Data Recovery Digest

If you keep up on recent IT trends and innovations, then you've probably heard of software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service concepts and how they relate to cloud computing. Recovery-as-a-service, or RaaS, is a relatively new trend that is just starting to pick up steam in the IT industry; particularly by such companies as Axcient.

What is Recovery-as-a-Service?

Simply put, recovery-as-a-service provides replication and storage of data servers in order to preserve internal company data in the event of data loss. The data could be lost in any number of means, including natural or manmade disasters, but the off-site storage maintained by a third-party can be used to ensure business continuity in the wake of such an event. For this reason, RaaS is sometimes known as disaster recovery-as-a-service, or DRaaS.

Justin Moore, Axcient's CEO, explained the rationale behind the term recovery-as-a-service, which was originally coined by the cloud computing experts at Gartner. “It shouldn’t be about backup. It should be about recovery. By calling it RaaS, we’re placing the emphasis on the action.” Moore said.

The Purpose of RaaS

Through the use of RaaS, Axcient is hoping to garner increased popularity in their new Virtual Appliance, which lets VMware users reclaim servers as a means of facilitating cloud-based backup and recovery. Available services through the Axcient Virtual Appliance include data deduplication, local storage and general data management.

Increasing exposure to the new Axcient Virtual Appliance isn't the only point of their new recovery-as-a-service campaign, however. As pointed out by representatives from Gartner, RaaS eases four major IT concerns: costs associated with backup, recovery, and testing; consistency between data and infrastructure; data interdependency and scope of system testing. These areas have previously been described as "pain points" within current IT recovery protocol by industry professional such as John Morency, who currently serves as Gartner's research vice president.

"RaaS has been hailed as a killer cloud app for disaster recovery, but the reality is that there has been much hype and some truth. Certainly, it addresses well-recognized pain points in IT disaster recovery management, including the need for frequent recovery-readiness testing and the cost of dedicated recovery floor space and facilities."

Mr. Morency is a strong advocate of the RaaS concept, but even he stresses caution when deciding whether or not RaaS is right for your business. "Gartner recommends commencing cloud infrastructure due diligence, especially for systems that already reside primarily outside their data center. They should then qualify system image replication and failover support and probe how the provider can support application connectivity during recovery testing."

The Future of Axcient

Axcient certainly has a bright future ahead of them. In 2013 alone the company experienced a 3,400% growth in business, ultimately prompting an extraordinary hike in profitability and overall number of clientele. This positioned the company to take on larger accounts, while simultaneously pitting them head-to-head with established industry giants such as Symantec. Given the fact that Symantec has lessened their involvement in cloud computing as of late, one would be led to predict even more growth for Axcient in the near future.