going back days, weeks and months.
- Keep your staff working from anywhere they can access the Internet.
What’s The Bottom Line?
Your Backup & Disaster Recovery Solution should be simple and effective. It should be cost effective but ensure that your business will survive when a disaster strikes.
Don’t take chances with your data. Stay up to date on these and other IT topics.
