What Is DRaaS and How Do You Know That The Cloud Telephony Provider Can Deal With It?

We all hope it won’t happen, but disaster can strike any time. If your business is unprepared, it could mean that you can’t continue trading. With Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), you can ensure that business continues as normal even if unexpected or unfavourable circumstances come your way.

Disaster recovery can make or break your business, and it also says a lot about your preparedness. While customers will be happy to wait while you get back on your feet, there will be a time when their patience runs out and they take their business elsewhere. 

However, if you are prepared for a disaster from day one, you can be back on your feet in seconds—and able to truly wow your customers. It may sound hard but it is actually quite simple to stay prepared. 

This article will explore exactly what DRaaS is and how you can ensure your cloud telephony provider is positioned to support you should anything happen to your business.

What is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)?

DRaaS involves making a copy of your hosted phone system and uploading it to the cloud or a second phone system. If something does happen to your physical premises, you can quickly recover all of your data from the secondary system or the cloud, and carry on working from your mobile or laptop devices. 

Your phone system could be completely destroyed, but with DRaaS you can simply reboot it and connect via your mobile devices, picking up exactly where you left off. In the event of a cyber attack or if your IT system is corrupted, everything you need will be stay protected in the cloud and usually at a secondary location. 

So, what are the benefits of opting for DRaaS for your business?

1. Reduces downtime

DRaaS dramatically reduces downtime during a disaster, no matter what the nature of the incident is. Whether it is a minor or a major issue, DRaaS gives you the security of having everything backed up so the last thing you need to worry about is your data.

DRaaS has you backed up and running in minutes, and clients probably won’t even know if anything ever happened––resulting in healthy customer satisfaction levels! 

2. Peace of mind 

In addition to reduced downtime, and increased customer satisfaction, DRaaS also gives you peace of mind. As a business owner, it is a given that you want to protect your assets and care deeply about your profits. 

The thought of losing it due to a natural disaster or simply infrastructural failure can be stressful for any business owner to consider. With DRaaS in place, you can rest easy knowing that if something does happen, it won’t be the end of your business.

3. Cost-effective

Along with all the added benefits, DRaaS can also save your hard-earned money. Storing your data in the cloud is much more cost-effective than storing it in a physical location and paying for it. As everything is stored safely on the cloud, in the case of DRaaS, you needn’t worry about paying for expensive hardware or any sort of maintenance. 

The speed at which DRaaS can get your business back up and running is also a major factor in its cost-effectiveness. If you experience even a minor outage, you could lose a lot of business and, therefore, a lot of money. As DRaaS can have you up and running in minutes, you are less likely to lose money due to an outage as the business continues normally through your cloud phone system.

4. Scalable

Every time you scale up, you will want your DRaaS solution to scale and grow more robust with it. This is not easy in the case of an on-premise recovery system––there are cost limitations to how much you can expand your solution and the physical space that you can add to your backup system. If your data is physically stored, you will incur more costs as your business grows. 

With DRaaS, your business is protected no matter how much it grows, so you can develop your business without any hassle. You won’t have to deal with the headaches of expanding your on-premise storage either, as everything is in the cloud and space is not an issue! 

Moreover, since your provider looks after everything for you, there are even lesser concerns to think of. 

Now that you know the benefits of DRaaS, the next important step is to choose the right provider. You must make sure your provider has the right credentials and experience to ensure you make the most of this powerful tool.

Choosing the right provider for DRaaS 

Once you have defined exactly what you need from your DRaaS protection, it is time to choose a provider. Arguably this is the most important step, and you must ensure that the cloud telephony provider can give you all the protection you need. 

It pays off to be thorough with service level agreements (SLAs) and ensure that they can really deliver on what they are promising and react quickly in a crisis. These SLAs will tell you exactly what you can expect from your provider, and you must confirm that it matches your needs and expectations before proceeding. 

Another consideration is the location of your cloud telephony provider and where they store your data. There can be some legal implications when data is stored in different countries, so it is important to look carefully into this. 

Having data stored in different geographical locations is a great way to guarantee that it is safe from attackers and that if something goes wrong, your data is secure elsewhere. It is important to look into this and check whether the storage locations fulfil your needs.

Look carefully at your provider’s security credentials; are they compliant with all the regulations you need them to be? If not, it may be best to choose another provider, as not being compliant could cause you problems down the line should something happen to your data. 

This is particularly important for businesses such as financial institutions that deal with highly sensitive data on a regular basis. When choosing a cloud telephony provider, you must also consider their data storage capacity and experience. 

You, of course, want to work with a provider who is highly experienced in DRaaS and has demonstrable experience in restoring customer data after a crisis. It is important to look into this experience too and ensure that you are 100% confident in the provider’s abilities—after all, they may be helping your business at its worst time, so trust is key!

Finally, make sure your cloud telephony provider can grow your DRaaS coverage with your business. Check their data storage capacity and how much space they can give you at present and in the future, should you need more. This means your business is not only protected now but in the years to come as well.

By choosing the right provider, you can rest assured that you are getting the best possible advice on DRaaS and the best possible product for your business. Any good provider will ask you about your future plans, take your investment seriously and give you adequate room for growth when you need it.

Why not choose Acefone for DRaaS?

Acefone is highly experienced in providing DRaaS and has supported many businesses to gain the peace of mind and flexibility they need to be able to fully focus on their processes. We store all customer data on the cloud, and store data in different geographical locations to add an extra layer of security for our customers.

We are happy to work with each customer closely to assess their needs and have plenty of space for them to grow accordingly. Our customers trust us to get their operations back up and running quickly, and with experts on hand 24×7, we are always there to help as disaster can strike at any moment. 

Our cloud storage systems are fully compliant with PIC, FCC, GDPR, and CPNI, keeping your data safe and secure while remaining compliant with all the necessary guidelines and legislations.

If you would like to find out more about how Acefone can be the perfect cloud telephony provider for your DRaaS needs, call our team today on 0800-084-3663.

Olivia Trott

Olivia is an outgoing person who enjoys writing, is an SEO enthusiast, and often interacts with others in intellectual conversations. She enjoys listening to music in her free time. Connect with her on Linkedin