Nobody likes to think about the worst case scenario, but every business has a responsibility to plan for the worst while hoping for the best. One of the most important assets that must be protected in an emergency are critical business records.
- Inventory valuations would be needed for insurance claims.
- Records of store credits, gift cards, charge accounts and deposits that represent amounts due customers would protect your reputation while preventing abuse.
- Payments and credit records for vendors are retained for balance reconciliations when needed.
- Accounting records for tax purposes.
- In the event of community-wide catastrophic disasters, having sales history of each customer’s purchases for their insurance claims can make you a true community hero.
But even small disasters, like server failures, are very expensive from an operational point of view in terms of lost productivity, costs of recovery as well as customer service levels. But most backup solutions (tapes, remote database backups, etc.) are file based backups that merely protect the data and not the complete organization’s operational systems. While a daily backup will suffice for a major catastrophe, it could take from several days to over a week to get a system back up and running: the equipment must be replaced (servers can’t always be bought off the shelf), the operating system, database and all application programs must be reinstalled, which takes at least an entire day. All drivers must be reinstalled and reconfigured which takes even more technical resources at additional expense when least needed. When backups are needed most is when a speedy recovery is most valued.
Of course the main concern for a catastrophe is that the backup must be maintained off site. Physical backup plans like jump drives, removable storage or tape rotations depend upon human memory and consistency (even when we are sick or on vacations) and are often even more than a day old. Physical backup also relies upon media that can wear out or go bad, so those methods really require a rotation of devices to provide assured protection.
These issues plague the computer industry and keep business owners up at night. Rest assured: there is a solution.
Block level backups replicated on the cloud.
Block level backups have a long tradition and offer a huge advantage to file backups because information is copied at a much more detailed level.
- Operating systems, programs and even device drivers are restored. File level backups require that the server first be rebuilt from operating systems through device drivers that can take a day or more (see above for the complete list). They will cut days off a system recovery.
- The recovery can be restored to a new server even if it is a different model or manufacturer without a re-installation.
- Services are offered for access to a virtual restoration of your database on the cloud for access within hours instead of days. You can log into the Internet to access your system even if it is down and you can’t get to the store.
- Minimize down time as recovery can be reduced from days to hours.
- Off-site cloud backups can be accessed from any distance from the disaster.
- Off-site cloud backups are also backed up.
- Off-site cloud backups are automated and occur even when people are absent or forgetful.
- Physical restorations can be downloaded online or overnighted for large file systems.
- Managed services provide email failure alerts that minimize management time without bypassing strong PCI security policy requirements.
Add to this list the option to have an on-site hourly backup for minor network failures and you have what I consider the best backup solution in the market. Competitively, it beats to death the traditional tape backup rotation methodology that was once the only affordable solution for small retailers.
I have converted my extremely tech savvy staff from a manual tape backup rotation (with triplicate off-site backups) to AppAssure©. (http://www.appassure.com/). Our resource commitment has been reduced while my security and confidence that a mission critical operation can be quickly recovered has restored many sleepless nights. In all my years in this industry I haven’t seen a better backup solution. I encourage you to consider this solution.
RESTON, VA–(Marketwire – Jan 5, 2012) – Virtualization Review today announced that AppAssure backup, replication and recovery software, the #1 Backup for VM, physical & Cloud environments, won the Readers Choice Award as the Business Continuity ISV Winner. Virtualization Review is the first and only print publication solely devoted to IT virtualization. The 2012 awards are chosen by the readers of Virtualization Review and presented to vendors in 14 categories ranging from Server Virtualization to Virtualization Security.
Protection. Persistent. Peace of mind.
I sleep better at night.
Contact us to learn more about this great opportunity.
