When it comes to disaster recovery, business decision-makers have a number of choices to consider, all of which can ultimately be grouped into one of two categories. First, there are the more traditional, self-managed disaster recovery solutions, requiring manual backups to offsite storage. Second, there are Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service options. With these offerings, the business essentially outsources its DR needs to a third-party solutions provider, which handles virtually every element of DR with a model very similar to those used for Software-as-a-Service platforms.
There are many advantages inherent to DRaaS strategies, which is why it should come as no surprise to learn that the global DRaaS market is poised for major growth in the coming years, according to the latest report from MarketsandMarkets.
DRaaS market growth
The MarketsandMarkets study found that the worldwide DRaaS market was worth $1.4 billion in 2015. By 2020, this market is poised to reach $11.9 billion. This represents a massive compound annual growth rate of nearly 53 percent.
"By 2020, the DRaaS market is poised to reach $11.9 billion."
The study further noted that North America is likely to see the greatest growth in DRaaS spending, but other regions – including Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America – will likely experience a major surge in DRaaS adoption in the near future, as well.
DRaaS benefits
To understand precisely why the global DRaaS market is on pace to experience such growth, it's worth examining why these solutions are so appealing to a growing number of business decision-makers.
As mentioned above, DRaaS shifts the responsibilities associated with disaster recovery preparation and execution to a third-party services provider. Obviously, this has the advantage of freeing up the client company's IT team to focus on other matters without sacrificing the organization's readiness to respond in the event of a disaster. That's hugely appealing for both the IT professionals themselves and the company leaders, as it lets the business become more ambitious in its technology aspirations.
Just as important, if not more so, is the fact that DRaaS puts a company's DR responsibilities in the hands of professionals who are fully devoted to these issues. That means that it is all but guaranteed that the quality of a company's disaster recovery capabilities goes up when the organization partners with a DRaaS vendor. After all, few if any companies will have dedicated DR professionals on staff in their IT departments. On the contrary, for most firms DR inevitably becomes a secondary focus for their IT personnel – personnel who, it should be noted, are not likely to have a great deal of expertise on DR-related matters. DR will simply not be a leading strength for a company's in-house IT team, but that is precisely the case for any DRaaS vendor.
It's also necessary to emphasize that DRaaS has significant cost-saving advantages. With DRaaS, businesses typically pay via the cloud model. That is to say, there is little to no upfront cost – instead, companies subscribe to the DRaaS vendor's offerings on an ongoing basis. That's critical because it frees up companies' CapEx to be spent in other areas, and instead transfers DR spend to OpEx. That's beneficial for businesses of all kinds, and especially smaller firms that may have more limited budgets.
Finally, DRaaS offers peace of mind to company leaders. Disasters are always a threat, and no business leader can ever be fully confident that his or her organization will not suffer either a man-made or natural disaster. By outsourcing DR to a professional services provider, though, the risk that disasters present is greatly diminished, allowing company leaders to move forward while resting easy.