Recovery as a service

Recovery as a service (RaaS), ^[1] sometimes referred to as disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), is a category of cloud computing used for protecting an application or data from a natural or human disaster or service disruption at one location by enabling a full recovery in the cloud. RaaS differs from cloud-based backup services by protecting data and providing standby computing capacity on demand to facilitate more rapid application recovery. RaaS capacity is delivered in a cloud-computing model so recovery resources are only paid for when they are used, making it more efficient than a traditional disaster recovery warm site or hot site where the recovery resources must be running at all times.

The term "recovery as a service" (RaaS) is considered to be part of the nomenclature of cloud computing, along with infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).^[2]

RaaS architectural models

RaaS architectural models vary depending on the location of the primary or source production application or data.

• To-cloud RaaS : To-cloud recovery is when the source application is in the users primary private datacenter and the cloud is being used as a backup or recovery target. ^[3]

• In-cloud RaaS : In-cloud recovery is when both the source and recovery sites are in the cloud. ^[4]

• From-cloud RaaS : From-cloud recovery is when the primary or production application or data is in the cloud and the backup or recovery target site is a private datacenter. ^[5]

Recovery testing with RaaS

Sandboxes are a common feature of RaaS solutions. A RaaS sandbox^[6] is a pool of infrastructure resources in which a test copy of the RaaS protected application can be deployed and tested. The sandbox copy is restricted from accessing the network and is only accessible to the system administrator. It is used to test the RaaS recovery process without disrupting the running application. Because the sandbox is in the cloud, the resources are created on demand, paid for while used, and discarded when the recovery testing is completed.

See also

• Cloud computing

References

1. October 2011 "Recovery as a Service – The Hype and the Reality" Check |url= value (help).
2. "ITU Focus Group on Cloud Computing - Part 1". International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecommunication Standardization Sector. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
3. November 2011 "Gartner Says 30 Percent of Midsize Companies Will Use Recovery-as-a-Service by 2014" Check |url= value (help).
4. May 2013 "Bluelock provides VMware users with cloud-based disaster recovery" Check |url= value (help).
5. May 2013 "Bluelock provides VMware users with cloud-based disaster recovery" Check |url= value (help).
6. November 2011 "Recovery tests do not need to disrupt applications use with patent pending sandbox service" Check |url= value (help).