How to Choose the Right Disaster Recovery Solution

How to Choose the Right Disaster Recovery Solution

The world is a scary place for businesses. Not only do you have to contend with competitors, economic conditions, and consumer trends, you’re also increasingly threatened by cybercrime, natural disasters, and tech disasters. In today’s digital world, no business can afford to get caught unprepared – which is where a disaster recovery solution or business continuity plan comes in. But how do you know what solution will deliver the goods?

Step #1 – Internal or Outsourced?

The decision to either let your internal IT team handle your disaster recovery solution or outsource it to a managed IT services provider is the first major choice you’ll have to make. While there are some advantages to having this handled onsite, it only really works if your team has specific expertise in this area and you have the budget and resources to supply the hardware and software solutions – which can be expensive, if not impossible for many businesses.

The most cost-effective option is to go with a reputable provider. And we’re not just saying that because we are one! In fact, we encourage you to research both options as thoroughly as you need to in order to make an informed decision. We’ll just say that outsourcing allows you to leverage a team of IT experts and a network of suppliers for the best solutions at minimal expenditure.

Step #2 – Know What Your Options Are

Different disaster recovery solutions work better than others for different businesses – your data and operations are unique; your disaster recovery should be too. Here are the 3 main types of disaster recovery solutions to help you determine what’s best for your business.

1. File backup and recovery – This is the simplest solution available and involves keeping the most mission-critical company and client data backed up to a secure location. If encrypted and properly secured, these files can simply be reloaded if the originals are lost or compromised. Generally, this is the bare minimum a business should do, and it’s only really viable for very small businesses that don’t have a lot of data to back up.
2. Hot-site recovery – if your business can’t afford downtime, then hot-site recovery may be a good option. This keeps business data backed up in real-time using duplicated infrastructure. It’s a very expensive option but it is also incredibly effective and is often used in industries where downtime can cause significant or irreversible losses, or where there is a very high compliance threshold.
3. Virtualised recovery – This is a good choice for most businesses because it is fairly inexpensive and versatile, adapting to your data security and recovery needs. Using cloud services, you can back up data and applications of your choice to virtual servers without the need for duplicate infrastructure. Cloud service providers offer exceptionally good data security and encryption, which also adds another level of protection for your business.

Step #3 – Use the Right Managed IT Services Provider

If you do decide to outsource your disaster recovery solution, you need a partner you can trust to treat your business as their own. At Otto, we’re all about becoming true partner’s in your business’s success by making tech human – and that means delivering IT solutions that work for your business, make your life easier, and solve your problems rather than adding to them. Chat to our team today about disaster recovery solutions, IT support or upgrading your IT systems.