It is worth reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of these before reaching a decision on which way to go.

The main considerations are what you are wishing to achieve, and how far your budget will stretch. Understanding the difference between Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity is therefore essential. It is worth firstly defining these.

‘Disaster Recovery’ refers to the process of recovering data in the event of a disaster. So the disaster occurs and then the work is done to recover the data or entire infrastructure. The time frame in which this is achieved gradually closes until you reach ‘Business Continuity.’

Business Continuity is a scenario whereby you can actually continue your business through a disaster, without any form of disruption.

Let’s first take a replication scenario with no ‘Point in Time Backup’ procedure in place. There is a storm and lightening strikes your primary offices, frying your main servers.  However all is well because you have been running real-time replication to a secondary location. You can therefore continue operations as normal.

However let’s look at a couple of perhaps more likely scenarios. A file corruption occurs on the primary site. This is replicated to the secondary site making a non-corrupt version impossible to regain. Or a deletion occurs on the primary server. This is mirrored onto the secondary server, again making file recovery impossible.

With a proper backup procedure in place you can refer back to a point in time i.e. when the last scheduled backup was run. If the backup product stores multiple generations you can refer back to a version of the file/database, before the corruption/deletion occurred.

So there are certainly advantages of having real time replication in place.  However the decision to implement replication as a sole DR/BC solution is ill-researched. This is because in many scenarios a secondary real-time mirror of your data is useless.

The other point about replication is that you need much resource in the form of bandwidth to replicate on a continual basis. Backup generally takes place out of office hours when bandwidth demand is nil. Furthermore for replication you can expect to double all your hardware costs.

A further expense is achieving the geographical separation necessary to make it worthwhile. Some businesses choose to solely replicate to secondary servers onsite. However in disaster recovery terms there is little point in such a solution.

The dream scenario is of course to have both backup and replication rolled into one. This way you can recover to a point in time and also maintain a high availability BC solution.

However to have both is expensive and in the current climate businesses often have to choose. Without question it is paramount to prioritise having a ‘Point in Time Backup’ solution in place.

Backup Technology are able to provide a solution which provides ‘Point in Time Backup’ as well as seamless Business Continuity. This is achieved through maintaining an up to date virtual replica of your environment rather than through replication. In the event of a disaster the task is therefore simple. We recover the small amount of changes to your warm standby server. The solution ensures that both Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives are achieved without the huge costs of implementing real-time replication.

Furthermore BTL work tirelessly alongside Asigra to continually develop our DR/ BC offerings in order to keep ahead of the ever increasingly demanding needs of the world today.

Backup Vs Replication is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research and found that 51% of Americans have experienced a computer crash leading to them loosing all of their digital files.

More than one-third admitted they had never backed up their computers or haven’t done so in the last twelve months.

A staggering 40% of Americans admitted that they would have no way of recovering, recreating or repurchasing such data.

“It is interesting to contrast the way people insure their treasured possessions, like their home and their car, with the ways in which they leave often-irreplaceable digital assets unprotected. Most have experienced at least one major disaster, yet are still not taking simple steps to protect the contents of their computer” David Friend, CEO of Carbonite.

The most common files to be stored by Americans are photos and music. Fifty- five percent of those surveyed stored photos and 46% stored music.

Eighty-two percent of people keep only electronic files on their personal hard drive with the majority of these keeping files nowhere else.

Putting a value on digital data is often difficult but the survey made some interesting comparisons. For instance 50% of Americans would rather loose an entire year of vacation time than loose all of the files on their computer. Thirty-four percent would rather give up wine and beer for a year. Thirty-eight percent would rather loose their wedding ring. Sixty-two percent would pay as much as $500 to retrieve their documents and files while 27% said that they would pay whatever it took.

What Are Your Digital Assets Worth To You? is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

It is essential that your business is prepared for the unpredictable. During turbulent times it is vital to have a reliable Data Backup and Recovery protocol in place.

Here are some criteria that Backup Technology have put together as a checklist to help businesses ensure their data is protected.

