IT professionals and business owners will eventually need to come to a decision with regards to their backup and disaster recovery plans moving forward. This is a big and important question that is crucial to the continuity of the business and needs as much research and consultation as the business can afford.
In the beginning, data backup and disaster recovery were not seen as the same thing. A backup or the person responsible for backing up the system can fail and the data will be lost forever. This is why disaster recovery functions became available, as there is no real point in backing up data without a means of recovery. A recovery plan means having the right operating systems, trained people, processes and tools.
However, with the advancement of technology, IT professionals have seen that backup and disaster recovery features are converging, so that DR is becoming a feature of backup products, whereas before they were seen as separate functions. Another case of this can be seen in the convergence of backup and archiving software.
These advancements make way for businesses to use a single platform for both functions.
Many backup software solutions providers offer a variety of products to solve BDR issues but deciding on the correct one for your business needs and budget can be a challenge. ActiveImage is one of those that deserve serious consideration. The solution is built for Windows, Linux and VM protection. Standardising on one solution means less cost on training, more efficient updates and maintenance, better pricing, single points of contact for sales and support to name just a few benefits. .
Further efficiencies include, streamlining the archival process; the test and development replicated system that can be spun-up on demand; the data analytics and converged architecture, among other features.
However, whichever single platform a business chooses, there are various advantages in a single platform solution. If you are using multiple vendors, solving issues or making product improvements can be a complicated process. A single, consolidated BDR solution would be time saving.
Managing multiple BDR tools is also not an efficient way to protect your data, and a daily BDR management struggle will only cost the business time and money. Instead, on a single platform, you will be able to manage all your BDR needs from a centralised place and also have one point of contact should there be an issue. This will ensure a more efficient system and decrease the stress of a complex process.
In this case, less equals more, as the fewer vendors or MSPs you have to deal with, the more you can build your relationship with your specific vendor/MSP. A strong relationship will assist in keeping you up to date on available products and features.
Businesses continuously worry about the long term cost of a product, while a single platform will help reduce costs. Labor costs will be reduced as a business will no longer need their own technicians to monitor, maintain and manage BDR tools that perform routine tasks that do not move the business forward. Technology costs can be reduced as unconsolidated technology is priced and packaged differently; and single BDR solutions can end up cheaper. For MSPs it helps reduce storage costs as they save on Cloud storage fees since it allows them to pool the storage across their client base.
For this reason, the reduction in cost is the main factor in why single platforms are a rising trend, why more and more technology is expected to be created to support it, and why a business should ask itself whether or not to move to a single platform.
