Disaster recovery as a service (DRAAS) is expected to take off in SA, due to traditional recovery services that are becoming increasingly unsustainable, say experts.
Kevin Krige, Advise compute, BT Global Services SSA, says companies are turning to cloud-based DR solutions because traditional disaster recovery (DR) models are becoming increasingly unsustainable from both a cost and people operational overhead perspective.
As a result, many SA businesses have been forced to compromise on their DR solutions - applying one model across all applications to implement standardised capabilities and reduce costs, notes Krige.
However, these don't necessarily cater to the needs of the business processes which the underlying applications fulfil, he adds.
Krige says SA businesses are looking for a DR model that provides the ability to respond on-demand to all workload protection and recovery needs with a single, easy-to-manage technology.
Claude Schuck, regional manager for Africa at Veeam, says disaster recovery-as-a-service will be a game changer this year and will enable businesses to meet and exceed customer and employee expectations around availability.
The increasing benefits of modern disaster recovery services and the significantly rising enterprise IT spending are the key drivers for the market, says Acute Markets.
Transparency report agrees, saying increases in worldwide enterprise IT spending across verticals has driven the growth of the DRAAS market.
In addition, it says DRAAS gives companies greater flexibility, faster recovery, cost effectiveness, automatability, and simplicity of test. Moreover, the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises has led to the immense popularity of DRAAS, it points out.
A MarketsandMarkets report estimates the DRAAS market will grow from $1.42 billion in 2015 to $11.92 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.9% - adding the Middle East and Africa (MEA) are expected to emerge rapidly in this market at high CAGRs.
This is because DRAAS is increasingly being seen as a cost-effective way to further strengthen and diversify existing disaster recovery capabilities, says Krige.
With the increased awareness and tighter regulatory requirements, cloud-based services like DRAAS have fast become a key topic among CIOs - especially as they start to transform businesses and move into a new role, he continues.
"Although, DR has always been critical - DRAAS now responds to the shifting market requirements as business look for reduced complexity and cost, and more flexibility while still having high levels of protection as they start to digitally transform. As such, it has become more important than it was in the past."
Schuck says SA businesses are adopting disaster recovery as a service because they want ease of use with regards to backup, disaster recovery and the larger business continuity and availability practice.
Many companies have disaster recovery sites but these might be grossly underpowered when the time comes to use them, he adds.
"Today, the demands on the data centre are real and significant. Many organisations seek to address off-site availability in the form of setting up a DRAAS offering to meet the business continuity requirements. That's truly the goal of the data centre - being available and continuing operations beyond its own walls."
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