> Automated data backup solution which can be operated remotely:

It is essential that data can still be backed up in an automated and remote fashion when staff are unable to access an office building.

> Utilise an experienced Managed Service Provider with 24/7 availability:

When a Disaster Recovery (DR) procedure needs to be invoked it is essential that a dedicated team can be contacted immediately to begin the recovery process.

> Have a DR plan in place which meets your organisation’s critical Recovery Time Objectives:

It is essential that your DR plan is regularly tested to ensure recovery times are in place and that staff are familiar with the procedure.

> Server Recovery into standby Virtual Environment:

Servers must be recoverable into a virtual environment with secure access ensured to all global users.   

> Have an established DR site for staff to work from in the event of the primary site being down:

Organisations should have a secondary site which users can work from in the event of their primary site being unavailable.

The London Riots: Being Prepared for the Unpredictable is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Martin Kuhlmann a StorVault Country Manager claims that an integrated IT solution plays a vital role in protecting and restoring data.

Kuhlmann highlights that companies often don’t want to even consider disasters and it is natural to consider that such an eventuality is not possible. SMBs in particular wish to remain positive in outlook, at their early stages and not consider the consequences of the worst happening.

However the range of disasters which can occur is vast, and can range from an earthquake to a computer virus. Implementing a solution is crucial for any business to continue operating, no matter what the cause of the disruption.

In addition new IT governance legislation is another factor, which is ensuring that businesses move to implement Disaster Recovery solutions.

When considering a backup and recovery solution there are certain criteria which are essential to bear in mind. It is imperative that the system is reliable, automated and easy to use as well as being able to handle large scale data growth.

The following criteria also need to be decided upon before deciding on a solution:

Data should be encrypted before and during transmission and should remain encrypted whilst in storage.

There should be the opportunity to monitor backups through a secure and centralised interface, and this should be accessible from anywhere on the web.

The solution should also be a broad platform so that data support is unified in a single solution which works across virtually every combination of platform and application.

Business Continuity and Essential Integration of IT services. is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning was a question posed to the SME’s; the results which are published here, are quite surprising. Half the SME’s who were questioned admitted to having no Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery Plan in place. 16% of those asked felt there wasn’t a business requirement for one, whilst only 28% of those surveyed said they had a Business Continuity Plan in place. Given the amount of studies that have been conducted about how soon business go out of business after a major data loss incident, it seems not all SME’s are taking the issue too seriously.

The study reveals much more and states that owners of SME’s are underestimating how long it can take a business to get back to normal and continue trading. Obviously this is dependent on the type of business, but it is reckoned 33% of SME owners would be back on their feet within a week, whilst 31% believed within a month. With only 19% of those surveyed saying they had a full contingency in place, with full insurance cover, these figures seem to leave many SME’s exposed and their businesses at great risk.

By carefully planning data backup and business continuity requirements, companies can ensure that thier businesses downtime is kept to a minimum. Could any business cope with being out of action for a week, let alone a month? With no plan in place businesses run the risk of losing their customers they have spent years to attract and maintain the credibility they have built up.

SME’s should prioritise Business Continuity Plans in 2011 is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Top ranking of all the Cloud Backup vendors is Asigra.

Asigra is a 25-year-old, privately held company focused exclusively on backup, recovery and archiving.

The company has been providing multi-tenant backup and recovery solutions designed for managed service providers (MSPs) since its inception, and has amassed a very large number of partners that offer it as their own, relabeled software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. Asigra claims that over 250,000 sites are protected world wide. Initially designed for backup over a standard telephone line, the product has a long history of incorporating data reduction technology. As such, Asigra was one of the first backup solutions to deliver block-level incremental processing whereby only new and changed blocks of data need be transmitted.

The Asigra Cloud Backup software is based on an agent less architecture, with support for remote and branch offices, desktops, virtual environments and now laptops.

Asigra is quick to respond to market trends — notable is its support for CDP, virtual environments and Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certification.

