This white paper is written for IT Directors, CIOs, and Infrastructure Managers at mid-market companies—particularly in manufacturing, insurance, financial services, and healthcare. These organizations often rely on hybrid environments that include established IBM systems such as IBM i (AS/400) alongside modern x86 platforms. With regulatory scrutiny increasing and cyber threats growing more sophisticated, disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) has become a board-level concern for business continuity planning.

This guide demystifies the mid-market disaster recovery vendors selection process and helps you understand what’s possible—and what’s practical—when it comes to business continuity planning for IBM system environments. You’ll learn the different disaster recovery solutions delivery models, how to evaluate dedicated DR infrastructure solutions, and why outsourcing to expert partners is often the smarter, more strategic choice for managed disaster recovery services needs.

Key takeaways:

• Dedicated disaster recovery solutions offer superior reliability and compliance managed hosting support for mid-market organizations
• Outsourcing IBM disaster recovery allows stretched IT teams to focus on business-critical priorities
• Mid-market firms benefit most from disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) that combines isolation, expert service, and secondary infrastructure use (like dev/test environments)
• Recent studies show 40% of mid-market companies experienced significant downtime in the past year, with average recovery costs exceeding $100,000 per incident
• Industry-specific iSeries disaster recovery requirements demand tailored approaches rather than one-size-fits-all solutions, especially for IBM i and AS/400 systems

In this two-part series:

Part 1 Covers:

• Understanding the Mid-Market DR Landscape
• Key Metrics to Evaluate Disaster Recovery Vendors
• Vendor Evaluation Checklist for Mid-Market DR

Part 2 Covers:

• TCO and Business Justification for Mid-Market DR
• Disaster Recovery Testing Best Practices and Automation
• DR Integration with Digital Transformation
• Why CloudSAFE is Uniquely Positioned for Mid-Market Cloud Hosting
• Making the Right Mid-Market DR Choice
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Section 1: Understanding the Mid-Market DR Landscape

Disaster recovery solutions fall into three broad categories: hyperscaler-based, shared (oversubscribed), and dedicated infrastructure. Understanding these is key to selecting the right disaster recovery vendors for your mid-market IBM system DR strategy.

1.1 Hyperscaler DR (Spin-Up Model):

This approach uses public cloud platforms like AWS or Azure, activating resources only during an event. It’s flexible and cost-effective at low usage, but introduces risks related to performance and multi-tenancy. Many mid-market organizations also struggle with the complexity of managing hybrid cloud disaster recovery solutions across hyperscaler environments, especially if IBM disaster recovery systems are involved.

Market research insights: A recent survey of mid-market companies found that while 65% initially chose hyperscaler disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) solutions due to perceived cost advantages, 47% reported difficulties during actual recovery events. The primary challenges cited were complexity of configuration (78%), unexpected costs during extended recovery periods (62%), and performance inconsistencies (53%).

Technical considerations: Hyperscaler DR requires specialized skills in cloud architecture, sometimes including multiple cloud platforms. Companies must account for data egress costs, which can balloon during recovery events. Additionally, disaster recovery testing becomes more complex due to the ephemeral nature of spin-up environments, creating significant challenges for iSeries disaster recovery solutions.

1.2 Shared Infrastructure (Oversubscribed):

This model relies on pooled resources across multiple clients. You’re allocated capacity—but only if it’s available during a disaster. Think of it as reserving a lifeboat that may already be full when you need it. While cost-effective, performance cannot be guaranteed, and SLA enforcement may be limited for managed disaster recovery services.

Real-world implications: The oversubscribed model creates contention risk during widespread disasters. When multiple clients in the same region are affected simultaneously (as with natural disasters or widespread cyberattacks), resource allocation becomes a first-come, first-served proposition that may leave your mid-market DR recovery delayed.

Compliance considerations: For regulated industries, shared infrastructure may create audit challenges for compliance managed hosting. Resource guarantees become difficult to demonstrate to regulators, who increasingly demand proof of isolation and dedicated recovery capabilities for IBM system resilience.

1.3 Dedicated DR Capacity:

The gold standard in disaster recovery solutions for mid-market companies, dedicated capacity guarantees performance because the infrastructure is yours—either a full system or isolated slice. This approach offers clear compliance managed hosting benefits, predictable RTOs, and the ability to use the infrastructure for development, patching, or QA during non-disruptive periods.

