Best disaster recovery service providers: how to compare cloud, software and DRaaS options
Director & MLOps Lead
Predictive maintenance specialist, industrial data analysis, vibration-based condition monitoring, applied AI for manufacturing and automotive operations
The best disaster recovery providers are the ones that can prove, in a test, that they restore your systems within your RTO and RPO. Most businesses choose between three types: cloud-native services such as AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery and Azure Site Recovery, backup and DR software they run themselves, and managed DRaaS partners.
Key takeaways
- Start from your recovery targets: how long each system may be down (RTO) and how much data you can lose (RPO). They decide the type and cost of DR you need.
- Cloud-native services are the cheapest way to get a recovery site: AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery states RPOs of seconds and RTOs of minutes, and you pay for full recovery capacity only when you launch it.
- Backup is not disaster recovery. Backups protect data; DR also restores infrastructure, networking, identity and the order in which applications come back.
- Ask every provider for a recent test report, not a brochure. A DR plan that has not been tested is a hypothesis.
- Check where replicas and backups are stored, whether they are immutable, and who can delete them. Ransomware targets backups first.
- For NIS2 entities, business continuity, backup management and disaster recovery are explicit risk-management measures under Article 21(2)(c).
What does a disaster recovery provider actually do?
A DR provider keeps a copy of your systems somewhere else and gives you a tested way to run on that copy when the primary site fails. That covers replication or backup, a recovery environment, failover and failback procedures, and regular tests.
The disaster can be a regional cloud outage, a ransomware attack, a failed data centre, a bad change that corrupts a database, or simple human error. Each needs a different answer: a cross-region replica helps with an outage but copies corruption instantly, while point-in-time backups help with corruption but restore more slowly. Good providers design for both.
If you are still writing the plan itself, start with our explainer on what a disaster recovery plan is and what it should contain. This article is about choosing who delivers it.
Types of disaster recovery services
| Type | Examples | Best for | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud-native DR services | AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery, Azure Site Recovery, Google Cloud Backup and DR | Workloads already in, or moving to, one hyperscaler; on-premises servers that can recover into the cloud | You design, run and test it yourself unless a partner does; tied to one cloud |
| Backup and DR software | Veeam, Zerto (an HPE company), Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity, Druva | Mixed estates (VMware, physical, several clouds) that want one tool and one console | Licences plus the infrastructure underneath; skills needed to operate it |
| Managed DRaaS and managed service providers | Cloud MSPs and IT service firms that run the tools above for you, including Opsio (the publisher of this article) | Teams without DR specialists, or that need someone accountable for tests and failover | Quality depends on the partner; check SLAs, test evidence and exit terms |
| Colocation and secondary data centres | Your own or a hosting provider's second site | Workloads that cannot move to public cloud for technical or legal reasons | Highest fixed cost; hardware sits idle most of the time |
Well-known disaster recovery services, by category
This is not a ranking. The right choice depends on where your workloads run and who will operate DR. The descriptions below are based on each vendor's own documentation.
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS)
AWS DRS continuously replicates servers into a low-cost staging area in your AWS account and launches full recovery instances when you need them. It covers on-premises and cloud-based servers. AWS's Disaster Recovery of Workloads on AWS whitepaper describes it as a pilot light strategy for server-hosted applications and databases. It is a good fit if AWS is, or will be, your recovery site. Our guide to AWS disaster recovery options goes deeper.
Azure Site Recovery
Azure Site Recovery replicates Azure VMs between regions, and on-premises VMware VMs, Hyper-V VMs and physical servers to Azure. Microsoft documents continuous replication for Azure and VMware VMs, replication as frequent as every 30 seconds for Hyper-V, recovery plans that sequence multi-tier applications, and DR drills that do not interrupt replication. It suits Microsoft-centric estates. See also our Azure DRaaS service.
Google Cloud Backup and DR
Google's Backup and DR service centralises backup and recovery for Compute Engine, Google Cloud VMware Engine, Cloud SQL, AlloyDB and self-managed databases such as Oracle, SQL Server and SAP HANA. Its backup vaults enforce write-once-read-many immutability, which matters for ransomware recovery.
Backup and replication software
Veeam, Zerto, Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity and Druva are the names most IT teams will meet on a shortlist. They differ in approach: Zerto is built around continuous journal-based replication, while the others started from backup and have added replication, cyber-recovery and cloud targets. Choose them when you need one tool across VMware, physical servers and several clouds, and compare them on the workloads you actually run.
Managed DRaaS partners
A managed partner designs the DR architecture, operates replication, runs scheduled tests and leads failover on the day. Large IT service firms (for example Kyndryl, which took over IBM's infrastructure resiliency services when it was spun off) and cloud-focused MSPs both offer this. Opsio is one of them, so weigh our view accordingly.
