Understand the difference: Disaster recovery vs. DRaaS (and why it matters)

When a cyberattack or natural disaster strikes, the challenge isn’t just restoring data quickly — it’s resuming business operations just as fast. That’s where the distinction between disaster recovery (DR) and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) becomes critical for businesses.

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A practical blueprint for cyber resilience to evolve from prevention to continuity

Disaster recovery is a comprehensive approach designed to restore entire systems and keep critical functions running during major disruptions. Unlike simple backups, which only preserve data, DR focuses on service continuity. It typically involves maintaining a secondary infrastructure (hot, warm or cold site) that mirrors your production environment. 

Key metrics in DR planning include: 

•  RTO (recovery time objective): How quickly systems must be restored. 

•  RPO (recovery point objective): How much data loss is acceptable. 

While DR significantly reduces downtime compared to backup-only strategies, it comes with challenges: 

• High upfront costs: Building and maintaining a secondary site requires substantial capital investment. 

• Complexity: Manual failover scripts and frequent testing are essential to ensure readiness. 

• Resource strain: Internal IT teams must manage infrastructure, updates and compliance. 

Traditional DR works well for organizations with strict regulatory requirements or those that need full control over their recovery environment. However, it can be rigid and expensive, especially for businesses with hybrid or cloud workloads. 

DRaaS takes disaster recovery to the next level by delivering it as a managed, cloud-based service. Instead of investing in physical infrastructure, organizations replicate their IT environment to a provider’s data center. This creates a digital copy of your systems, ready for rapid failover. 

• Near-zero RTO and RPO: Automated failover and continuous replication minimize downtime and data loss. 

• Cost efficiency: Subscription-based pricing eliminates CapEx for secondary sites. 

• Scalability: Resources can be scaled up or down on demand, ideal for hybrid and cloud workloads. 

• Reduced IT burden: Providers handle maintenance, testing and compliance, freeing internal teams. 

DRaaS also supports nondisruptive testing, enabling businesses to validate recovery plans in a sandbox environment without impacting production systems — a critical advantage for compliance and peace of mind. Many providers also include advanced security features like ransomware protection and isolated recovery environments, adding another layer of resilience. 

• Choose traditional DR if regulatory requirements demand on-premises control or if you have mission-critical systems that cannot leave your environment. 

• Opt for DRaaS if you need rapid recovery, elastic scalability and cost predictability — especially for hybrid or cloud-based workloads. 

In today’s threat landscape, where the number of publicly known ransomware victims from January to June 2025 increased nearly 70% compared to the same period in both 2023 and 2024, DRaaS offers a compelling balance of speed, security and affordability. It’s not just about recovering data, but it’s about ensuring business continuity without breaking the bank. For many organizations, DRaaS represents a strategic shift from reactive recovery to proactive resilience. 

Understanding the difference between DR and DRaaS is just the beginning. To help you evolve from prevention to continuity, download our free white paper to discover actionable strategies to protect your business, minimize downtime and ensure seamless recovery. 

White paper

A practical blueprint for cyber resilience to evolve from prevention to continuity