What Is Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS)?

With the rise of ransomware, every business needs a way to recover its data after a cyber incident. Instead of deploying solutions on premises, data protection as a service (DPaaS) lets businesses offload resources and staff maintenance for disaster recovery to the cloud. DPaaS has the server resources, infrastructure, and cybersecurity to support a business after a serious incident that affects files and data and helps it rapidly recover to reduce downtime.

What Is Data Protection as a Service?

Data protection as a service (DPaaS) is a software subscription model in which data backup, security, and recovery services are made available over the cloud via a subscription or service level agreement (SLA). While data protection generally deals with protecting data from the threat of data loss, corruption, or unauthorized access, DPaaS is often packaged as a comprehensive solution that also includes offerings for backup as a service and disaster recovery as a service to support broader goals of data resilience, security, and business continuity. 

DPaaS vs. BaaS vs. DRaaS

It’s important to distinguish DPaaS from backup as a service (BaaS) and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). DPaaS refers to a comprehensive cloud service that provides end-to-end data protection solutions. BaaS specifically focuses on data backup and recovery, while DRaaS allows organisations to recover their IT infrastructure and data after a disruptive event. 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these. 

Backup as a Service (BaaS)

BaaS is a cloud service that allows businesses to back up their data to a remote, cloud-based server. BaaS providers offer backup storage and management services, allowing organisations to store their data off-site securely. BaaS solutions are typically scalable, meaning businesses can adjust their backup storage needs based on their requirements. BaaS is primarily concerned with creating copies of data to prevent data loss in case of hardware failures, data corruption, or other unforeseen incidents.

Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)

DRaaS is a cloud computing service that enables organisations to recover their IT infrastructure and data after a disruptive event. This could be a natural disaster, cyberattack, or any event that causes significant downtime or data loss. DRaaS providers replicate an organisation's servers and data in the cloud, allowing for rapid recovery in case of a disaster. DRaaS solutions often include features like automated failover, virtual machine (VM) replication, and recovery point objectives (RPOs) to minimize data loss. The primary goal of DRaaS is to ensure business continuity by minimizing downtime and allowing operations to resume quickly after a disaster.

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Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) 

Large and small businesses can leverage DPaaS. Small businesses leverage DPaaS for its affordable operating costs and security that cannot be afforded on premises. Large businesses can offload costs and improve compliance using cloud services. Some businesses use DPaaS as failover in case on-premises cybersecurity fails.

As an example, a business offering healthcare services could use DPaaS to recover customer data after a cybersecurity breach. The vendor might suffer from a ransomware breach in its production environment, which would affect numerous hospitals and doctor offices. Instead of risking hefty compliance fines and litigation costs, the vendor could use DPaaS to recover data as quickly as possible to keep downtime to a minimum. 

How Does DPaaS Work?

Because it’s a cloud service, DPaaS works by offering resources, infrastructure, and APIs used to automate both backups for data protection and recovery. Automated backups take copies of business files and data and store them in a secure location in the cloud. After a security incident, DPaaS has automated and orchestrated services to transfer critical business data from the cloud to a business production environment as quickly as possible.

Most ransomware bypasses data protection methods and seeks out backup files to encrypt. It then holds files hostage to stop a business from recovering without paying the ransom. DPaaS works to protect backups from malware detection and keeps them secure from any threats. The integrated security protects outside threats from stealing files, and many reputable DPaaS providers will include monitoring services that detect ongoing attacks and alert administrators.

Benefits of DPaaS vs. Potential Downsides

The benefits of DPaaS are numerous, and both large and small businesses can take advantage of the system while keeping data protection costs low. Every business has an IT budget, and DPaaS lowers costs for resources and infrastructure necessary for an effective backup and recovery plan. Because DPaaS is in the cloud, it can scale as the business grows and acquires more data and infrastructure.

Cloud providers are responsible for physical security and maintenance of DPaaS resources, so business administrators do not need to support it, which also saves on cost and staff. Before choosing a DPaaS provider, read the fine print and ensure that you own data uploaded to the cloud even though it’s housed on a third-party server. Recovery still requires a stable internet connection, so the terms will cover bandwidth availability. If business bandwidth is much lower than the cloud provider’s bandwidth, transferring files will have a bottleneck on the business network end.

The provider you choose should be compliant with any regulatory requirements. Check the provider’s terms and conditions to determine if all resources and infrastructure comply with regulations. Any oversight on compliance could be costly to the business if a data breach occurs and administrators cannot recover files.

Are There Alternatives to DPaaS?

A full disaster recovery plan has several components, so a business must have a good understanding of all components and what’s needed to avoid any data loss. DPaaS handles most of the infrastructure, but some businesses might choose to build out their own data protection plan on premises. On-premises infrastructure is expensive, but it gives administrators full control of backups and recovery resources.

Hybrid solutions are also viable alternatives. A hybrid solution uses some on-premises resources and some cloud resources. Both cloud and on-premises resources sync with each other to send data to the cloud for backups but keep some data local. Administrators should consider the security implications of keeping backups on premises and have the know-how to keep data secure from malware. 

Outsourced data protection providers use cloud resources to support their clients, and the business can offload security to a third party. Third-party data protection providers should have quick response times with automated remote solutions to support customers during a cyber incident. An outsourced managed service provider (MSP) might offer a hybrid solution to work with administrators and find the best setup for data protection.

Conclusion

Data protection and disaster recovery are critical for business continuity. A DPaaS solution offloads much of the costs, resources, and staff necessary to support it. If you don’t have a data protection plan in place, DPaaS solutions could cover compliance requirements and reduce your risks of being the next ransomware victim without the ability to recover.