Strategic advantage: Companies with dedicated disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) infrastructure consistently report higher confidence in their DR capabilities. This translates to faster executive sign-off on recovery decisions during incidents, reducing the critical “decision paralysis” that often extends outages in mid-market organizations.

Industry-specific requirements: Different sectors have distinct needs for IBM disaster recovery:

• Healthcare: Protected health information (PHI) requires strict isolation and HIPAA-compliant recovery environments for IBM i systems
• Financial services: SEC and FINRA regulations demand demonstrated recovery capabilities with specific timeframes for AS/400 applications
• Manufacturing: ERP and supply chain systems often require specialized recovery techniques for iSeries disaster recovery
• Insurance: Claims processing systems need precise data consistency guarantees to maintain financial accuracy with IBM system resilience

1.4: Why Outsourcing DR Makes Sense for Mid-Market Organizations

Most mid-market companies do not have full-time disaster recovery architects or continuity specialists on staff. As cyber incidents and natural disasters increase, the cost of unplanned downtime now includes lost revenue, regulatory fines, and reputational damage.

Current market trends: The mid-market cloud hosting landscape is evolving rapidly in response to increasing threats:

• Ransomware-specific recovery: Modern disaster recovery solutions now incorporate air-gapped recovery capabilities to protect against sophisticated ransomware that targets backup systems
• Compliance-driven adoption: Regulatory requirements are now the primary driver of managed disaster recovery services investments (54%), surpassing business continuity concerns (41%)
• Skills gap widening: 68% of mid-market organizations report difficulty finding and retaining staff with DR expertise, particularly in hybrid environments with IBM disaster recovery systems

Outsourcing to a specialized disaster recovery vendors can help mitigate these risks:

• Expertise: Access to engineers who understand both iSeries disaster recovery and hybrid environments
• Process Maturity: Proven disaster recovery testing routines and response protocols
• Faster Deployments: Accelerated timelines vs. internal builds
• Lower Long-Term Cost: Avoid costly missteps and infrastructure overprovisioning
• Ongoing Support: 24/7 monitoring, testing, and compliance managed hosting reporting

Companies that outsource IBM disaster recovery can shift their internal teams’ focus to projects that move the business forward instead of “keeping the lights on.”

Section 2: Key Metrics to Evaluate Disaster Recovery Vendors

The best disaster recovery vendors deliver clarity on critical performance and business continuity planning benchmarks. Here’s what to measure and expect for effective IBM disaster recovery:

Metric	Average	Good	Best-in-Class	Why It Matters
RTO (Recovery Time)	24-48 hrs	4-12 hrs	< 1 hr	Revenue impact and customer satisfaction
RPO (Recovery Point)	12-24 hrs	1-4 hrs	< 1 hr	Data loss prevention
Test Frequency	Annual	Semi-annual	Quarterly/monthly	Validates plan effectiveness
Data Consistency	Manual	Semi-automated	Fully validated logs	Ensures recovery accuracy
Compliance Readiness	Checklist only	Reviewed	Audit-ready	Required for HIPAA, SOX, PCI, etc.
Infra Isolation	Shared	Logical	Fully Dedicated	Prevents contention and enhances security
Support SLA	4-8 hours	1-2 hours	24/7 proactive	Determines responsiveness during disruption
Secondary Use	None	Ad hoc	Dev/test integrated	Maximizes ROI beyond disaster scenarios

2.1 Understanding RPO/RTO Optimization Techniques for IBM Systems

The recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) are critical metrics that directly impact business outcomes during disaster events. Let’s examine how to optimize these for mid-market cloud hosting and iSeries disaster recovery:

RPO Optimization Strategies:

• Continuous Data Protection (CDP): Captures changes as they occur rather than at scheduled intervals
• Replication frequency tuning: Balancing bandwidth constraints with data change rates
• Application-aware snapshots: Ensures database consistency with transaction-complete recovery points
• Multi-tier data policies: Applying different RPO strategies to data based on criticality

RTO Optimization Approaches:

• Standby systems: Maintaining warm or hot standby environments that require minimal activation
• Automation of recovery processes: Reducing manual steps through orchestrated recovery
• Regular testing with timing metrics: Identifying and addressing bottlenecks before actual events through disaster recovery testing
• Network capacity planning: Ensuring sufficient bandwidth for rapid restoration

Real-world implementation case study: A mid-size insurance company reduced their RTO from 12 hours to under 2 hours by implementing orchestrated recovery automation and pre-staged application configurations for their IBM disaster recovery systems, resulting in an estimated $250,000 in saved operational costs during their most recent outage.

