Top Five Cloud Disaster Recovery Solutions for 2022’s Post-Pandemic, Cloud-First World

In 2022, the backup and disaster recovery blueprints of the pre-pandemic world may no longer suffice. As cybercrime, climate change-related natural disasters, and unprecedented challenges during organizational change take their toll, there is a need for fresh strategies. Let’s look at five backup and disaster recovery solutions that can help. 

When asked during a survey if their disaster recovery plans were useful during COVID-19, 45%Opens a new window of IT professionals said: “not really.” The unprecedented challenges of the last one-and-a-half years have revealed yawning gaps in enterprise disaster recovery strategies. 

Research by IDCOpens a new window found that 43% of companies suffered unrecoverable data losses in 2020, and 63% faced a data-related business disruption. That’s why disaster recovery is on the top of most business leaders’ minds as we close out 2021 and begin a new year. 95% of respondents on IDC’s survey admitted that they need to rethink data backups for disaster events – and these new strategies will be cloud-first. Notably, 91% said that the public cloud would play a role in their future disaster recovery plans to help them avoid the errors and challenges enterprises faced during the pandemic. 

Which are the best solutions that can help you prepare and execute a robust cloud-based disaster recovery strategy? Before we discuss the top contenders, let us consider the benefits of this approach.

What Are the Benefits of Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery? 

The general rule of thumb when it comes to data backup suggests a 3-2-1 approach. Enterprises should maintain three copies of their data. They should host two copies locally but on different mediums and one offsite. If followed to the T, this should protect you from most worst-case scenarios – but cloud data backups are often ignored. Small to mid-sized businesses may feel confident that they have their backups in disk or tape, and resorting to cloud backups would require refreshed configurations. For large enterprises, the time and effort needed to get data backups ready for the cloud are often seen as disproportionate compared to its benefits. 

The COVID-19 pandemic changed all of this. It demonstrated that the very worst-case scenario, no matter how far-fetched, may indeed come to pass. Organizations must prepare beforehand to avoid unmitigated losses to business and severe disruptions. That’s why there is now a renewed interest in cloud disaster recovery solutions. From $5.1 billionOpens a new window in 2020, the market will more than double by 2025 to reach $14.5 billion. 

Investing in cloud disaster recovery has several benefits. Since data is stored offsite, local disaster events like outages, lack of maintenance due to lockdowns, and localized cyberattacks do not affect it. Cloud backups can also be restored much faster than tape, typically through online and remote mechanisms. This reduces downtime and the damage caused by business disruption. And, over time, cloud disaster recovery can prove to be more cost-effective than an on-premise-only approach as it scales with the organization without requiring new hardware. 

See More: 8 Tips To Implement an Effective Disaster Recovery

5 Cloud Solutions to Strengthen Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Plans in 2022 

Here are the top solutions to consider in this segment: 

1. Acronis

Overview: Acronis is a Singapore-based data backup company that offers both cloud and on-premise solutions. It has discrete product plans for managed service providers, businesses, and individuals.

Key Features: 

• • Holistic backup disaster recovery, cybersecurity, and endpoint management solution 
  • Site-to-site VPN and defense for production failover 
  • Certified Acronis cloud data centers for instant availability
  • Automation of key disaster recovery scenarios 

USP: It is among the few disaster recovery providers with a dedicated home office solution. 

Things to keep in mind: Businesses will need to sign up for the complete solution to get cloud-based cyber disaster recovery capabilities. 

2. Druva 

Overview: Druva is a 2008 founded data protection company that is powered by AWS. It offers disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) so that you do need to spend on hardware or software agent maintenance. 

Key Features: 

• • Secures workloads across SaaS apps, edge devices, and private and public clouds 
  • Accelerated recovery from ransomware attacks 
  • Microservices-based processing for reliable scalability 
  • Support for legal use cases like e-Discovery and data audit tracking 

USP: Druva is powered by a sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) metadata engine. 

Our view: Druva is easy to deploy and use, ideal for mid-sized organizations. 

See More: How Disaster Recovery In The Cloud Reduces Your Risk

3. N-able 

Overview: N-able is a 2008 founded technology company that equips managed service providers with security, back-up, and monitoring tools. It also caters to internal IT departments through cloud-hosted security and backup solutions. 

Key Features: 

• • IT monitoring solutions like N-able N-central 
  • Scalable backups for single documents to entire workstations and servers 
  • A dedicated Microsoft 365 backup plan 
  • Backup status analysis, error detection, and resolution 

USP: N-able offers frequent backups at an affordable cost and claims to use 50x less bandwidth. 

Our view: Organizations with high-volume and heterogeneous backup requirements can consider N-able as a viable solution. 

4. Veeam 

Overview: Veeam is a 2008 founded data backup and replication company built on VMware, Nutanix, and Microsoft hypervisors. It offers fully portable cloud disaster recovery solutions to help avoid vendor lock-in. 

Key Features: 

• • Universal License to help you move backups between environments 
  • Veeam ONE dashboard for intelligent diagnostics and remediation 
  • A dedicated backup service for Microsoft Office 365 
  • Automated site disaster recovery orchestration 

USP: You can estimate your backup costs using the Veeam Pricing Calculator before investing. 

Our view: Veeam factors in your backup requirements for private infrastructure hosted on Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, and infrastructure by HPE, Lenovo, etc. 

5. Zerto 

Overview: Zerto is a 2009 founded company that provides backup, disaster recovery, and workload mobility solutions. Its flagship product is the Zerto IT Resilience Platform that combines data protection with recovery automation, orchestration, and analytics.

Key Features: 

• • Protection for and backup to hybrid and multi-cloud environment 
  • Orchestrate disaster recovery and flexible APIs 
  • Always-on data replication (5-second frequency) 
  • Data mobility and archiving for the long-term 

USP: Zerto is interoperable with most enterprise systems to give you integrated visibility and insights. 

Our view: Organizations with complex production environments and technology stacks can rely on Zerto (an HPE company). 

See More: Why Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) Is a Must-Have in the Age of Ransomware

Key Takeaways on the Road Ahead 

The last one-and-a-half years witnessed rapid cloud adoption. It is vital that companies continue to leverage the cloud to increase their resilience and provide internal/customer data the protection it needs. Companies must remember that: 

• • Existing backup and disaster recovery plans may require a rethink for the future. 
  • The cloud disaster recovery segment is rapidly growing, with plenty of options. 
  • By doing your research and trialing the best solutions in the market, you can zero in on the best-fit product for your company. 

What are your top priorities for reliable disaster recovery in 2022? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!