Financial Results For The Nine Months Ended 30 September 2016

  

  

QNB Group, the largest bank in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, announced its results for the nine months ended 30 September 2016.

For the nine months ended 30 September 2016, Net Profit reached QAR9.7 billion (USD 2.7 billion), up by 11% compared to last year. Total assets reached QAR713 billion (USD196 billion), up by 37% from September 2015, the highest ever achieved by the Group. QNB Group completed the acquisition of 99.88% stake in Finansbank A.Ş. – Turkey, during the year.

The growth in assets was driven by loans and advances which grew by  38% to reach QAR507 billion (USD139 billion). At the same time QNB Group increased its customer funding by 31% to QAR501 billion (USD138 billion). This led to the Group’s loans to deposit ratio reaching 101.3%.

QNB Group’s prudent cost control policy and strong revenue generating capability allowed it to maintain an efficiency ratio (cost to income ratio) of 30%, which is considered one of the best ratios among large financial institutions in the region.

The Group was able to maintain the ratio of non-performing loans to gross loans at 1.8%, a level considered one of the lowest amongst large banks in the MEA region, reflecting the high quality of the Group’s loan book and the effective management of credit risk. The Group’s conservative policy in regard to provisioning, improved the coverage ratio to reach 130% in 30 September 2016.Total Equity increased by 26% from September 2015 to reach QAR76 billion (USD21 billion) as at 30 September 2016. Earnings per Share reached QAR11.5 (USD3.2), compared to QAR10.4 in September 2015.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) calculated as per the QCB and Basel III requirements stood at 14.3% as at 30 September 2016, higher than the regulatory minimum requirements of Qatar Central Bank and the Basel Committee.

After completing the acquisition of Finansbank, QNB Group solidified its position as the largest financial institution in the MEA region. This is a result of QNB Group’s strong financial position, high quality of its assets and its largest position in the financial services sector.

Based on the Group’s continuous strong performance and its expanding international presence, QNB maintained its position as the most valuable bank brand in the MEA region. This continues to recognise QNB’s position as the largest financial institution across the MEA region and the value inherent in the QNB brand.

QNB Group is present, through its subsidiaries and associate companies, in more than 30 countries across three continents providing a comprehensive range of products and services. QNB Group staff exceeds 27,300 serving more than 20 million customers through 1,200 locations and 4,300 ATMs.

          البيانات المالية المرحلية المختصرة الموحدة

           للتسعة أشهر المنتهية في 30 سبتمبر 2016

أعلنت مجموعة QNB، بوصفها أكبر مؤسسة مصرفية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وافريقيا عن نتائجها المالية للتسعة أشهر المنتهية في 30 سبتمبر2016 .

بلغ صافي أرباح مجموعة QNB 9,7 مليار ريال (2,7 مليار دولار أمريكي) للتسعة أشهر المنتهية في 30 سبتمبر 2016، بارتفاع نسبته 11% مقارنة مع نفس الفترة من العام الماضي. ارتفع إجمالي الموجودات ليصل إلى 713 مليار ريال (196 مليار دولار أمريكي) بنسبة37 % منذ30  سبتمبر 2015 وهو أعلى مستوى في تاريخ البنك.

خلال العام، اكملت مجموعة QNB عملية الاستحواذ على حصة نسبتها99,88 % في "فاينانس بنك" التركي.

وقد تأتى هذا النمو في الموجودات بشكل رئيسي من ارتفاع محفظة القروض والسلف بنسبة 38% لتصل إلى 507 مليار ريال (139 مليار دولار أمريكي). وبموازاة ذلك ارتفعت ودائع العملاء بنسبة31 % لتصل إلى501  مليار ريال (138 مليار دولار أمريكي)، مما ساهم في وصول نسبة القروض إلى الودائع إلى مستوى101,3 %.

وقد أدت سياسة المجموعة في إدارة التكاليف وقدرتها على تحقيق نمو قوي في الإيرادات الى المحافظة على نسبة كفاءة (المصاريف إلى الإيرادات) عند30 %، والتي تعتبر من بين أفضل المعدلات على مستوى المؤسسات المالية الرئيسية في المنطقة.

