How Offsite Backup can support Disaster Recovery

Nicola Moss
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Offsite backup can support disaster recovery via two separate methods. This can either be production systems, replicated to an offsite data centre or server, or by way of a cloud server.

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What is Offsite Backup?

An offsite backup is a process in which data is stored as an emergency solution, in the event that the data becomes compromised in some way. An offsite backup and disaster recovery support facility stores backup data or applications external to the organisation. Although similar to a standard backup process, the key difference is that it is not physically located within the core infrastructure of an organisation.

There are different types of offsite backup and disaster recovery which are as follows:

Hot Data Centre

When a disaster occurs, the system will automatically move to a hot data centre. Alternatively, it will transfer to an at-the-ready offsite server, failing back when the production system working again.

Warm Data Centre

A warm data centre allows your production system to fail to your offsite backup disaster recovery system. However, you will lengthen your Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and even potentially lose data, depending on how often you run your backup systems.

Cold Data Centre

Cold data centres require the installation of systems, applications and data. This can increase recovery time, due to the hardware and software involved. Production systems are copied over to a private cloud infrastructure or a public cloud. When a disaster happens, your systems will automatically fail over to the private or public cloud infrastructure and fail back to the production system once it is able to resume operations.

Benefits of Offsite Backup and Disaster Recovery

An offsite backup strategy that is implemented correctly is an important component of the 3-2-1 backup rule. Essentially, this rule states that data should be held securely in three places. Two media, and one offsite backup, such as cloud storage.

If you were to replicate your internal systems to an offsite backup server at least 150 miles from your production systems, the chances of recovering from a disaster improve significantly. However, regardless of your offsite backup location it can take a considerable amount of time to recover. Many organisations instead choose to opt for a cloud-based recovery service, allowing for scalability, cost effectiveness and efficiency in terms of disaster recovery.

As the responsibility of the disaster recovery management is transferred to the third-party cloud provider, the managed IT service offered allows for the purchasing of redundant software and labour costs of IT staff to be eliminated. A speedy recovery means that the downtime of your servers is comparatively inexpensive, allowing for you to easily scale up cloud resources, and even have the ability to purchase more hardware and software if you require it.

Three different copies

3 x different copies

Two different media

2 x different media

One offsite copy

1 x offsite copy

One offline copy

1 x offline copy

If you were to replicate your internal systems to an offsite backup server at least 150 miles from your production systems, the chances of recovering from a disaster improve significantly. However, regardless of your offsite backup location it can take a considerable amount of time to recover. Many organisations instead choose to opt for a cloud-based recovery service, allowing for scalability, cost effectiveness and efficiency in terms of disaster recovery.

As the responsibility of the disaster recovery management is transferred to the third-party cloud provider, the managed IT service offered allows for the purchasing of redundant software and labour costs of IT staff to be eliminated. A speedy recovery means that the downtime of your servers is comparatively inexpensive, allowing for you to easily scale up cloud resources, and even have the ability to purchase more hardware and software if you require it.

Do I Need Offsite Backup and Disaster Recovery?

Disasters are inevitable and come in many forms. From cyber attacks, to natural or man-made disasters, ensuring your data is safe should be your number one objective. We at Wanstor are cybersecurity experts, offering offsite backup and disaster recovery solutions.

Contact us today to ensure your information is safe, at all times.