When disaster strikes and operations go down, businesses panic. According to Datto’s 2019 State of the Channel Ransomware Report, 85% of managed service providers (MSPs) surveyed reported ransomware attacks against small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the last two years. With an effective business continuity solution, MSPs can eliminate client concerns during a disaster such as a storm or a ransomware attack. Beyond simply recovering data, a business continuity solution keeps operations running on a secondary, local system or in the cloud, while primary systems are restored—avoiding potentially devastating downtime.
Sometimes a disaster is as minor as accidental deletion of a specific file, folder, or image. Other times, an entire office is destroyed or rendered inaccessible. That’s why MSPs need a complete toolbox of restore capabilities that match a variety of recovery scenarios. Here is what you should be looking for in a continuity solution to ensure your business is well prepared.
1. Instant Virtualization: Instant Virtualization allows MSPs to rapidly restore physical or virtual servers locally. This allows the MSP’s client to resume normal business operations while primary systems are restored, simplifies and accelerates the recovery process and gives your clients an edge when local competitors can not bounce back as quickly.
2. Fast Bare Metal Restore: Bare Metal Restore (BMR) is a restoration tool for systems that need to be completely rebuilt from a backup. But even a basic BMR requires some planned downtime. Look for BMR tools that allow MSP’s clients to continue running a server in a virtualized state while that data is copied over to the system being restored—eliminating downtime.
3. File-Level Restore: If an end user deletes a small number of files, MSPs need a fast way to retrieve them without performing a full restore. Look for file-level restore that fully automates and allows MSPs to restore one or many files, as well as metadata and settings.
4. Point-In-Time Rollbacks: Performing a bare metal restore because of unwanted changes to a large amount of files, an unsuccessful operating system (OS) or application update, or a ransomware attack can take a lot of time and present challenges. In these situations, turning back the clock with a point-in-time rollback can get customers up and running much faster. Look for tools that perform automated comparison checks between the existing system files and the backup to determine which should be restored, saving time and effort.
5. Data Seeding: Restoring a large amount of data from the cloud to client production machines can take days, weeks, or even months depending on the amount of data and the connection speed. Datto’s RoundTrip service eliminates the issue as Datto exports a client’s data set to a hard drive and ships it overnight to the MSP.
At Datto, we are dedicated to the success of our partners and understand that an MSP’s reputation hinges on their ability to deliver top-notch support to clients. That’s why we provide all of the above as a part of our continuity solution. It’s all a part of our ongoing commitment to the MSP channel. Datto is dedicated to the success of our partners. Learn more in this eBook: Minimizing Business Downtime with a Complete Restore Toolkit.
Guest blog courtesy of Datto. Read more Datto blogs, views and perspectives here.