كما حافظ البنك على معدل القروض غير العاملة كنسبة من إجمالي محفظة القروض عند مستوى1,8 %، وهو من بين أدنى المعدلات على نطاق البنوك الرئيسية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وإفريقيا، الأمر الذي يعكس الجودة العالية لمحفظة القروض وفعالية سياسة إدارة المخاطر الائتمانية. كما واصلت المجموعة سياستها المتحفظة في بناء المخصصات حيث بلغت نسبة تغطية القروض غير العاملة130 % بنهاية الربع الثالث من عام 2016.

ارتفع إجمالي حقوق المساهمين بنسبة 26% منذ30  سبتمبر 2015 ليصل إلى 76 مليار ريال. كما بلغ العائد على السهم 11,5 ريال مقارنة مع  10,4ريال في30  سبتمبر 2015.

وقد بلغت نسبة كفاية رأس المال المحتسبة بموجب متطلبات مصرف قطر المركزي ولجنة بازل III ما نسبته 14,3% في 30 سبتمبر 2016، وهو معدل يتجاوز متطلبات مصرف قطر المركزي ولجنة بازل. وتركز سياسة المجموعة في المحافظةعلى قاعدة متينة لرأس المال لدعم خططها الاستراتيجية المستقبلية.

وحافظت مجموعة QNB على مستوى تصنيفاتها الائتمانية كواحدة من أعلى تصنيفات المؤسسات المالية على صعيد المنطقة. وجاء ذلك نتيجة للمركز المالي القوي للمجموعة وجودة أصولها العالية ومكانتها المتميزة في القطاع المصرفي.

وبفضل استمرار الأداء القوي وزيادة انتشار المجموعة على الصعيد الدولي، تمكنت المجموعة من الحفاظ على أعلى قيمة لعلامتها المصرفية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا مما يعزز من مكانة المجموعة بوصفها المؤسسة المصرفية الرائدة في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وافريقيا.

وتتواجد المجموعة من خلال فروعها وشركاتها التابعة والزميلة في أكثر من 30 بلداً وثلاث قارات حول العالم، حيث تقدم أحدث الخدمات المصرفية لعملائها عبر 1,200 فرعاً ومكتباً تمثيلياً و 4,300 جهاز صراف آلي، ويعمل لديها ما يزيد عن 27,300 موظف يخدمون اكثر من 20 مليون عميل.

  

Focus Softnet To Promote All New ERP On Cloud At GITEX Technology Week 2016

To showcase its extensive portfolio of solutions and hold demonstrations for customers and visitors

Dubai, UAE, October 9, 2016: Focus Softnet, the leading software development company, announced that it will be showcasing its next generation ERP-in-cloud product -  Focus 8 Ready for Cloud, at Gitex Technology Week 2016, to be held at the Dubai International Convention Center, from October 16-20, 2016. The company will also be presenting its latest versions of Focus 8 incorporating WMS (Warehouse Management System) and MRP (Material Requirement Planning) modules.  Focus Softnet will be exhibiting at Stand E8-10 in Hall 7 where visitors can meet with consultants and sales advisors from the company to understand the full portfolio of products and services.

"With the coming together of digital technologies and business transformation in the region, we can no longer afford to ignore the huge possible gains for business as the migrate to ERP on the cloud. Global research and survey findings point to significant improvement of key performance indicators such as reduction in total cost of ownership, improvement in bottom line margins, better returns from IT spending, by adoption of ERP in the cloud. We believe it is time for Focus Softnet to be driving this discussion in the region amongst its current target customer base and prospective customers," said Ali Hyder, Group CEO of Focus Softnet.

Focus 8 is the company's flagship new generation ERP that fully integrates a comprehensive business intelligence tool and provides real-time, multi-dimensional posting of transactions which results in real-time reports.  Also on display will be Focus Softnet's Focus i, a mid-tier ERP solution with integrated business intelligence tools, and complete range of Focus ERP solutions, including financials management, supply chain, and other modules. In addition, Focus Softnet will demonstrate vertical market capabilities through Focus CRM Suite, Focus Retail Management Suite and Focus INSTA healthcare solution.

