It is an all-too-familiar issue: companies experience a problem, conduct disaster recovery and when trying to restore off-site data, they are hampered by the long delay in restoration time. It does not have to be this way, says management at Network Platforms, a national IT solutions and internet service provider.
The company has developed two solutions to combat the problem – a warm and cold standby service that works in conjunction with its off-site backup solution. With the warm standby service, Network Platforms implements a server with the required applications and injects the off-site backup from the off-site backup solution into the server every fifteen minutes.
This server is available remotely at any stage. The cold standby service is essentially the same, except that it is available on request.
“We set up a server, implement the required applications and inject the data for the client to test,” explains Warwick Ward-Cox, MD at Network Platforms.
The server is then shut down and when it is required again by the client, Network Platforms immediately starts it up, injects the latest backup from the off-site backup solution and restoration is done on the company’s Gigabit backbone.
“The cold standby service is not billed for on a monthly basis, only a once-off setup fee. We then bill the cold standby server on a calendar month as and when required. The options allow for you to get your original server up and running. These solutions allow for you to be up and running quickly,” Ward-Cox continues.
Network Platforms also offers enterprise replicated VMWare solutions on private and public cloud, which can be tailored for each client to suit their specific requirements.