Is Managed Disaster Recovery a Smart Investment?

A natural or man-made disaster can cripple your business if you aren’t careful. Managed Disaster Recovery Services exist to help prevent you from losing data should this situation occur. Using a cloud server, your information will be restored almost immediately should a major disaster occur. This is a very useful service to some businesses, but it does require an investment on your end. Is that investment worth it? Consider the facts below before making your decision.

Pros of Managed Disaster Recovery

The strength of Managed Disaster Recovery is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time meticulously making backups of all your important data. Data backup is one of several Managed IT Services handled by your cloud computing provider, which means that you can focus on other important details that affect your business. The technology is very flexible, allowing small businesses to take advantage of it in the same way that larger companies do. The base disaster recovery model also takes planned system downtime into account, so backups get made prior to the systems outage. That means that even if a disaster occurs during a planned outage, your data won’t be lost because it has already been backed up.

Cons of Managed Disaster Recovery

The biggest con when it comes to Managed Disaster Recovery is that the entire model relies on managed service providers rather than your own personnel. Since you don’t have a say in how the provider chooses personnel, that means that your backup system is technically out of your control. Security is also a major concern. Because individuals from outside your organization will be handling all your data, the risk of confidential information getting leaked is increased. Most providers take precautions to ensure that this will not happen, but you will need to make sure that you are comfortable with having somebody else handle your company’s confidential financial information or private records.

Factoring in Location for Managed Disaster Recovery

Whether managed data recovery services are for you will largely depend on your location. If you are set up in an area that suffers regular natural disasters which may cause data loss, then relying on a third party Managed IT Services provider might make sense. The nature of your business should also be taken into consideration. Healthcare groups that deal with confidential patient information or organizations that handle sensitive financial information that should not be leaked under any circumstances should consider the potential security breaches that might occur using these services. If your business doesn’t have such major confidentiality issues, it offers you much more flexibility with Managed Services.

Ultimately, the use of Managed Disaster Recovery depends on the location and nature of your business. If you plan accordingly and factor in the likelihood of security issues, this can be a good investment. If, however, you have the resources to back up data on-site or have major security concerns, you should probably take these matters into your own hands rather than relying on a third party Managed Services provider.

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