If you could mold the future of data backup and disaster recovery (BDR) to fit your needs, how would you shape it?

“Today’s BDR market, specifically the hybrid model, relies on a physical appliance provided by the hybrid solution provider,” says Shann Bosnell, technology vice president at TUC Managed IT Solutions. “I think that there needs to be a hybrid model where a customer can BYOD for the appliance.”

While the concept is already somewhat in place (see Datto’s new virtual appliance called Virtual SIRIS), Bosnell says “it should get even more granular and allow any standards-based appliance to have the backup OS installed and run.”

“This will allow many companies to utilize out of warranty servers as the backup appliance,” he says. “I would also think in the near future hybrid solutions will allow the backup partner to choose the cloud backup.”

He adds: “To me, allowing providers to choose the devices they want and the cloud storage facility is what will bring in the next generation of hybrid backup.”

But the future of BDR shouldn’t be about backup or disaster recovery, it should be about business continuity as a whole, Bosnell says.

“With bandwidth at customer sites ever increasing and becoming more cost effective I can see a future where we are not talking about backup, but business continuity in its truest form, with a complete replicated backup of your systems available in a data center of your choosing, with zero data loss as it works real time,” he says. “For me, this is the future.”

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