As part of its cloud plans, Focus Softnet is offering its customers a choice between single and multi-tenant options. Enterprises with large volume of data that wish to have dedicated infrastructure at their disposal will be able to opt for the company’s single tenant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) option.

In order to offer customers multiple options, Focus Softnet has multiple data centers available for its customers. While Microsoft Azure would be recommended option for their customers, Focus Softnet is also providing own Data Centre space in Dubai to provide end-to-end services for both private and public cloud.

“Traditionally visitors during GITEX have been found to inquire about services and this year's event is not expected to be any different. Our team will be available at our stand to discuss our portfolio of solutions and services including managed services, HR and recruitment services, business process consulting, implementations services, amongst others available across the region,” Mr. Hyder added.  

Other mainstream solutions on display include Focus CRM Suite with sales and service, facilities management, property management, Focus Retail Suite, Focus Point of Sale, Focus Restaurant Management Systems, amongst others.

فوكس سوفت نت تروّج لحلول تخطيط الموارد المؤسسية في البنية السحابية خلال أسبوع جيتكس للتقنية 2016

الشركة تستعرض مجموعتها الواسعة من الحلول وتقيم العروض الحية للعملاء والزوار

دبي، الإمارات العربية المتحدة، 09  أكتوبر 2016: أعلنت شركة فوكس سوفت نت، الشركة الرائدة في مجال تطوير البرمجيات، أنها ستستعرض الجيل الجديد من منتجها لتخطيط الموارد المؤسسية في البنية السحابية، Focus 8 Ready for Cloud، خلال أسبوع جيتكس للتقنية 2016، والذي يقام في مركز دبي الدولي للمؤتمرات والمعارض من 16 إلى 20 أكتوبر 2016. كما تقدم الشركة أحدث إصداراتها من Focus 8 الذي يجمع بين وحدات نظام إدارة المستودعات وتخطيط متطلبات المواد. تشارك فوكس سوفت نت في الجناح E8-10 في القاعة 7، حيث يمكن للزوار لقاء الخبراء ومستشاري المبيعات من الشركة لفهم تفاصيل المجموعة الكاملة من منتجاتها وخدماتها.

في هذا السياق قال علي حيدر، الرئيس التنفيذي لمجموعة فوكس سوفت نت: "من خلال اجتماع التقنيات الرقمية وتحوّل الأعمال معاً في المنطقة، لم يعد بإمكان أي شخص تجاهل المكاسب المحتملة الضخمة للأعمال من خلال الانتقال إلى حلول تخطيط الموارد المؤسسية على البنية السحابية. فالأبحاث والاستطلاعات العالمية تشير إلى التحسن الهائل في أداء المؤشرات الرئيسية كتخفيض التكلفة الإجمالية للملكية، وتحسن هوامش الأرباح وارتفاع عائدات الإنفاق على تقنية المعلومات بفضل تبني تخطيط الموارد المؤسسية في البنية السحابية. ونؤمن بأن الوقت قد حان لتدعم فوكس سوفت نت هذا النقاش في المنطقة مع عملائها الحاليين والمستهدفين."  

يعتبر فوكس 8 المنتج الأبرز للشركة، إذ يمثل الجيل الجديد من حلول تخطيط الموارد المؤسسية للشركة، ويجمع بكفاءة بين أدوات متكاملة لاستقصاء الأعمال وتوفر إمكانية إجراء التعاملات متعددة الأبعاد بشكل فوري للحصول على تقارير دقيقة.  وتتضمن قائمة المنتجات أيضاً فوكس آي Focus i، وهو أحد الحلول المتطورة ومتعددة المستويات لإدارة الموارد المؤسسية، مع ادوات متكاملة لاستقصاء الأعمال وباقة شاملة من حلول فوكس المتخصصة، وتتضمن وحدات الإدارة المالية وإدارة سلسلة التوريد وإدارة الموارد البشرية وغيرها. وتستعرض الشركة أيضاً إمكاناتها المتخصصة للقطاعات من خلال العروض الحية لكافة التحسينات التي أجريت على باقات فوكس لإدارة علاقات العملاء وإدارة تجارة التجزئة والحلول المتخصصة الأخرى كحلول INSTA الموجهة لقطاع الرعاية الصحية.

