Managed Backup & DR Services

Managed cloud services are the management of a company’s cloud resources or infrastructure via a third party outside the organization. Typically engaged through a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or a Cloud Service Provider. Managed cloud services cover a wide range of solutions, but particularly Backup as a Service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS).

Managed cloud services by a Managed Service Provider (MSP) or a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) are backup as a service (BaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) offerings. Partners can partially or fully manage these offerings on a company’s behalf. These offerings typically include migration, configuration, security, monitoring, management and ongoing maintenance.

A self-service Backup as a Service offering is where your IT team can access a portal to schedule backup jobs, set retention policies and recover files or VMs. A managed Backup as a Service offering is where you can work with a service provider that schedules backups, manages policies, performs frequent testing, recovery services and more. In all these scenarios, backups are typically stored in the provider’s repository.

Customers who seek out Backup as a Service over do-it-yourself options look to:

• Gain access to experts by off-loading the setup, maintenance, monitoring and updating of the storage and software.
• Get started fast. Avoiding CapEx purchasing and complex setup processes is very possible with the as-a-Service model.
• Accelerate cloud adoption by taking a cloud-first approach to storage decisions.
• Establish a secondary location for backups to ensure that data is recoverable and archived for compliance.
• Keep data secure from ransomware and insider attacks by keeping an air-gapped copy away from primary storage. 

Customers who seek out DRaaS look to:

• Reduce cost by avoiding the immense CapEx that’s required to establish a secondary site with ready-to-go storage, networking and access.
• Gain specialized support that’s bolstered by the expertise only a focused provider can offer, meaning that you can leave no stone unturned in preparation.
• Implement geographic separation. Backing up and replicating away from the primary data center ensures any natural disasters are unlikely to affect failover.
• Leverage the flexibility of partial-site failover for when you just need on-demand storage for server migration, quick-fixes and any other problem in a limited scope.

DRaaS is when the failover infrastructure is hosted offsite with a service provider. It can be provided in a self-service manner where all setup, testing and failover/failback is managed by the customer, or it can be fully managed, where everything is handled by trained experts at the service provider.