Backup
A copy of the files or the database, kept apart from the live server, and opened often enough that you trust it. Essential, at RM3,500 a month for one server, includes a restore test each quarter.
Backup vs disaster recovery: what Malaysian SMEs need
A backup is a copy you can open. Disaster recovery is how the office keeps working when that server, or the building, is gone.
They solve different failures
A Malaysian SME usually hears both phrases in the same meeting. The server holds AutoCount, SQL Accounting, Sage, or the shared folders. Someone bought a backup disk. Someone else mentions disaster recovery. They sound like one purchase. They are not.
Backup answers a file question. Can you get yesterday’s invoices back if they are deleted, overwritten, or encrypted? The copy has to be a file you can open, not a job that only says it finished. If the disk stays plugged into the same server, ransomware can encrypt the copy as well as the original.
Disaster recovery answers a site question. The machine will not turn on, the room flooded, or the factory cannot use that building. A disk sitting next to the server does not help, because it is in the same place. You need a way to start the work somewhere else, and you need to know how long that may take and how much of today’s typing you will redo.
Those two limits have names. How long you can stop is the recovery time. How much recent work you can lose is the recovery point. A short note on RTO and RPO covers the terms. This page is about which service you are actually buying.
What each one covers
Disaster recovery
A written plan for when the server or the site is unusable. Standard, at RM5,500 a month, includes Essential plus a faster response and disaster recovery.
Neither of them
A monthly plan is not a full IT department, and RM3,500 is not a one-time visit. Essential does not include a written arrival time. We look after the server. We do not change the accounting software.
What Malaysian factories usually already have
The common setup is one server in the office and a backup that has never been restored. The job runs at night. The email says success. Nobody has opened a restored database. On the day the accounts file is corrupt, that success message is not a file.
The second common setup is a second copy in the same building. That helps when one disk fails and the building is fine. It does not help when the building is the reason you cannot work. Calling that second copy “disaster recovery” is how companies discover the gap during a flood, not before it.
Maintenance sits underneath both. Server maintenance from RM3,500 a month is the health check, the operating system patches, and RAID monitoring for one server, plus the quarterly restore test. It keeps the machine you have from being a surprise. It is not a second site. If you only buy Essential, say so clearly: you have maintenance and a tested backup, not a plan for a lost building.
Standard is the step where disaster recovery is part of the monthly price. More than one server, a written response time, or on-site visits when the contract includes them, are quoted as Comprehensive. The published prices are only those two monthly figures. Anything else is written in the contract after the assessment.
How to tell which one you need
- If you cannot open a restored file from the backup, you do not have a backup yet. Start there. The backup page is about that test.
- If the only copy is in the same room as the server, you can recover a deleted file and you cannot recover a lost building.
- If the office can work for a day without the server, say that. If the line stops in half an hour, say that. The plan has to match the stop you can actually live with.
- If the server is down today, do not shop for a monthly plan first. Use the server is down page and leave the machine as it is.
The full service, including who it is for and how DRaaS differs from a second server in the office, is on disaster recovery services in Malaysia. What moves the price, without a made-up tariff, is on DRaaS cost in Malaysia.