وضمن خططها السحابية، توفر فوكس سوفت نت للعملاء إمكانية الاختيار بين خيارات المستخدم المنفرد والمستخدمين المتعددين، بحيث تتمكن المؤسسات ذات الحجم الكبير من البيانات، والتي ترغب بوجود بنية تحتية مخصصة لها تحت تصرفها، اختيار البرمجيات كخدمة لمستخدم مقيم واحد.

ولتوفير الخيارات المتعددة للعملاء، تمتلك فوكس سوفت نت عدداً من مراكز البيانات المتاحة لعملائها، ففي الوقت الذي توصي به باستخدام Microsoft Azure من قبل العملاء، توفر الشركة كذلك مساحات في مراكزها الخاصة للبيانات بدبي لتمنحهم الخدمات المتكاملة للبنية السحابية العامة والخاصة.

وأضاف السيد حيدر: "يأتي العملاء عادة إلى جيتكس للاستفسار عن الخدمات الجديدة، ولا نتوقع أن يكون الأمر مختلفاً هذا العام. سيتواجد فريقنا في جناح الشركة لمناقشة مجموعتنا الواسعة من الحلول والخدمات، بما فيها الخدمات المدارة وخدمات الموارد البشرية والتوظيف واستشارات إجراءات الأعمال وخدمات التطبيق وغيرها من الخدمات المتوفرة في انحاء المنطقة."

ومن الحلول الأخرى التي تعرضها الشركة كل من حزمة فوكس لإدارة علاقات العملاء مع وحدات للمبيعات والخدمات وإدارة المرافق وإدارة الممتلكات، حزمة فوكس للتجزئة، فوكس لنقاط البيع، ونظام فوكس لإدارة المطاعم وغيرها.  

Halul Offshore Wins Excellence in Health, Safety & Environment Award at Offshore Achievement Awards 2016

Dubai, UAE -- Halul Offshore Services Co., the offshore marine services arm of Milaha (Qatar Navigation), won the ‘Excellence in Health, Safety & Environment Award’ at the recently concluded 2nd Offshore Achievement Awards for the jack-up rig & liftboat industry. The award ceremony was held during the annual Offshore Jack Up Middle East (OJME) Conference at The Address Hotel, Dubai Mall, UAE.

The prestigious award recognized the outstanding performance of Halul Offshorein ensuring the health and safety of its employees and partners in addition to protecting its assets and the environment.

Mr. Abdulrahman Essa Al-Mannai, President and CEO of Milaha, Halul Offshore’s parent company, said: “The 2nd Offshore Achievement Awards 2016 is a leading platform for the Jack Up Rig & Liftboat industry, and it is a tremendous honour to be recognized vis-a-vis our peers. At Milaha, we take pride in our young fleet and, most importantly, in our staff who are committed to upholding the highest safety, health, and environmental standards daily.”

Mr. Vivek Seth, CEO of Halul Offshore, said: “We are proud that our health and safety track record has been recognized for the sixth time in less than two years. This award is a strong motivator for us to continue working towards setting even higher standards with regard to safety, health, and in protecting our assets and the environment.”

The 2nd Offshore Achievement Awards 2016 for the Jack Up Rig & Liftboat industry recognizes the valuable contributions of the Jack Up Rig and Liftboat trade, honouring individuals and organizations for successfully launching initiatives, strategies, and programs to achieve measurable results. The conference and the award ceremony were attended by more than 200 renowned rig owners, designers, equipment manufacturers, shipyards, and other professionals from the industry. H.E. Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman of the Dubai Council for Marine and Maritime Industry (DCMMI), chaired the Award Selection Committee.

