Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a cloud-based solution that provides recovery of IT infrastructure and critical services after outages, disasters, or cyberattacks. DRaaS enables organizations to maintain system and data availability even during major incidents, minimizing downtime and financial losses.
Unlike traditional backup solutions, DRaaS offers not only data retention but also the ability to quickly launch virtual copies of servers and applications in the provider’s cloud. This allows businesses to resume operations promptly without the need for physical presence in the data center.
Key Components of DRaaS
- Real-time or scheduled data replication – continuous or periodic transfer of data to a remote cloud site
- Mirror virtual machines – cloud-based replicas of servers ready to launch with minimal setup
- Automated failover and failback – seamless switching to a recovery environment and returning to primary systems after restoration
- Recovery orchestration – preconfigured workflows to restore systems in a specific sequence
- Non-disruptive testing – ability to test the disaster recovery plan regularly without affecting production systems
Where DRaaS is used
- Banking and fintech sectors
- E-commerce and SaaS companies
- Government and healthcare organizations
- Manufacturing businesses with digital systems
- Any service or application where recovery time is critical
DRaaS vs Backup: What’s the Difference?
While DRaaS often includes backup functionality, the main difference lies in speed and comprehensiveness. Traditional backup stores data, but DRaaS enables the rapid launch of an entire IT infrastructure from the cloud, without manual intervention or lengthy reconfiguration.