Five Best Practices for an Incident Response Plan
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VMware Users: US Signal’s DRaaS for VMware is Here
At US Signal, we continue to evolve our disaster recovery (DR) solutions to better meet our customers’ needs. One of the latest additions to our DR portfolio is Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) for VMware.
Many of our customers and the prospects we talk to use VMware vSphere as their on-premises server virtualization platform. vSphere environments are known for being more resilient and flexible than many other kinds of infrastructure. But that doesn’t negate the need for a DR plan.
Even the most robust system can fail due to any number of factors, including power outages, cyberattacks, human error and more. Downtime costs can easily run up to $100,000 an hour, which would be disastrous for most if not all companies.
The Benefits
A cloud-based DR solution, delivered as a service like DRaaS for VMware is, means customers already using VMware can enjoy the benefits of a robust DR solution without the costs and hassles of purchasing, deploying and maintaining a secondary site.
The fact that it’s a VMware-native solution offers benefits too. Users can use the same vSphere replication processes they’re already familiar with for partial or full failover and failback and enjoy a centralized management console for their day-to-day IT operations and their DR solution. Using familiar.
No VPN is needed because connectivity is built in between the tenant and US Signal vCloud-powered cloud environment. It’s also a highly secure solution thanks to the security capabilities of the VMware software stack, including encryption for data at rest and data in motion.
Plus, there are no data transit costs. Monthly charges are based only on the amount of VMs protected and the storage resources consumed; daily compute charges only apply when you fail servers over. Two more advantages — flexible recovery point objectives (RPOs) f and instant recovery time objectives (RTOs) as quickly as replicated VMs are powered on.
In addition, with US Signal’s DRaaS for VMware, customers can use the US Signal cloud as a sandbox environment. They can fail over protected servers in an isolated network environment so as to not to affect their production servers. From there, they can use it as a lab to test upgrades, patches, and more,. They only pay for the daily compute charges during that time (in addition to the normal storage and VM fees).
You’re in Control
We’ve found that many of our customers prefer to retain control of their DR plan, so we offer DRaaS for VMware as a self-managed solution. However, customers aren’t entirely on their own. We send a link so a customer can download and install a simple vCenter plug-in that connects the customer’s on-premises environment to the US Signal cloud. We provide the credentials for pairing and connecting the service and handle most of the rest of the setup. The customer just has to do some minor configuration and pairing on his or her end.
The US Signal Advantage
As a member of the VMware Cloud Provider Program (VCPP), US Signal is one of a select group of cloud service providers that has successfully completed the certification process required to offer VMware’s DR solution.
US Signal also brings much more to DRaaS for VMware, like:
- 24/7/365 technical support
- In-house DR expertise for consultation
- Robust cloud and data center infrastructure that’s gone through rigorous PCI and HIPAA audits, and more.
- Multiple DR target data centers to choose from
- A wholly owned, resilient network between data centers and on/off ramps
- Optimal RPOs enabled by robust network upstream Internet connections
Plus, US Signal offers other data protection and managed security solutions that can be ordered a la carte to meet specific protection and budget needs.
If you’re a VMware user and interested in learning more about DRaaS for VMware, try it out firsthand. For a limited time, US Signal is offering a free 30-day trial. Sign up here. Or, contact us, and we’ll have a solution architect talk to you about the different DR solutions available. Call 866.2. SIGNAL or email us at [email protected].
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