شركة "حالول للخدمات البحرية" تفوز بجائزة التميز في الصحة والسلامة والبيئة خلال حفل تسليم "جوائز الإنجاز البحري 2016"

دبي، الامارات العربية المتحدة -- حصدت "حالول للخدمات البحرية"، ذراع الخدمات البحرية لشركة "ملاحة"، جائزة "التميز في الصحة والسلامة والبيئة" في مجال منصات الحفر المرفوعة وناقلات القوارب وذلك خلال حفل تسليم "جوائز الإنجاز البحري 2016" (Offshore Achievement Awards) الثاني والذي أقيم مؤخراً على هامش "مؤتمر الشرق الأوسط للرافعات البحرية" (Offshore Jack Up Middle East Conference) في فندق العنوان في دبي مول في دولة الإمارات.

وتم منح هذه الجائزة المرموقة لشركة "حالول للخدمات البحرية" تقديراً لأدائها المتميز في ضمان أعلى معايير الصحة والسلامة لموظفيها وشركائها، بالإضافة إلى حماية أصولها وحفاظها على البيئة.

وقال السيد/عبدالرحمن عيسى المناعي، الرئيس والمدير التنفيذي لمجموعة "ملاحة" المالكة لشركة "حالول للخدمات البحرية": "يعد حفل توزيع "جوائز الإنجاز البحري 2016" الثاني حدثاً رائداً لقطاع منصات الحفر المرفوعة وناقلات القوارب، وقد تشرفنا بتكريم ذراع خدماتنا البحرية في هذه الفعالية. كما أننا فخورون بأسطولنا الجديد والأهم من ذلك بموظفينا الملتزمين دائماً بالحفاظ على أعلى معايير السلامة والصحة والبيئة في عملهم اليومي".

من جانبه، قال السيد/ فيفيك سيث، الرئيس التنفيذي لـ"شركة حالول للخدمات البحرية": "نحن فخورون بإنجازاتنا في مجال سلامة العمليات وهذه هي الجائزة السادسة التي نتلقاها في هذا المجال في ظرف سنتين. و تعتبر هذه الجائزة حافزاً قوياً لنا لمواصلة العمل على وضع معايير أعلى فيما يتعلق بالصحة والسلامة وحماية أصولنا والحفاظ على البيئة".

ويهدف حفل تسليم "جوائز الإنجاز البحري 2016" الثاني إلى تكريم المساهمات القيمة في مجال منصات الحفر المرفوعة وناقلات القوارب، وكذلك الأفراد والمؤسسات على إطلاقهم الناجح للمبادرات والاستراتيجيات والبرامج لتحقيق نتائج قابلة للقياس. وحضر المؤتمر وحفل تسليم الجوائز أكثر من 200 من أصحاب منصات الحفر والمصممين ومصنعي الأجهزة والمعدات وكذلك أحواض السفن وغيرهم من المختصين في هذه الصناعة، حيث ترأس سعادة خميس جمعة بوعميم، رئيس مجلس إدارة مجلس دبي للصناعات البحرية والملاحية، لجنة الاختيار لهذه الجوائز.

Companies in Egypt Using DNS for Data Transport will become Cybercrime Targets

Author: Rod Rasmussen, vice president of cybersecurity at Infoblox

Malicious DNS tunnelling is a big problem in cybersecurity and organizations in Egypt need to be aware of this. The technique involves the use of the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol to smuggle sensitive corporate or personal information out of a network, and to enable malware command and control communications in and out.

Indeed, as the Infoblox Security Assessment Report revealed recently, two in five enterprise networks showed evidence of DNS tunnelling in the second quarter of 2016.

However, all is not necessarily as it seems. Close scrutiny of apparent DNS tunnelling traffic repeatedly reveals an amount of anomalous activity which appears harmful but is, in fact, being sent intentionally by users and services on enterprise networks, and tended not to be malicious in nature.

Exploiting the DNS protocol

Typically DNS queries are very small data packets, and their intended purpose is not to transport any data other than that needed to perform name-resolution services. And, although the introduction of authentication mechanisms such as DNSSEC and DKIM may have changed the landscape over recent years, their primary intent is also only to serve up information on a domain name, rather than transporting any other data.

But, there is sufficient flexibility in the DNS protocol that unrelated data can be inserted into a DNS query and then sent in to or out from a targeted network.

DNS signalling, the most basic form of this technique, typically involves using a cryptographic hash function to encode information into query strings or response records. Performance tends to be quite slow though, as the restrictive size of DNS packets mean a large number are required even for a small amount of data.

