Recovery as a Service (RaaS) is one of those services that bring the value of cloud into focus.  The ability to recover from a disaster is a mission-critical consideration for organizations.  For many, it's a requirement to operate in their industry or to work with specific customers such as governments.

In "DRaaS And The Cloud: The Why, What, and How of Recovery Services", cloud provider Sungard Availability Services describes the different options for deploying this essential service.  The bottom line is that effective disaster recovery - the kind that you have confidence will work in time of crisis- is not trivial to implement.   Most organizations have little to no experience with the complexities of reliable cloud-based recovery.  This is their first time trying to implement it, and they're learning as they go.  Which means that the stability of their business during a disaster is based on the skills of a team that may have never actually experienced a disaster.

The cloud provides more than redundant data centers for failover recovery.  It enables businesses to leverage the hard-earned expertise of companies like Sungard AS and Cisco working together to provide the most reliable recovery available.  These recovery services aren't home-grown implementations with the latest features added and bolted on as needed.  These services are integrated solutions, built upon best-in-class technologies and proven in the market.  And when your DRaaS is a Cisco Powered service like Sungard AS', it has been certified and audited by a third-party to verify its reliability.

Interested in learning more about RaaS?  Read the new white paper "Disaster Recovery as a Service Comes of Age".  You can also discover why Cisco Powered is the industry standard for cloud and managed services.