In the world of IT services, few things can cripple a client’s business faster than unexpected downtime. From ransomware attacks to natural disasters, outages strike without warning – and the impact is huge. According to recent data, 9 in 10 organizations experienced operational downtime in 2024. For a small business (around $10 million in annual revenue), a single day of downtime can cost as much as $55,000. Every minute offline hurts the client’s bottom line, and it puts their managed service provider (MSP) under pressure to get systems back up. In short, business continuity isn’t just the client’s concern – it directly affects an MSP’s reputation and success as well.
Faced with these stakes, companies are no longer satisfied with basic data backups alone. They need true disaster recovery that guarantees fast restoration of operations. In fact, over half of businesses are now looking to switch backup providers because their current solutions lack strong disaster recovery (DR) capabilities. And critically, businesses are willing to pay a premium for solutions that keep them up and running without interruption. This shift in mindset – viewing downtime prevention as worth the investment – presents a significant opportunity for MSPs. By moving “beyond backup” to deliver full disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), MSPs can not only better protect their clients, but also unlock a lucrative new revenue stream.
Disaster Recovery as an Untapped Opportunity for MSPs
Despite the rising demand, disaster recovery remains underutilized as a service offering in many MSP portfolios. Historically, backup and DR services made up only about 6% of total revenue for the average MSP. Many providers focused on traditional managed IT and security services, treating DR as a nice-to-have add-on or assuming clients weren’t interested. But things are changing fast. The need for robust business continuity is growing – nearly 56% of MSPs reported an increase in revenue from backup/DR services in one recent year alone – yet many MSPs have yet to fully capitalize on this trend.
Top-performing MSPs are already taking note. A 2025 industry survey of 1,000+ MSPs revealed that the most profitable firms (those earning $10M+ annually) bundle disaster recovery with their managed security services as a standard practice. They know that offering complete business continuity is a competitive advantage and a stable source of monthly recurring revenue. Indeed, BCDR (business continuity and disaster recovery) is quickly becoming a top standalone MSP offering, with about 46% of MSPs now providing it. That means over half of providers still aren’t offering DRaaS – a wide-open market gap.
In other words, disaster recovery remains an untapped revenue stream for many MSPs. Clients large and small increasingly require reliable DR, but less than one in two MSPs currently offer full DR services on their own. Prioritizing DRaaS as a core offering (rather than a footnote to backup) can be a major differentiator that sets you apart in a crowded MSP market. Providers who seize this opportunity stand to win loyal customers and new business, while those who don’t risk falling behind the curve.
Suggested Reading: How ZNet Enables MSPs, CSPs & Telcos with Acronis Cyber Protection?
Key Benefits of Offering DRaaS (Disaster Recovery as a Service)
Adopting disaster recovery as a managed service isn’t just good for clients – it can significantly boost your MSP business. Here are some of the biggest benefits and “wins” you can expect from monetizing DR:
- Incremental Recurring Revenue: Offering DRaaS allows you to expand wallets of existing customers and charge for higher-value continuity services on a subscription basis. In fact, MSPs that added disaster recovery to their backup offerings have seen ~80% increases in revenue compared to backup alone. It’s also far easier to sell new services to an existing client than to a new prospect (60–70% vs. 5–20% success rate), so failing to upsell DRaaS is essentially leaving money on the table.
- Higher Client Retention: If you aren’t offering a proper DR solution, your customers may look elsewhere. No business wants to juggle one provider for backup and another for disaster recovery – they prefer a one-stop partner. By providing end-to-end data protection (backup and rapid recovery), you make it easy for clients to stay with you. Conversely, an MSP without DRaaS risks clients switching to competitors that do offer it. In short, DRaaS helps lock in your customer base by meeting all their continuity needs under one roof.
- Competitive Advantage & New Business: Offering robust DR services can differentiate your MSP in a crowded field. Many providers – especially smaller ones – still lack a true DRaaS offering, so by stepping up, you stand out as a more capable, business-savvy partner. Prospective customers who require business continuity (and many do, given today’s threats) will be drawn to MSPs that advertise disaster recovery expertise. With less than half of MSPs currently offering standalone BCDR services, positioning yourself as a continuity leader is a smart move to win new deals. Simply put, it’s a selling point that not all of your rivals can claim.
- Steady High-Margin Income: Disaster recovery services tend to be high-margin, subscription-based offerings – exactly the kind of revenue MSPs love. Unlike one-off projects or hourly support, DRaaS generates predictable monthly recurring revenue (MRR) that can substantially improve your financial stability. Industry experts note that BCDR is a “high-margin service” built for long-term MSP profitability. Plus, by reducing costly emergency labor and leveraging efficient tools (more on that below), you maintain healthy margins while delivering great value to clients.
In short, building a DRaaS practice can increase your average revenue per customer, improve retention, and bolster your market position – all while creating a reliable income stream for your company. It transforms what many once saw as a cost center (disaster recovery) into a profit center.