This is taken a step further by DNS tunnelling which, by employing surprisingly basic techniques, uses DNS queries to encode other protocols such as http, ftp or SMTP, over a DNS session.

For the sake of simplicity, and given their essential similarity, both of these techniques can be viewed under the header of DNS tunnelling.

“Legitimate” DNS tunnelling 

Within an enterprise, the use of DNS for legitimate communications can often set off false alarms with networking and security teams on the lookout for malicious DNS tunnelling. Most companies that employ this unsanctioned use of DNS tend not to advertise the fact and this can present a challenge to security teams looking for insidious use of the protocol. After all, legitimate and malicious use can look practically identical at first glance.

Of course, those using DNS in this way are generally taking creative shortcuts rather than deliberately abusing their organisation’s networks.

It all started around twenty years ago, when paywalls in certain hotels and airports blocked direct access to the internet via standard protocols such as HTTP. It was noticed, however, that DNS wasn’t blocked and tools including NSTX, Dnscat and iodine were subsequently released allowing web sessions and email to be tunnelled through a user’s DNS connection. Over the years these tools have evolved to provide full VPN services over DNS, with dozens of examples freely available on GitHub and elsewhere.

Not a wise use of the protocol

As well as setting off false alarms and raising concerns around theft-of-service, DNS tunnelling, even as a means of legitimate communication, is not a wise use of an organisation’s DNS protocol. Indeed, using DNS to transport data is misusing the protocol to deliberately circumvent measures put in place by the network operator.

It could be used to proxy past workplace productivity filters designed to block Facebook or personal email services, for example, or for something more sinister that could represent a risk to the whole company.

However, it appears there are a large number of commercial products which use DNS signalling as a means of providing data transfer services.

For example, at around the same time that DNS tunnelling was becoming popular as a technique, some manufacturers of customer presence equipment (CPE) were experiencing issues in sending updates out to their various consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers or cable and DSL modems across consumer and SMB networks.

It transpired that there was some inconsistency on the various types of traffic allowed through certain ISPs, and setting up proper connections through NAT-based routers was proving less than straightforward. DNS was seen as being a viable alternative and it wasn’t long before some of the CPE companies were using the protocol to perform software updates and other maintenance tasks with their installed base.

Today, most enterprise-grade networks will handle such tasks using proper communications and authentication channels. Internal departments and branch offices can often have cheaper CPE equipment, however, meaning that these signals are being transported over DNS – even in an enterprise network.

Elsewhere, the need for nearly continuous communication with their customers has seen some anti-virus (AV) vendors set up file hash identification routines via DNS. While this is undeniably a quick and effective way of determining whether a suspect file is infected or not, it can potentially open up a network to malicious communications.

Circumventing controls

Essentially, the main problem with DNS tunnelling techniques is that they circumvent controls put in place by a network team, opening up security, compliance and operational concerns while, at the same time, overloading the DNS protocol and anomaly detection systems put in place to examine DNS traffic.

Businesses are increasingly trying to protect their DNS as its importance becomes clearer, and are beginning to realise how much extraneous DNS traffic is running on their networks.

It’s perhaps optimistic to expect the practice to stop completely, but efforts could be made to persuade IT vendors and manufacturers to become less reliant on it, and ultimately make it less difficult to secure this valuable and vulnerable protocol.

DRaaS Will Help Companies in Egypt take the Cost and Complexity out of Cloud-based Disaster Recovery

By: Gregg Petersen, Regional Director, Middle East and SAARC, Veeam Software

Photograph: attached

When Downtime is Not an Option

Downtime saps the energy from organizations. Every minute of lost productivity drains revenue. Meanwhile, competitors get a head start, when they should be left far behind. Availability of applications and data have a direct impact on its top and bottom-line performance for modern businesses. The result? There is absolutely no tolerance for downtime today.

To reduce unplanned downtime to an absolute minimum and keep businesses operating smoothly, a secondary site for disaster recovery (DR) is vital. When disaster strikes, organizations need off-site, ready-to-go replicas of all critical apps and data, so they can get back up and running quickly.

