Explosive DRaaS Growth a Boon to MSPs

By 2020, the Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) market will be about eight and a half times larger than today, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets. Currently at $1.42 billion, the market will reach $11.92 billion in the next four years, a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 53 percent.

MarketsandMarkets defines DRaaS as “DR planning and testing, real-time replication, backup solution, data security and compliance, consulting and system integration, support and maintenance, and managed services.” DRaaS, the research firm says, is a cloud-based approach that “can reduce the costs involved in buying, installing, upgrading, and maintaining the tools and services. Cloud-based DR services provide an elastic, scalable, easy entry, and lower per-person access costs.”

Disaster recovery is one of the primary goals of data backup. Yet, too little thought goes into the recovery planning piece. More than 75 percent of small-business owners don’t have a disaster recovery plan, according to a study by Nationwide Insurance, even though 52 percent of the owners surveyed said it would take them at least three months to recover from a disaster.

If you’re thinking that’s way too long, you’re right. Consider that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) estimates that 25 percent of businesses do not recover from a major disaster. They simply don’t plan for it.

The agency offers instruction on how to prepare for a disaster, but it’s clear from the Nationwide study they need more help. They need an MSP. And, for you, the MSP, that’s a good thing. Any time a segment of the IT industry is poised to grow in double digits, you should pay attention–especially if the projected CAGR exceeds 50 percent.

MSP Growth Potential

So how do you get your slice of the DRaaS growth pie? Chances are you already offer backup and recovery to clients. If you don’t, you really need to add it, considering that cloud-based BDR is the single most popular managed service among end clients. In its 2015 Trends in Managed Services study, CompTIA found that 72 percent of end users were getting BDR service from their MSP and 21 percent were looking to add it.

If you already offer managed BDR, you need to discuss disaster recovery planning with customers. It isn’t enough to simply offer data backup, though that is undeniably a must-have. Clients need to know what to do in the aftermath of a disaster–be it Mother Nature’s fury or a terrorist attack, a cyber attack or some other catastrophe.

Recovering from a major disaster requires extensive planning, testing and execution. So in addition to providing and managing the tools for data backup and recovery, MSPs should guide clients through the disaster recovery planning process to prepare them for when the unthinkable happens. In so doing, you solve a serious problem for customers while boosting your growth potential. Remember: The DRaaS market is about to take off, and no one is in a better position than MSPs to leverage that growth.

Marvin Blough is StorageCraft’s Vice President of Worldwide Sales where his focus is on expanding the company’s global reach by establishing channel partnerships that enhance the profitability for the channel partner.

Guest blogs such as this one are published monthly, and are part of MSPmentor’s annual platinum sponsorship.