DRaaS: what is disaster recovery as a service?
Outage, ransomware, fire: DRaaS gets your infrastructure running again in minutes rather than days. A simple, jargon-free explanation.
A simple question is worth asking any business: if your server room vanished tomorrow morning, how long to get back up? For many, the honest answer is measured in days. DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service) turns those days into minutes.
DRaaS, in plain terms
DRaaS, or disaster recovery as a service, means continuously replicating your servers to a second data centre. In case of disaster — hardware failure, ransomware, fire, human error — you fail over to that copy and resume operations quickly, while the primary site is repaired.
It’s the managed version of a recovery plan: instead of building and maintaining a standby infrastructure yourself, you rely on a provider that runs it for you.
Two numbers that sum it up: RPO and RTO
Disaster recovery is measured with two indicators:
- RPO (Recovery Point Objective): how much data can you afford to lose? Continuous replication targets an RPO of a few minutes.
- RTO (Recovery Time Objective): how long to be operational again? A good DRaaS targets an RTO of minutes to hours, not days.
The lower the RPO and RTO, the better your business withstands a disaster.
DRaaS vs backup: what’s the difference?
They’re often confused, but they’re complementary:
| Backup | DRaaS | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Recover data | Resume operations |
| Recovery speed | Hours to days | Minutes to hours |
| What’s protected | Files, VMs | The full infrastructure, ready to boot |
An immutable backup lets you recover; DRaaS lets you keep working. Together they form a real resilience strategy.
Who is DRaaS for?
DRaaS becomes essential as soon as downtime is expensive:
- businesses whose activity depends on always-available applications;
- regulated sectors that must demonstrate a continuity plan;
- organizations targeted by ransomware (that is, all of them);
- SMBs without the time or team to build a second site themselves.
The advantage of sovereign DRaaS
Replicating your data elsewhere raises a question: where? With a sovereign provider like Rēzau, replication happens between data centres in Quebec and Ontario, beyond the reach of the U.S. Cloud Act and compliant with Law 25. You gain resilience without sacrificing data sovereignty — or paying egress fees.
It’s especially relevant if you’re already rethinking your infrastructure, for instance as part of leaving VMware.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between DRaaS and backup? Backup recovers data; DRaaS restarts the infrastructure. They’re complementary.
How fast can you get back up? With continuous replication, recovery is measured in minutes to a few hours depending on architecture, versus several days with no plan.
Does DRaaS protect against ransomware? Combined with immutable backups, yes: you can return to a clean point before the attack and resume operations.
What’s your plan if everything stops tomorrow? Explore our disaster recovery (DRaaS) offering, or create your account to discuss it and get a price.