But setting up and maintaining a separate disaster recovery site is expensive and time-consuming, which is why cloud based Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) presents such a compelling alternative for organizations in Egypt.

Thus far, DRaaS has mainly been seen as a way for SMBs (small-to-medium sized businesses) to utilize real disaster recovery capabilities. Tight budgets and limited staff were constraining SMBs from maintaining their own remote sites, so DRaaS has helped them overcome this challenge. Now, industry trends confirm that enterprises start to enjoy DRaaS without extra complexity and high cost implementation. A recent report by MarketsandMarkets says that the DRaaS market size is estimated to grow from USD 1.68 Billion in 2016 to USD 11.11 Billion by 2021, at an estimated CAGR of 45.9% from 2016 to 2021.

What is DRaaS

While various forms, of subscription-based disaster recovery services have been around for quite a while, true DRaaS is still largely undefined. The Forrester Wave gives one of the clearest DRaaS definitions as "services that enable customers to failover their on-premises infrastructure to a multitenant, cloud environment that they purchase on a pay-per-use basis." The defining characteristic of DRaaS is when organizations rent an allocation of CPU, RAM, storage and networking resources at a shared facility to replicate and recover their data, rather than building and maintaining a dedicated, private disaster recovery site.

For SMBs and SMEs with moderate-sized IT environments and without the necessary in-house resources, DRaaS is an affordable way to benefit from an effective disaster recovery platform.

However, for larger enterprises with complex infrastructures and larger data volumes spread across disparate systems, DRaaS has often been too complicated and expensive to implement.

As the technology improves, choices increase and costs drop, DRaaS adoption is rising fast across organizations of all sizes.

It's not just that DRaaS is more cost effective than traditional disaster recovery. Now setting it up is much less complex, with minimal downtime and minimal impact on users. Bottom line, DRaaS offers a simple way to meet today's demand to deliver Always-on services.

With mature DRaaS offerings, smaller organizations no longer need to struggle without in-house disaster recovery expertise. Larger organizations no longer need to waste money on secondary disaster recovery sites that require expensive capital acquisition, with little return on investment when the site is not used.

As more and more customers are interested in DRaaS, service providers estimate that 56 percent of high interest is among their current customers and 72 percent is among their target market[1].

Why Choose DRaaS?

DRaaS adoption is speeding up, and the most popular reasons to consider DRaaS are a lack of disaster recovery site and lack of disaster recovery expertise.

For IT leaders challenged to increase resiliency without increasing costs, DRaaS could soon be seen as an essential piece of the modern data centre puzzle. By overcoming traditional cost and complexity issues, large IT organizations can start to realize the many benefits of DRaaS, including:

• Fast recovery — If a disaster occurs, every second your system is down means you are losing money. DRaaS can enable you to restore normal operations in minutes, rather than hours or even days.
• Cost control — Building and maintaining a remote disaster recovery site is expensive and complex. DRaaS eliminates the need to run your own disaster recovery site, reduces CapEx (capital expense) and provides predictable OpEx (operating expense) costs with pay-as-you go pricing models.
• Flexibility — Rather than traditional disaster recovery’s rigidity, DRaaS allows you to activate virtual off-site resources on demand. And you can choose from a variety of recovery scopes, depending on the nature and severity of the disaster.
• Simplicity — New technology advances allow you to quickly and simply implement DRaaS and manage backup and recovery far more easily.
• Security and compliance — The best DRaaS solutions ensure that data is encrypted in transit and at rest. They also enable in-house, IT teams to maintain data residency control. Some industry solutions require failover tests periodically. A DRaaS solution with automated testing capabilities can greatly reduce expenses required to run those tests.

Bright Future for DRaaS

Networking is one of the biggest problems for any cloud-based, enterprise disaster recovery solution. Traditionally, service providers have had to wrestle with complex VPNs, custom rules, network overlaps and the painstaking task of reconfiguring network routing to redirect data to cloud recovery sites.

However, new technology is removing the pain points, making it easier for service providers to offer DRaaS and easier for enterprises to take advantage of it. DRaaS is set to surge in adoption and enterprises jumping on the bandwagon early on will reap the most benefits.