Good to know before you compare
Backup and recovery are different things
A backup is a copy of your data. Recovery is how long it takes to be working again after something fails. When you compare offers, ask how quickly you would be back up, not only where the copies are kept.
A private cloud connection is not the internet
A direct connection links your office or data center straight to your cloud provider over a private path. It behaves more consistently than the public internet, which matters for applications people use all day.
Colocation means their building, your equipment
With colocation you keep your own servers and place them in a data center that supplies the space, power, cooling and connectivity.
Questions people ask
What is colocation?
Colocation is renting space in a data center for servers and network equipment you own. The data center supplies power, cooling, physical security and network connections. You manage the equipment.
What is disaster recovery as a service?
Disaster recovery as a service, or DRaaS, keeps a copy of your systems with a provider who can run them if your own site fails. The measure that matters is how quickly you are working again and how much recent data you would lose.
What is a cloud direct connect?
A direct connect is a private network link between your location and a cloud provider such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. Traffic does not cross the public internet, so performance is steadier and the path is private.