Disaster recovery
Recovery engineered to a stated RTO and RPO, then tested
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) replicates your servers and applications to a second, managed environment so you can fail over and keep running when your primary site is down. Storcom designs DRaaS on Veeam or Zerto replication, sets a recovery time and recovery point objective for each application, and runs failover tests to prove them.
Last updated
Practice: Backup and disaster recovery
- Built for
- For IT teams that need applications running again, not just data restored.
- What you get
- Veeam and Zerto replication engines
- RTO and RPO set per application
- Failover tests run on a schedule
- 24×7×365 support from one accountable team
- Delivered from
- Geneva, Illinois, for Chicagoland and customers across the U.S.
Watch a failover
Lose the primary site and see what a tested runbook does next: systems come up in dependency order at the recovery site and users are reconnected.
Production running. Replication healthy.
- 1Primary site lost
- 2Failover started from the runbook
- 3Systems up in dependency order
- 4Users reconnected at the recovery site
Illustration only. Your recovery time is the RTO we design and test with you.
What is disaster recovery as a service?
DRaaS keeps a current copy of your production servers at a recovery site. Replication software sends changes from your environment to that site, either on a schedule or continuously. When your primary site fails, whether from ransomware, a hardware failure, a power or network outage, or a flood, the replicas are powered on and your applications run from the recovery site until you are ready to fail back.
The recovery site is the part you do not have to build. Storcom manages the target environment, sizes it to run your critical workloads during a failover, and keeps it patched and monitored. You do not need a second data center or the staff to run one.
There are three ways to work with us: DRaaS for Veeam if you already back up with Veeam, the Managed Recovery Program if you want Storcom to run the plan and the tests with you, and business continuity consulting if you need to decide what to protect first.
RTO vs. RPO: what is the difference?
Every DR design starts with two numbers per application. They answer different questions and drive different costs.
| Topic | Recovery time objective (RTO) | Recovery point objective (RPO) |
|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | How long can this application be down? | How much recent data can you afford to lose? |
| Measured as | Time from the outage to the application working again | Time between the last good copy and the moment of failure |
| What tightens it | Pre-staged recovery capacity, a tested runbook, automated boot order | More frequent or continuous replication |
| Who sets it | The business, based on what an hour of downtime costs | The business, based on what lost transactions or records cost |
Tighter objectives cost more. Most organizations set them per application tier rather than one target for everything.
DRaaS vs. backup: do you need both?
| Topic | Backup (BaaS) | DRaaS |
|---|---|---|
| Protects against | Deleted, corrupted or encrypted data | Losing the site, the hardware or the whole environment |
| What it keeps | Point-in-time copies retained for weeks, months or years | Current replicas of running servers, kept for short-term recovery |
| How you recover | Restore files, mailboxes or VMs back into production | Fail over and run applications at the recovery site |
| Recovery speed | Slower for a full environment, because data has to be copied back first | Faster, because replicas are already in place and only need to be powered on |
| Best for | Retention, compliance and everyday restores | Keeping critical applications available through an outage |
Most organizations need both. Backup gives you history. DRaaS gives you somewhere to run.
How does a failover test work?
A test proves the plan without touching production. This is how we run one.
Agree the scope
Pick the applications to test, the order they come up in, and the RTO and RPO each one has to meet.
Fail over in isolation
Replicas are powered on in an isolated network at the recovery site. Production keeps running and users are not affected.
Check the applications
Your team and ours log in, confirm that services start, databases mount and applications respond, and time each step against the RTO.
Clean up and report
The test copies are discarded and replication carries on. You get a written report with timings, issues found, and the fixes made to the runbook.
Veeam replication or Zerto: which DRaaS engine fits?
The replication engine decides how close together your recovery points can be. We work with both and recommend one per workload.
| Compared on | Veeam replication | Zerto |
|---|---|---|
| How it replicates | Scheduled, snapshot-based replicas of vSphere and Hyper-V virtual machines. Veeam CDP adds continuous replication for vSphere. | Continuous, journal-based replication that captures writes as they happen |
| Typical recovery points | Minutes to hours, set per job. Seconds with Veeam CDP on vSphere. | Typically seconds apart, with a journal you can rewind |
| Best fit | You already back up with Veeam and most applications can lose a few minutes of data | Applications with the tightest RPOs, or rewinding to just before a ransomware event |
| What Storcom manages | The recovery site, failover plans, runbooks and scheduled tests | The recovery site, failover plans, runbooks and scheduled tests |
Either engine replicates to a Storcom-managed recovery target sized for failover, with 24×7×365 support.
Technology we deploy for this
Veeam backup and replication for virtual, physical, cloud and Microsoft 365 workloads, plus Veeam-based cloud backup and DRaaS that Storcom runs for you.
Zerto
Zerto, an HPE company, provides the continuous replication and orchestrated failover Storcom uses for disaster recovery when recovery points need to be close to the moment of an outage.
Sources
- SP 800-34 Rev. 1, Contingency Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems NIST. Accessed .
- #StopRansomware Guide CISA. Accessed .
- Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for VMware vSphere Veeam Help Center. Accessed .
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between RTO and RPO?
RTO, the recovery time objective, is how long an application can be down before the outage does real damage. RPO, the recovery point objective, is how much recent data you can afford to lose, measured in time. A tight RTO needs recovery capacity ready to go, and a tight RPO needs frequent or continuous replication.
Is DRaaS the same as cloud backup?
No. Backup keeps point-in-time copies so you can restore data, often for long retention. DRaaS keeps current replicas of running servers so you can fail over and run your applications somewhere else. Most organizations use both.
Should we choose Veeam or Zerto for DRaaS?
It depends on your recovery objectives and what you run today. Veeam is a natural fit if you already use it for backup and recovery points a few minutes apart are acceptable, and Veeam CDP can go tighter on vSphere. Zerto suits applications that typically need recovery points seconds apart. We size both during design and can mix them by workload.
How often should we test disaster recovery?
Often enough that the runbook matches the environment you run today. Many organizations test critical applications at least once a year and again after major changes such as a migration, a new core application or a network redesign. In the Managed Recovery Program, Storcom schedules and runs the tests and reports results against your RTO and RPO.
What happens when we declare a real disaster?
You call Storcom support at 1 (866) 610-7472, any hour of the year, and the failover follows your documented runbook. Replicas are powered on at the recovery site in the agreed order, networking is switched over, and users reconnect. When your primary site is ready, changes are replicated back and you fail back at a time you choose.
How do we get started with DRaaS?
Start with a discovery call. We talk through the workloads you need to protect and your current backup and recovery setup, then size the design from your data. You get a design and pricing before you commit.
Related services
- DRaaS for VeeamVeeam DRaaS from Storcom: replicate VMs with Veeam Cloud Connect to a recovery site we manage, with runbooks,…
- Managed RecoveryManaged disaster recovery from Storcom: documented runbooks, failover tests against your RTO and RPO, and a…
- Business Continuity ConsultingBusiness continuity consulting from Storcom: business impact analysis, recovery objectives by tier, BC/DR…
- Cloud backup overviewCloud backup as a service with off-site, immutable copies and tested restores.
- Veeam cloud backupVeeam-based cloud backup with off-site, immutable copies, scheduled restore tests and reporting.
Start with a discovery call.
Tell us what you run today, what is changing and what worries you. We listen, ask questions and tell you plainly whether and how we can help. No cost, no commitment.