A backup preserves data.
Backups create recoverable copies at particular points in time. They help with deleted files, corruption, retention, and restoring systems. Your recovery process still needs a destination, compute resources, networking, credentials, and an order for bringing applications back.
DRaaS helps restore operations.
Disaster recovery as a service brings a recovery environment and a service model into the plan. Depending on the offering, it can include replication, orchestration, recovery testing, and operational assistance. Some offerings combine backup and recovery; others use continuous replication and require separate backup protection.
Three differences to evaluate
- Recovery destination: where will the application run if its original site is unavailable?
- Operational ownership: who runs the incident, connects users, and verifies that the service works?
- Test evidence: can you demonstrate the full workflow, including returning to normal operations?
Replication needs a cyber recovery plan.
A replica can carry harmful changes from the source. Confirm your recovery point retention, isolation, backup protections, access controls, and validation process for recovering from an incident. Fast failover alone does not establish a clean application environment.
Choose around your requirements.
Document business objectives first. Then evaluate whether your existing backup process can meet them, or whether a prepared recovery environment and additional operating support would close a gap.
Example offerings: Datto’s combined backup and recovery approach ↗ and AWS recovery and failback workflows ↗.