As businesses have shifted to managed IT services, more are discovering that they can take advantage of a host of services that were once thought to have been out of reach. From replicating critical applications to broadening cloud storage access for business consumers, managed service providers (MSPs) have enabled businesses to utilize complex IT and telecom services to be even more competitive and robust as they grow.
One of those vital, complex services is disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), which preserves and replicates a business’s entire IT ecosystem without the complicated logistics and expense issues that made such a feat previously unreasonable. MSPs that want to take advantage of this growth opportunity, though, will have to bring more to the table than just the promise of excellent service. They must anticipate the needs and goals of potential business consumers–and then promptly satisfy their demands.
Breaking DRaaS Myths
When it comes to businesses taking advantage of DRaaS, MSPs are in an optimal position to guide companies seeking unbroken business continuity, using their experience, knowledge, and understanding of how they operate throughout the general business world. MSPs also understand the pervasiveness of myths and other misconceptions surrounding traditional backup and recovery plans.
For instance, some businesses believe that their operational environment is too vast or complex for MSPs to manage or that a partner wouldn’t have the depth of understanding required for successfully implementing needed changes in a disaster recovery strategy. MSPs can tackle these myths head-on and win over skeptical IT managers by showcasing their experience in handling a variety of successful deployments for a wide range of companies.
Another common myth is that disaster recovery is solely within the realm of IT. In reality, any disaster affects a broad swath of a company’s operations. While IT is a major part of the disaster recovery response, any successful disaster recovery and business continuity plan must involve other departments and functions to ensure smooth, uninterrupted failover.
What Potential Partners Want
Addressing and dispelling DRaaS myths is only half the battle. The other half involves illustrating to businesses the need for data protection and disaster recovery under the MSP umbrella. A well-prepared MSP already understands the need to be fluent about a company’s business continuity needs–from latency expectations to bandwidth levels for specific applications and industries.
The ability for a data center to provide five-nines reliability and 24/7 availability is crucial for any business in search of genuine business continuity and disaster recovery. MSPs must be prepared to meet exacting service level agreements (SLAs) and maintain data centers that allow MSPs to promptly restore critical systems at any given moment.
Geographic diversity is also a crucial element for businesses in search of prime disaster recovery and data protection. This ensures that the physical data center isn’t subject to the same catastrophic environmental events as the business in question.
Overall, MSPs must be willing to understand not only what their customers desire from a DRaaS relationship; they must also help customers dispel myths and correct misconceptions when it comes to disaster recovery.
To learn more about DRaaS and business continuity solutions, contact eXemplify now and get in touch with one of our specialists.