Highlights –

  • With DPaaS, there’s no need to buy storage hardware, take a license, or pay someone to set it up and keep it operational.
  • DPaaS takes care of management, backup, disaster recovery, and archive from edge to cloud via a centrally managed, cloud-based service.

Ransomware is in the news frequently, and it can be hard not to remember the dangers it brings along. When an attack happens to someone else, it’s easy to brush it off. But given that ransomware spreads like wildfire, it may only be a matter of time before it affects your business.

In fact, it is also possible that you may have already been hit by ransomware and do not even know about it. Security experts say that hackers are coming up with new ways to sneak ransomware into your network, sometimes even using “ghost” credentials (i.e., using the login of a deceased employee). Once inside, the attacker will sneak around for some time, stealing credentials for more privileged accounts and removing data for later use until someone in the company gets a message that their network is being attacked.

This sounds like bad news, and you can do many things to protect your systems, apps, and data from ransomware and other cyberattacks. Investing in Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) is one of the best ways to do this.

What is DPaaS?

DPaaS is a cloud-based or web-delivered service that allows organizations to protect their data assets, improve network security, and provide recovery options using a membership-style model with other features. Here, users generally depend on a service provider who helps protect data.

It helps with archival data for long-term retention needs and allows for quick recovery of current data to eliminate business interruption. It also amplifies network security and builds better security for data-at-rest and data-in-motion when it’s most vulnerable.

DPaaS is basically a cost-effective way of data protection as there’s no need to buy storage hardware, take a license, or pay someone to set it up and keep it operational. Businesses need a monthly subscription, which includes everything needed to ensure data recovery.

What Does DPaaS Include?

The service aims to protect data, secure networks, and help recover from disasters. DPaaS is essentially made up of three services that work together to make a more unified and complete data protection strategy:

Backup as a Service (BaaS): BaaS frequently backs up company files and databases and stores them safely in the cloud. BaaS is the best way to protect your most important data so that you can restore it entirely after a disruption or disaster.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS): DRaaS goes one step further than BaaS as it protects the company’s applications, data, and infrastructure from loss or damage caused by a cyberattack, natural disaster, or technology failure. DRaaS is meant to get your IT infrastructure back online quickly so that your business can resume normal operations with little trouble.

Storage as a Service (STaaS): STaaS stores copies of specific files in a central location where they can be easily accessed and edited from any device. It must be noted that STaaS doesn’t replace a secure, off-site backup system, but it offers a cheap way to store files so that local storage doesn’t get full.

How does Data Protection as a Service work?

DPaaS lets businesses shift from owning and maintaining backup infrastructure to simply accessing and using it on a “pay-as-you-go” model. They decide how much networking, computing, and storage they might need based on how much workload they have handled in the past. Based on changes in demand, they are scalable as well. They also set retention, encryption, and security policies as part of their lease, leaving the planning and deploying backup storage to the vendor.

Benefits of DPaaS

Many companies use DPaaS to function easily in today’s uncertain business environment, but the benefits go far beyond reducing risk.

Reduced costs: When you use a DPaaS solution, you don’t have to pay costs for maintenance and data protection, and disaster recovery. With a DPaaS solution, firms don’t even need to pay for storage space that may or may not be used, as you only pay for what you need.

Orchestrated recovery: DPaaS solutions speed up recovery by automating the steps needed to run the recovery workflow. Once IT sets the order and timing of recovery and identifies the critical dependencies, the automated workflow will ensure that proper backups are restored and that RTOs and RPOs are met.

Better security for remote workers: Many companies use Microsoft Office 365 to ensure their remote workers can stay productive and work together. But Microsoft’s shared responsibility model puts the onus on the user to protect their Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive data from being lost or corrupted. DPaaS ensures that files and apps are backed up regularly, so your Office 365 data is safe and can be efficiently recovered if need be.

Automated backups: By automating backups on your schedule, DPaaS removes some of the stress and guesswork from disaster recovery. This automation ensures that there is always an updated backup for recovery efforts. You can go back in time to a point before data was encrypted, deleted, or corrupted.

Improved scalability and reliability: As company demands change, you may grow resources as needed, giving you the flexibility to adapt as demand changes. Also, IT firms can free up their time from tedious infrastructure management activities and focus on other tasks. DPaaS will take care of management, backup, disaster recovery, and archive from edge to cloud via a centrally managed, cloud-based service. You can track data trends and gain the reliability you need to minimize risk and improve performance by utilizing modern technology and improved visibility.

How does DPaaS differ from traditional data protection?

Numerous traditional data protection solutions are available today that work really well. However, in today’s complex, highly distributed, and constantly under attack IT environments, DPaaS has several advantages that set it apart from traditional approaches to data protection. Among the key differentiators are the following:

  • Data transfer with speed
  • Backups are completed faster
  • Instant recovery
  • Data security at the application and database layers
  • Enhanced resiliency

DPaaS is unique. It protects data within your application(s), specifically at the application and database layers. For example, suppose you make a mistake in your database or need to recover an earlier file version; DPaaS allows you to restore only that information faster than traditional backup methods. This is critical because there’s little point in bringing your infrastructure back up from recovery if you can’t restore data loss.

Why do enterprises need DPaaS now more than ever?

Data protection as a service is more than a luxury; it is a necessity now. Modern IT systems and infrastructures face a slew of internal, external, malicious, and unintentional threats every day.

Furthermore, consumers are becoming increasingly protective of their data privacy, and if you can’t assure them that you take security seriously, they will go elsewhere. In the coming months and years, we can expect a worldwide explosion of data privacy laws and regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and SOX.

DPaaS solutions do not just offer a flexible, scalable, and dependable approach to data loss prevention and disaster recovery; they also meet the data retention, storage, and governance standards required for compliance in highly regulated industries.

Potential drawbacks to DPaaS

Some extra considerations within a service arrangement can add to your monthly bill.

Billing can be complicated: Given data volumes increase, the cost advantages of DPaaS will be neutralized. The same can be avoided when the billing metrics are well-defined.

Cloud egress fees: Egress charges may be applicable when transferring data from the cloud to your premises.

Minimum monthly obligations: Some subscriptions include a set minimum amount of storage per month. Shifting from that level may imply a “renting” capacity your organization does not usually require.

Refresh cost: As new technologies emerge, vendors modify their configurations to accommodate the changes, and these costs are hidden from the end user. They will almost certainly be passed on to subscribers as a price increase.

Control failure: Because data is transferred from your environment to the control of a service provider, you should learn as much as possible about the cloud backup provider’s equipment, physical security procedures, data protection process, and financial viability.

Conclusion

IT leaders rely on DPaaS solutions to provide secure, open data access from the edge to the cloud, as well as stable, simplified management and sturdy ransomware protection. This is reflected in the growth of DPaaS, which is one of the fastest-growing segments of the data protection market.

Building a systemic infrastructure and hiring a team to run it are both expensive ways to store multiple versions and copies of data. More and more businesses are using DPaaS because it saves money, protects data, and plans for what to do in a disaster. They found that costs and risks went down, productivity increased, and the company’s ROI improved.