In short: Disaster recovery software, often delivered as disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), lets you start up copies of critical servers in the cloud or at another site after a failure, cyber attack or site loss, then fail back when the original is fixed. It is licensed per protected server, usually with charges for recovery capacity and storage.
What is disaster recovery?
Backup lets you get data back. Disaster recovery lets you get the business back. The difference matters when a server room floods, a ransomware attack encrypts every server, or a building becomes inaccessible: restoring terabytes of data onto new hardware can take days, and most organisations cannot wait that long.
Disaster recovery software keeps up-to-date copies of critical systems that can be started quickly somewhere else, usually in the vendor's cloud. Users connect to the recovered systems, work continues, and when the original environment is repaired, the systems fail back.
Two measures drive every design:
- Recovery time objective (RTO): how long a system can be down
- Recovery point objective (RPO): how much recent data you can afford to lose
Products such as Axcient x360Recover and Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud's disaster recovery features can virtualise backed-up servers in the cloud, avoiding the need for a second data centre.
Disaster recovery planning is also about people and process. Who decides to invoke the plan? How do staff find out what to do if email is down? Where is the plan stored if the file server is unavailable? Good disaster recovery software makes the technical side achievable, but a short written plan, kept somewhere accessible and rehearsed, is what turns that capability into a working recovery.
Disaster recovery: vendors and products we supply
- Acronis: Backup, disaster recovery, EDR, email security, RMM and protected servers on one platform.
- Acronis Cyber Frame: Protected virtual servers in the Acronis cloud or on your own hardware.
- Acronis Disaster Recovery: Fail servers over to the Acronis cloud, with runbooks and test failover.
- Axcient: x360Recover BCDR, x360Cloud Microsoft 365 backup and x360Sync file sync.
- Axcient x360Recover: Server and workstation BCDR, direct to cloud or with an appliance.
- Commvault: Commvault Cloud backup and recovery for SaaS, cloud and on-premises data.
- Commvault Cloud platform: Backup, replication and cyber recovery packages for hybrid workloads.
- Hornetsecurity Email Continuity Service: Keeps email flowing during mail server outages, per user.
- Hornetsecurity VM Backup: Hyper-V, VMware and Proxmox backup, per host or per VM.
- Redstor Azure and Kubernetes backup: Azure VM, Blob and Kubernetes backup to immutable off-site storage.
What to look for
- Recovery speed that meets your RTO, with documented runbooks
- Frequent replication or backup to meet your RPO
- Network recovery: how users and sites connect to recovered systems, including VPN and public IP changes
- Testing without disruption: isolated test recoveries you can run regularly
- Ransomware recovery: clean restore points and immutable copies
- Failback: a straightforward route back to your own systems
- Documentation and reporting that you can show to insurers, auditors and customers who ask about business continuity
How disaster recovery is licensed
DRaaS is typically licensed per protected server or workload, plus storage for replicas and backups, plus compute used during tests and real recoveries. Some vendors include a set amount of recovery time or test runs; others charge as used. Terms are usually annual, though usage-based monthly billing is available from some vendors. Because the cost depends heavily on RTO, RPO and the number of systems, we will model a few options for you.
When comparing quotes, check whether recovery testing is included, how many days of running in the cloud during a real disaster are covered, and what happens to costs if recovery lasts longer than expected.
How to choose
- Identify the systems the business cannot run without, and agree RTO and RPO for each with management.
- Decide on cloud recovery, a second site, or a mix.
- Plan connectivity: how staff, customers and other sites will reach recovered systems.
- Write and test a disaster recovery plan at least annually, including a ransomware scenario.
- Make sure cyber insurance and business continuity plans reflect what you can actually recover.
Day-to-day protection is covered under server and endpoint backup.
How we help
We help you set realistic recovery objectives, supply the licences and storage, and run test recoveries with you so the plan works when you need it. Contact us and ask us for a quote.
How Forever Systems supplies your software licences
Forever Systems Ltd supplies business software subscriptions to UK organisations from one account, with one monthly invoice and a UK team who know the products.
- The right edition first time: we check what you need before you buy, so you are not paying for features you will never use
- Monthly or annual terms where the vendor offers them, and help timing renewals and commitments
- Licence changes handled for you: add or remove users, upgrade editions and true-up without starting a new contract
- Deployment and support from engineers who run these products every day, not just a reseller account
- Consolidated billing and renewal reminders so nothing lapses unexpectedly
We work with businesses, schools, charities and public sector organisations of all sizes.
Need a licence quote or a second opinion on your renewal?
Tell Forever Systems what you need and we will come back to you by email with options, not a hard sell.
Contact usFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between backup and disaster recovery?
Backup protects data so it can be restored. Disaster recovery restores whole systems quickly, often by running them in the cloud, so the business keeps working while the original is fixed.
What is DRaaS?
Disaster recovery as a service: the vendor provides the replication, storage and recovery infrastructure in its cloud, so you do not need a second data centre.
How often should disaster recovery be tested?
At least once a year for a full exercise, with smaller test recoveries more often. Most DRaaS products allow isolated tests without affecting live systems.