Data Backup & Disaster Recovery

No backup is 100% fool proof. It’s rare, but occasionally backed up data can become corrupted and then a backup solution ends up backing up the corrupted data and the data is not accessible. The best a company can do is become diligent in choosing the least problematic solution which includes performing periodic test restoration.

Would you like a scary statistic? The average failure rate of tape drives is near 100%. Consider in the course of a year the amount of power failures, equipment failures and human errors that occur in your office. Now factor in that 9 times out of 10 the company that lost data actually had a backup system only to discover it failed when it was needed most. It only takes one surge break or incorrect keystroke to lose valuable data that can't be replaced.

When instituting a backup strategy, there are several factors to consider before choosing a method. These factors can help businesses determine whether an online backup solution such as ASG Information Technologies e-Vault Managed Backup Service would be more secure, cost effective and reliable than portable media backup, such as tape, for their organization.

Major factors when considering a data backup method:

• Reliability
  

  With portable media such as tapes, CD’s floppy disks, you run several risks. Tapes and disks are infamously failure-prone and are susceptible to damage by the environment and improper handling. When there is a need to recover the files, many times portable media fails. According to Microsoft, 42% of attempted recoveries from tape backups in the past year have failed. Although pen drives are reliable, they are easily misplaced or even lost.

• Cost
  

  Generally, tape drives cost from hundreds up to thousands of dollars; most tapes rage from $25 to $50 each and most businesses will cycle through several tapes each week.You also have training costs in order for employees to operate the hardware, software. Human error of remembering to change the tapes is also a cost factor. Companies must also consider potential financial loss in the event they experience a data loss. Since recovery rates for online backup are significantly higher in terms of file restoration success and time spent to restore those files, this method could save an organization a considerable amount of money when disaster strikes. When hard drives fail and data isn't easily retrieved, the cost of a data restoration company and cost of shipping drives can be in the thousands of dollars.

• Easy to Use
  

  Tape backups are time consuming. It takes hours of productivity backing up entire sets. They are very inefficient and become increasingly expensive and difficult to manage through the data lifecycles. Online backup is easy to set up and monitor, easy to restore, and mostly a hands-free backup solution.

Why use ASG’s e-Vault Managed Backup Service?

With a plethora of different backup options available today, it can be difficult to decipher which one will work best for your home or business. Online backups have become the most sought after form of protecting data. Our online backup solution is affordable and a practical solution for companies and it offers immediate benefits over traditional tape backups:

• Reduced backup time – Incremental backup significantly reduces backup time
• Reduced costs – Tape storage and administrative manpower costs are nearly eliminated
• Increased protection – Data is stored offsite in a secure data center as well as onsite
• Increased data security – All backup is encrypted in transit and storage to ensure 100% data security
• Increased efficiency – Backup is performed remotely across entire networks from a single system
• Increased reliability – Offsite data backup are completely automatic and send email confirmation

ASG’s e-Vault Managed Backup Service provides our customers the most comprehensive backup protection that is reliable, cost effective and easy to use.

• Data backups are completely automatic and you can also manually initiate a backup at any time. Once the software is installed, ASG will assist you in creating a backup set. The backup set is the list of files that you want to backup along with the schedule of when you want the backups to occur. To offer you more power for managing your data backup sets, you have the option of including or excluding specific folder or even excluding specific types of files. In addition to being able to edit or change a data backup set, e-Vault Managed Backup Service allows you to set up multiple backup sets.

• In the event of a complete system failure, a full data recovery can be initiated in just minutes. The recovery procedure can be performed on any Windows based computer – not just the computer where the data was originally backed up. To restore certain data, the user can log in and enter the encryption key and simply choose the files, folders or revisions that he or she wants to retrieve by clicking on the file name. A password is required to restore any files, thus, preventing unauthorized restores, as per the HIPPA Security Rule.

• With e-Vault managed Backup Service, the data is encrypted and stored on a remote server. It protects the data using a 256-bit encryption method and stores everything in military-grade secure facilities. Thus, there is virtually no risk of files being corrupted or lost while data is in transfer for storage. There is also no threat of losing the data as a result of natural disasters such as fire or floods or malicious acts such as theft. If there is a need to restore files, the recovery rate is far greater than using portable media.

• Online backups eliminate the cost for tapes, disks, and drives, employee training, and customer support. With ASG e-Vault Managed Backup Service charges a price per month for the service depending upon the amount of storage space the organization needs. The service also includes free customer support from ASG Information Technologies.