Strategies to Monetize Disaster Recovery Services
Recognizing the opportunity is one thing – effectively packaging and selling DR services is another. How can you turn disaster recovery into a successful revenue-generating offering? Below are proven strategies for MSPs to monetize DRaaS:
- Design Tiered DRaaS Packages: Not all clients have the same uptime requirements or budget for continuity. One size won’t fit all, so consider offering tiered disaster recovery packages. For example, a small law firm operating 9-to-5 might tolerate a few hours of downtime, whereas a 24/7 e-commerce company needs near-instant failover. You could create a basic plan (cloud backups with restore times of a few hours) for cost-sensitive clients, and a premium plan (real-time replication and one-click failover) for those who demand zero downtime. Tiered offerings let each customer choose (and pay for) the protection level they need, ensuring you capture revenue across segments without over- or under-protecting anyone.
- Bundle DR with Your Managed Services: One effective way to sell DRaaS is to include it as part of your broader service bundles, especially in co-managed or security-focused offerings. This approach has become a best practice – roughly 83% of MSPs who provide co-managed IT services already have BCDR embedded in their packages, underscoring its critical role. You might bundle disaster recovery with managed security (e.g. endpoint protection + backup + DR) to create an appealing “business continuity” package. Bundling not only makes your offering more comprehensive, it also raises the overall deal value and MRR. Importantly, if a client initially opts out of DR, keep the door open – you can periodically remind them that you have an integrated continuity solution ready to activate whenever they’re ready (often a well-publicized outage or ransomware scare can prompt a change of heart).
- Educate Clients on Downtime Costs (Sell the Value): A key part of monetizing DR is helping your customers understand the ROI. Many SMB owners underestimate how badly an IT outage could hurt them until it’s spelled out. Come prepared with facts and figures: for instance, remind them that IT downtime can cost businesses tens of thousands of dollars per day in lost revenue. Use that to frame your DRaaS fee as a fraction of the potential loss – essentially a form of affordable insurance. You can calculate each client’s likely cost of downtime (based on their revenue and industry benchmarks) to make a compelling case for investment. By shifting the conversation from “expense” to “preventing massive losses”, you justify your service price in concrete terms. (Many vendors provide downtime cost calculators or templates to assist with this exercise.) The takeaway: positioning DRaaS as a revenue protection tool for the client makes it much easier to sell.
- Leverage Integrated DR Platforms for Efficiency: To maximize profit from DR services, you need to deliver them efficiently. The good news is that modern solutions have made DRaaS far more turnkey for MSPs. Today, there are platforms that unify backup and disaster recovery in one console, so you don’t need to stitch together separate tools or add heavy overhead to manage it. For example, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud is an integrated cyber protection platform that many MSPs use for backup; with it, enabling disaster recovery is as simple as flipping a switch to add the DR module. Because the DR functions run on the same platform (and agent) as backup, there’s no extra infrastructure or complex setup required. By using such an integrated solution (especially one provided through a distributor like ZNet, which offers automation and support), you can roll out DRaaS quickly and manage it alongside your other services. This streamlined approach keeps your delivery costs low – protecting your margins – and lets you start selling DR services without a lengthy learning curve. In short, choose the right partner/tools and you can profit from DRaaS with minimal fuss.
- Demonstrate and Document Success: Finally, build trust in your DR offering by regularly testing and showcasing results. Perform routine test failovers for your clients and give them reports on recovery time achieved, data integrity verified, etc. This proves that your DRaaS works as advertised, easing any fears and solidifying the value of what they’re paying for. It can also be a selling point for prospects – you can share anonymized success stories or metrics (e.g. “We recovered Client X’s servers in under 15 minutes during a ransomware attack, avoiding an estimated $50K in losses”) as part of your sales collateral. Real-world proof points help turn DRaaS from an abstract idea into a tangible business lifesaver in the eyes of customers, making them more willing to invest.
By applying these strategies – customized packaging, smart bundling, value-based selling, efficient delivery, and proven results – you can effectively monetize disaster recovery services. It transforms DR from a mere technical capability into a marketable offering that clients understand, need, and will pay for.
Start Monetizing Disaster Recovery Today (Join Our Webinar!)
The bottom line is that disaster recovery represents a huge opportunity for growth-minded MSPs. What was once seen as an IT cost can now become a profit center, if you approach it with the right strategy and tools. By proactively offering DRaaS, you not only protect your customers’ businesses but also strengthen your own – boosting recurring revenue, client loyalty, and competitive standing.
To help you dive deeper into this topic, ZNet and Acronis are hosting a special webinar on September 12. In this interactive session, experts from Acronis and ZNet will explore actionable steps for MSPs to monetize disaster recovery (with real-world examples and demos of how solutions like Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud make it easier). Whether you’re a small MSP or an enterprise provider, you’ll gain insights on packaging DR services, pricing them, and leveraging partnership resources to maximize your returns. Don’t miss this chance to learn how to turn backup and recovery into business revenue – and ask your burning questions live.
Ready to unlock this untapped revenue stream? Join us on September 12th for the webinar and get the knowledge you need to start monetizing disaster recovery. Secure your spot today! (We look forward to helping you supercharge your MSP business with DRaaS.)
Read next: [Latest Release] Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud 25.06: What’s New for MSPs
