Rackspace launches disaster recovery as a service program

Give managed cloud computing provider Rackspace points for timing. Coming right after the Uptime Institute issued a warning for data center operators to improve their environmental disaster plans, the company announced it is broadening its existing disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) program for on-premises, colocation, and multi-cloud environments.

The expansion utilizes Zerto’s disaster recovery software, which is specifically designed to provide business continuity and disaster recovery in a cloud and virtualized environment.

The company’s main product is Zerto Virtual Replication, which moves data replication up the server stack from the storage layer into the hypervisor while being hypervisor and storage-agnostic, so data can be replicated to and from any virtual machine (VM) operating to a different platform.

Rackspace already offers a DRaaS service, but this new offering will provide customers with a lower cost alternative, and Rackspace manages the disaster recovery process, sparing customers from the task. Rackspace DRaaS for Zerto is a fully-managed disaster recovery solution, so customers can move away from managing disaster recovery themselves.

Rackspace DRaaS for Zerto includes the following features:

• Support for on-premises, multi-cloud, and colocation workloads: Using the Zerto software, it allows for easy replication of an on-premises virtual environment in the cloud, whether it’s Rackspace’s data centers or someone else’s.
• Service-level agreements (SLA) with guarantees for recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) based on established procedures for every environment.
• Automated recovery and continuous backup.
• Advanced customization and scalability to provide where customers can choose the RTO and RPO of their choice.
• Enhanced security and compliance, meeting a myriad of compliance standards, including GDPR, PCI DSS, FISMA, FedRAMP, HITRUST CSF, ISO, SOC 1/2/3 and more.

Rackspace cites Intrepid USA, a provider of home-based healthcare services, as an example of what this new service can offer. Intrepid had to find a disaster recovery solution that was also HIPAA-compliant and at the same time help it reduce its physical data center presence. Rackspace was able to do all of that, offering low, stabilized monthly costs and allowing the company to eliminate expensive data center floor space and reduce labor costs.

Rackspace is accepting early access sign-ups for Disaster Recovery as a Service for Zerto.