It makes sense, of course. Nobody wants to even think about a disaster happening to their company. Add the fact that the common DR policy of building and managing a secondary data center — or data centers — to house data in case something happens to your primary data centers is inefficient at best. At worst, it is a costly burden that takes already squeezed IT teams away from more business-critical tasks.

Amid these challenges, many companies simply aren’t prepared for an event that affects their data and workloads. With the advent of the cloud, however, the options for disaster recovery have opened up significantly, and they can be much better both for your IT department and your bottom line. With options like edge computing and cloud-forward colocation, organizations of all sizes can now find efficient, cost-effective options for DR — options that leave you more secure and more prepared.

Here are three important things to consider as you travel down the hybrid cloud DR path.

1. Hybrid cloud could be your best choice.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when considering the cloud for DR is that your choice isn’t just cloud or on-premise. A hybrid strategy can utilize traditional data centers and cloud options — like disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) — bringing them together for a unique combination that fits exactly what your enterprise needs. For example, a hybrid approach that makes use of edge computing and metro partners for colocation can give you the security you need while making sure you can access everything in a timely fashion.

2. Protect yourself with multi-cloud deployments.

Hybrid cloud should also mean multi-cloud. Working with many carriers lets you avoid vendor lock-in and maximize what you get out of your deployment. You’re also less likely to be out of luck if one of them should have an outage.

3. Weigh your RTO and RPO needs.

With the hybrid model, it’s possible to achieve recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) of close to zero. Do your research to guarantee that services you choose can deliver the RTO and RPO you need.

If your company is faced with an outage, there’s no substitute for an airtight DR strategy. With the options now available in the hybrid cloud, preparing for any outage — whether it’s a true disaster or a user error — doesn’t have to strain your business.