2.2 Data Validation Methods During Recovery

Recovery speed is meaningless if data integrity is compromised. Modern disaster recovery solutions for mid-market IBM systems employ various validation techniques:

• Transaction consistency validation: Ensures databases recover to a consistent state where all transactions are either committed or rolled back
• Cross-application dependencies: Validates that interdependent systems maintain relational integrity
• Automated application testing: Runs synthetic transactions against recovered systems to verify functionality
• Compliance state validation: Confirms that recovered systems meet security and regulatory requirements for compliance managed hosting

Implementation consideration: Validation procedures should be documented in runbooks and tested regularly. Many mid-market companies find that automated validation tools offer the best balance of thoroughness and efficiency for iSeries disaster recovery solutions.

Section 3: Vendor Evaluation Checklist for Mid-Market DR

Here’s a comprehensive checklist to use during disaster recovery vendors interviews or RFPs, specifically tailored for mid-market cloud hosting and IBM system DR needs:

3.1 Technical Capabilities

• Do they support hybrid and IBM environments like IBM disaster recovery, AS/400, x86, and VMware?
• Can they demonstrate successful recoveries of similar environments with iSeries disaster recovery?
• Do they offer multiple recovery site options with geographic diversity?
• What specific technologies do they use for replication and recovery in managed disaster recovery services?
• How do they handle network and security configurations during recovery?
• Do they support cloud-to-cloud DR for your SaaS applications?

3.2 Service Quality

• Are SLAs clearly documented and enforceable for disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS)?
• How often do they perform and document disaster recovery testing?
• Is their support team on-call and proactive 24/7?
• What is their incident response process during a declared disaster?
• How do they manage change control between production and DR environments?
• Can they provide customer references with similar technical environments for business continuity planning?

3.3 Business Alignment

• Is infrastructure dedicated or oversubscribed for mid-market cloud hosting?
• Do they provide regulatory audit support for compliance managed hosting?
• Can the DR environment be used for development/testing?
• Is pricing transparent, and does it include secondary usage value?
• Do they have customer case studies that match your size and complexity?
• How do they ensure knowledge transfer to your team for ongoing business continuity planning?

Firms that excel across these criteria are positioned not just to recover—but to thrive with their disaster recovery solutions strategy.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is disaster recovery as a service and how does it differ from traditional backup?

Disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) is a comprehensive cloud-based solution that enables organizations to recover entire IT environments, not just data files. Unlike traditional backup that focuses on data restoration, DRaaS provides full system recovery including applications, configurations, and network settings within guaranteed timeframes.

How do I choose the best disaster recovery vendors for IBM i systems?

When evaluating disaster recovery vendors for IBM i systems, prioritize providers with proven expertise in IBM environments, dedicated infrastructure options, and demonstrated experience with iSeries-specific recovery procedures. Look for vendors who offer both technical competency and regulatory compliance support for your industry requirements.

What should I expect to pay for managed disaster recovery services?

Managed disaster recovery services pricing varies significantly based on data volume, recovery time objectives, and infrastructure requirements. Mid-market organizations typically invest 3-7% of their IT budget on comprehensive DR solutions, with dedicated infrastructure commanding premium pricing but delivering guaranteed performance and compliance benefits.

How often should we perform disaster recovery testing for compliance?

Disaster recovery testing for compliance requirements vary by industry, but most regulated sectors mandate at least annual testing with documented results. Leading organizations conduct quarterly tests to validate procedures and identify improvement opportunities, with some performing monthly automated testing for critical systems.

What are the key differences between cloud disaster recovery and on-premise solutions?

Cloud disaster recovery vs on-premise solutions differ primarily in scalability, cost structure, and maintenance requirements. Cloud solutions offer geographic diversity and eliminate hardware maintenance, while on-premise solutions provide complete control but require significant capital investment and ongoing management expertise.

Continue reading: Check out Part 2 of this guide where we explore TCO and business justification for disaster recovery solutions, disaster recovery testing best practices, integration with digital transformation initiatives, and why CloudSAFE is uniquely positioned for managed disaster recovery services needs. Part 2 also includes a comprehensive FAQ section addressing common questions about disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) for IBM disaster recovery and AS/400 environments.

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