As a business owner, you know your business is at risk of an IT disaster at any time. Most of the time, you’ll never have to worry about facing one on a day-to-day basis, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. Having a reliable disaster recovery service could end up being one of the biggest assets of your company. DRaaS (disaster recovery as a service) is one of the popular services, but how do you know if it’s right for your business? These tips should be able to help you decide.
Benefits for Small Businesses
DRaaS is a cloud-based disaster recovery service that takes security and protection a step further. It eliminates the need for an in-house IT staff, and in some cases, you don’t have to pay for the service until you need it. However, most providers will charge you a standard fee just for the operation, monitoring and testing, with the bulk of any fees coming when they perform a service.
What Does the Service Cover?
The worst thing in the world would be to think you have a certain aspect covered, only to find out you don’t when a disaster strikes. Not all DRaaS providers are created equally so reading the service agreement multiple times is essential to making sure you understand the service you are receiving.
What Does It Cost?
DRaaS is popular among small business owners because of the relatively low cost. Some providers offer a low standard rate with higher disaster recovery fees, while others will charge higher standard rates without charging any additional disaster recovery fees. With everything else being equal, you have to choose the plan that makes sense for your business financially, taking into account the risks involved with that decision.
Reliability and Testing
Just because you own a small business doesn’t mean your DRaaS provider has to be small too. The larger the clientele of the provider is, the more resources they will likely have. A larger provider will then be able to give you more service than other providers. Don’t be afraid to ask your potential provider how many clients they have.
Testing the service is one of the biggest aspects to consider when choosing a DRaaS provider. Ask the potential provider how often they run tests, whether they will send you a report after each test and how the cost of each test is incorporated into your service agreement.
If you still aren’t sure whether DRaaS is right for your company, feel free to contact us today and we can help guide you even further.
