Digit launches rapid IT disaster recovery solution
By admin
A South Wales company has produced a simple and cost-effective IT disaster recovery solution after a survey highlighted that the vast majority of small and medium sized businesses have no IT back-up in place if their server fails.
The YouGuv survey highlighted that most SMBs would grind to a halt if the server which stores their data and runs their PCs was badly damaged, stolen or simply broke down.
But Digit’s Restore disaster recovery service provides each customer with their own back-up server. Using specially developed software, the back-up is updated throughout the day by the customer’s primary server so that the two are virtually identical at any time.
The back-up server is housed in a secure room in Digit’s own offices from where it can be rushed to the customer to take the place of the primary server, should it fail in any way. This enables a business to be up and running again within minutes of reporting a potentially catastrophic server loss.
“It’s frightening to think just how vulnerable most businesses are when it comes to their IT systems,” said Digit Director Simon Hargreaves.
“Many think that disasters are a once in a lifetime occurrence. Perhaps fires, floods and storm damage are but our increasing reliance on IT systems means other catastrophes, like computer viruses and hardware and software failures, make server breakdowns commonplace. The startling facts are that more than 20% of businesses will suffer a major ‘computer-outage’ at some stage and when this happens, 43% of those that don’t have a continuity plan will never reopen. A further 80% of the ‘survivors’ will go on to fail themselves within 13 months*.
“But our Restore disaster recovery service minimises the impact. If a server is lost or destroyed we can rush the back-up to our customer and simply plug it in so that the business can operate normally again. We’ve already done this for a client in Cardiff city centre whose server failed. We had them up and running again within 26 minutes from the time the call was logged.
“Even if the disaster goes beyond just the server, as it may in the event of a fire, we can also provide laptops for key workers to use so the business can keep functioning while the alternative offices are sorted out. The back-up server will then just stay in our offices until new premises are ready – and, of course, we’ll back it up in the meantime.
”Some businesses take the half-measure of storing data online and think that protects them against disasters but the truth is they remain vulnerable if their server crashes and takes with it critical software. It can take days, or even weeks for new servers to be purchased, delivered, rebuilt with all the correct software, tested and finally installed. And it can take just as long to download large volumes of data you’ve stored online. Meanwhile, your customers have gone somewhere else.”
Even those which do survive a major computer outage can expect to bear a significant financial impact. Among UK companies as a whole, only 23% estimated the costs of computer downtime to be less than £1,000** per hour. The Restore service, however, costs just £3,000 for the first year and £2,000 from the second year onwards.
The data on the back-up server is all fully encrypted and the encryption key is held by just one individual in the customer’s business so it is highly secure. Digit, which is based in Cardiff city centre, is offering the Restore disaster recovery service to any business within a 30 miles radius of the city centre.
Digit does offer a separate Digit Retrieve service with the aim of simply recovering missing files that have been unintentionally removed or lost. It is based on an online system devised by Digit that will back up documents as well as common databases. In the case of files being lost they can either be restored to the customer’s IT network or on CDs or DVDs. The service can also be used to provide duplicate copies to people on the move as long as they have internet access.
Full daily statistics of the retrieval service are provided and costs depend on the volume of data customers need to be backed-up.
“Time is certainly of the essence for any business facing a potentially catastrophic computer outage,” added Simon.
“With this in mind, we’re restricting our Restore service geographically at the moment so that we can maintain truly rapid response times – businesses will appreciate that.”
Tags: business failure, Cardiff, Digit, disaster recovery, IT, Restore, server failure, Simon Hargreaves, South Wales
