Cloud

5 Things to Ask About Disaster Recovery as a Service

DRaaS is a simple way to ensure university operations can continue during unexpected events. Here’s what to ask potential partners.

Joel Snyder

Joel Snyder, Ph.D., is a senior IT consultant with 30 years of practice. An internationally recognized expert in the areas of security, messaging and networks, Dr. Snyder is a popular speaker and author and is known for his unbiased and comprehensive tests of security and networking products. His clients include major organizations on six continents.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a simple way to ensure university operations can continue during unexpected events. Here are five questions to ask potential providers.

1. Is the Service a Good Match for My IT Portfolio?

DRaaS providers vary considerably in their capabilities when it comes to virtualization, hardware and even operating systems. A good starting point for any discussion is an inventory of your applications and hardware and software platforms to see if there are potential problem spots.

2. Does the Provider Match My Security Requirements?

Many universities work diligently to properly secure sensitive data, and they must also maintain that security end-to-end with DRaaS. Request a System and Organization Controls (SOC) report to be sure that a potential DRaaS provider can meet your own requirements for security and risk mitigation.

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3. How Will Users Get to Their Applications?

Universities have adjusted to remote and hybrid work, but the most likely disaster is a partial outage while users are back on campus. Go through every failure scenario and consider whether you need additional bandwidth, a faster VPN or even a backup LAN within a building to connect you to your DRaaS provider.

4. Can the Service Meet My RPO/RTO Targets?

Recovery point objectives (how much data am I willing to lose?) and recovery time objectives (how quickly can I be up and running?) are critical pieces of information. Providers may price services based on these numbers, so decide what your district requires and get that on the table early.

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5. How Is the Service Tested, and How Often?

Good DRaaS providers will test frequently. While testing is expensive and resource-intensive, a solid test plan from the DRaaS provider is the best assurance that it knows what it’s doing and will be a calm voice of reason when an actual disaster strikes.

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