In our last blog post, we noted that ransomware attacks have increased 300% since last year and experts continue to expect them to grow. This week, we learned that hackers hit Kaseya, a software that MSPs use to monitor their clients. Kaseya manages technology services for companies that are too small to have their own IT departments. As many as 1500 businesses across the globe have been impacted by the hack– from grocery stores in Sweden to schools in New Zealand.
At Profitcomm, we know that these types of hacks are going to continue happening. One, because many companies don’t have adequate protection set up and two, because companies are continuing to pay hackers ransoms. Backup and disaster recovery providers can help you make a plan for when a cybersecurity attack happens, regularly back up your data so hackers don’t have anything to hold for ransom, and recover your data.
Using our RFP Alternative [link] process, we can help you figure out which provider best suits your needs and budget. For example, a financial services firm has very different needs for backup and disaster recovery than a nonprofit (although piece of mind and reputation are important no matter your industry or service).
What is Backup as A Service?
Backup as a Service (BUaaS) uses public, private, or hybrid cloud to regularly back up your data on outside servers. This means that you don’t have to worry about manual back ups or where the information is stored. BUaaS (like anything as a Service) can vary from $ to $$$, if we use the Zagat rating system. A less expensive back up plan might not back up as regularly, and a high-priced plan might offer back ups every hour, for example.
What is Disaster Recovery as a Service?
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) allows businesses to not just back up their data, but recover that data when a disaster occurs. This might be a natural disaster (like a flood), but more recently, hacks and cybersecurity attacks have been the disasters that businesses need to recover from. DRaaS gets your data back and systems up-and-running as soon as possible after a disaster.
How do you develop a backup and disaster recovery plan?
The cybersecurity framework is based on a five-step process. This process allows you to protect your data, and recover it when needed. Providers will:
- Identify: Create a gameplan by establishing your risk tolerance, understanding your budget, and figuring out what where your vulnerability points are.
- Protect: Secure things coming into your organization and looking inside the organization and protecting people and systems from doing bad things.
- Detect: Discover threats to critical assets through monitoring, AI, and security management.
- Respond: Contain and remove any threats– whether that is taking out a compromised server or removing corrupted software.
- Recover: While the first four parts generally fall under backup, this step is disaster recovery. Here, you are able to return to business as usual by recovering whatever data has been lost.
We offer independent engineering resources that can help you develop a comprehensive cybersecurity plan that incorporates all parts of the process. In reality, many vendors offer many different types of cybersecurity options. We help you figure out what you need so you don’t have to figure it out on your own. Here are 8 of the many providers we work with who offer back up as a service and disaster recovery as a service.
CenturyLink / Lumen
Lumen offers a “Simple Backup Service” that allows you to point-and-click and create backup policies that meet your requirements, then apply them to servers in the Lumen Cloud. The Lumen Managed Disaster Recovery Services (MDRS) engineering team manages failover services and carries out regular testing, audits, and runbook development to ensure reliability and accuracy.
Green House Data
Green House Data’s DRaaS product is a VM-level disaster recovery solution that integrates with VMware vCenter and Microsoft Hyper-V, and supports Azure and AWS. They say that their BUaaS helps companies reduce backup windows by up to 90%, take advantage of single-step recovery, decrease network bandwidth usage by deduplicating data before transfer, add or remove backup capacity on demand, and set their own backup policy.
IBM
With their multicloud resilience, IBM offers a DRaaS plan that includes streamlined, speedy recovery, optimized resiliency, and a data-driven service environment. IBM’s Backup as a Service protects your data while allowing you to scale up or down as needed, and you can manage and access backups daily.
Rapid Scale
Rapid Scale’s Backup as a Service offers you the ability to store data on site, colocated, or at a data center, with pay-as-you-go pricing and managed off-site infrastructure. They can backup in real time or at a time that suits your business best. Their Disaster Recovery as a Service options can work with your needed compliance, provides continuity of support, and tests annually. They are also responsible for management and only select Tier 3 Data Centers.
RackSpace
RackSpace’s DRaaS offers a variety of options for customers, including premium, fully-featured disaster recovery, advance, and basic options. Their managed backup solutions are exactly that, fully managed and offer a variety of benefits.
Steadfast
Steadfast’s Disaster Recovery plans come in many shapes and sizes, and offer a comprehensive plan to not just backup data, but get your systems back up and running. Their backup plans are also offered in a variety of bundles, all proactively monitored to keep them secure.
Tierpoint
Tierpoint’s BUaaS is fully managed, but offer a self-service option that allows you to interact directly with the service. This means you can self-manage backup schedules, include or exclude files from the backup, and perform on-demand backups as needed. Tierpoint’s Disaster Recovery services are customizable, with services including cloud-to-cloud backups, server-to-cloud recovery, Azure site recovery, and business continuity workspaces.
QTS
QTS’s managed backup solutions are hosted on their private cloud servers. This allows customers the benefit of only monthly costs and no upfront capital investment.
Contact us today to find out which disaster recovery and backup technology provider matches your company’s needs and protect your business from cyberattacks today.