How to choose a disaster recovery provider
1. Set RTO and RPO per system
Run a business impact analysis. NIST's SP 800-34 Rev. 1 contingency planning guide is a practical template for it. Group systems into tiers: a payment platform might need minutes, an intranet a day. Don't buy minute-level recovery for everything.
2. Match the strategy to the targets
| Strategy (AWS terms) | How it works | Relative RTO/RPO | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backup and restore | Restore data and redeploy infrastructure from code | Hours | Lowest |
| Pilot light | Data replicated; core infrastructure provisioned but switched off | Tens of minutes | Low |
| Warm standby | Scaled-down but working copy runs all the time | Minutes | Medium |
| Multi-site active/active | Full workload runs in two or more regions | Near zero for most failures | Highest |
AWS notes that even active/active designs still need point-in-time backups, because data corruption replicates to every site.
3. Check workload coverage
List what you run: VMware, Hyper-V, physical servers, managed databases, Kubernetes, SaaS such as Microsoft 365. Ask each provider which of these it protects natively and which need extra tools or scripts.
4. Demand test evidence
Ask for the last test report for a customer of your size: what was failed over, how long it took, what broke. Agree a test schedule in the contract, at least yearly for each critical system and after major changes, with written results.
5. Security of the recovery copy
- Immutable or locked backups that production administrators cannot delete.
- Separate accounts or tenants for the recovery site, with separate credentials and MFA.
- Encryption at rest and in transit, with clarity on who holds the keys.
- Malware scanning or clean-room recovery before you bring restored systems online.
6. Compliance and data residency
For EU companies, check where replicas live and whether the recovery region keeps data in the EU. If you are in scope of NIS2, Directive (EU) 2022/2555 Article 21(2)(c) lists "business continuity, such as backup management and disaster recovery, and crisis management" among the minimum measures. Your provider's test reports become audit evidence. Regulated sectors may add their own rules, such as DORA for financial entities.
7. Cost model and exit
Cloud-native DR is usually priced per protected server plus storage and the compute you use during tests and failover. Software is licensed per workload or capacity. Managed services add a monthly fee. Ask for a price that includes testing, and make sure you can take your replicas and runbooks with you if you leave.
Questions to ask every DR provider
- What RTO and RPO do you commit to in the contract, per system tier, and what happens if you miss them?
- When did you last run a full failover for a customer like us, and can we see the report?
- Who declares a disaster, and who runs the failover at 03:00 on a Sunday?
- How do you protect backups from ransomware and from a compromised administrator?
- Where is our data stored and replicated, and under which jurisdiction?
- How do failback and data re-synchronisation work once the primary site is back?
- What does a test cost, and is it included?
How Opsio helps
Opsio designs and runs cloud disaster recovery on AWS and Azure, using native services such as AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery, AWS Backup and Azure Site Recovery, and can take on scheduled DR tests and the written results your auditors ask for. Operations run from our teams in Karlstad and Bangalore.
For Branäsgruppen, one of Sweden's largest ski resort groups, Opsio set up daily incremental and weekly full backups of all production systems with 60 days' retention, using EBS snapshots and RDS backups, and runs critical applications across multiple Availability Zones. The Branäsgruppen case reports 99.9%+ application uptime.
Frequently asked questions
What is a disaster recovery service?
A disaster recovery service keeps a copy of your systems and data in a separate location and gives you a tested way to run your business on that copy when the primary environment fails, within agreed recovery time and recovery point objectives.
What is the difference between backup and disaster recovery services?
Backup services copy data so you can restore files, databases or VMs. Disaster recovery services also restore the infrastructure, networking, identity and application order needed to run again, usually much faster. Most businesses need both.
Which disaster recovery solution is best for a small business?
For most small businesses, a cloud-based backup with tested restores plus a cloud-native DR service for the few systems that must come back quickly gives the best balance of cost and recovery time. A managed partner helps if you have no in-house specialist.
What is DRaaS?
Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is DR delivered from a cloud provider or partner: they host the recovery environment, replicate your systems and run or support failover, so you avoid running a secondary data centre.
How often should disaster recovery be tested?
Test each critical system at least once a year and after major changes, with lighter checks such as restore tests and tabletop walkthroughs more often. Cloud-native tools let you run drills without interrupting replication.
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About the Author
Director & MLOps Lead
Vaishnavi leads machine learning operations initiatives at Opsio, enabling ML and predictive capabilities for industrial and automotive operations. Her expertise spans predictive maintenance, industrial data analysis, vibration-based condition monitoring, and applied AI — with a focus on practical, experiment-driven solutions designed for real operational environments.
Editorial standards: This article was written by a certified practitioner, named in the byline above. We revise it when the technology or regulation it covers changes; the dates above show the latest update. Opsio maintains editorial independence — we recommend solutions on technical merit, not commercial relationships.