Asigra started supporting virtual environments almost six years ago. At that time, there were no backup APIs available from server virtualization vendors, so Asigra used the native APIs from VMware and Xen to provide support for VMs. Today, Asigra supports VMware through the vStorage APIs (VADP), as well as through native APIs. Asigra states that the native API method allows for greater granularity, to the file/message level.

As Asigra’s largest global partner with over 5 Petabytes of data under management, Backup Technology are delighted that Asigra have been placed above other managed backup solutions on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. The results show Asigra’s abilities to enable partners such as Backup Technology to deliver fully managed backup solutions to household name business and enterprise customers.

Backup Technology currently have several individual customers who protect over 50 Terabytes of De Duplicated data using Asigra. Having worked with Asigra for over 6 years, we are confident that it is the only solution in the market that scales to enable us to protect individual customers of this size. What’s most impressive is that it does it without using any agents, and supports all of the major operating systems and database formats.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disk Based Enterprise Backup and Recovery is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

An automated message stated, “We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls due to a processing error by the Bank of Scotland. If a transaction has been duplicated this will be automatically refunded. The Bank of Scotland have a recovery plan in place.”

I was promised a full refund for being charged twice for the same goods. Well its five days after the mistake and the recovery plan seems to be taking its time, as I am yet to receive any refund. Not convenient for myself, and one would guess thousands of other banking customers.

Upon looking further into the issue, it appears that similar problems have previously affected customers of Bank of Scotland who are now part of the Lloyds Banking Group. In 2009 shops across the UK received complaints from customers accusing them of being charged twice for the same transaction. The fault was located to electronic point of sale systems and their chip and pin cards.

It is very surprising to see that two different banking groups have experienced similar issues within a short space of time. In both instances it has led to money being incorrectly taken from customer accounts, and the timing of the latest problem comes at the point where many people’s finances are stretched to the limit after the Christmas and New Year period.

It is very possible that the mistake could also lead to people receiving bank charges for going overdrawn and have transactions refused due to insufficient funds. Whilst I am sure that the banks will eventually refund these it is an unnecessary hassle and customers should not have to chase for refunds.

Whilst mistakes can always happen, customers should have been notified rather than having the shock of finding out themselves, and it should not have taken over 5 days to resolve.

It does call into question what Backup, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solutions the banks have in place to enable them to recover from such incidents.

Natwest and RBS customers experience overcharging is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

The estimated cost to the economy varies depending on which source you choose to believe, but predictions of between £250 million and £1.2 billion a day have been made public by different analysts.

The good news is that many firms have learned their lessons from the cold weather conditions which crippled the UK’s transport links earlier in 2010 and, as such, have taken the proper precautions to ensure business continuity, even when employees cannot make their way into work.

Remote working has become increasingly popular as a failsafe for such eventualities, with many choosing to stay at home and get work done, rather than risk getting stuck in the snow and ice on their commute.

Working from home using remote access also means that many thousands of people are able to cope with the widespread closure of schools, which has left children in need of all-day care. Of course some parents have simply been forced to take these days as holiday, which is hardly ideal, but a necessity when educational institutions cannot open.

Businesses which do lose out as a result of the climate need not take too much woe from the staggering predictions for daily costs, because experts believe that employees are likely to make up for lost time by staying later and working harder, once the weather has cleared up and they are able to return to their desks.

This is precisely what has happened in previous years, so even if productivity lags and continuity is compromised now, the future is the time for catching up and making amends.

If winters are set to get colder and snow is a more frequent visitor to the UK, it is likely that business continuity planning and disaster recovery will gain new importance within businesses around the country.

Importance of business continuity emphasised with snow fall is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Sixteen and a half million people bank online with the Chase bank, but serious technical issues took the whole infrastructure offline for 48 hours, resulting in outcry amongst the ranks of users, who need online banking to make their daily activities run smoothly.

Forrester Research’s Brian Walker, said that although many organisations have contingency measures in place to ensure that they can continue to operate in the event of an IT issue, a lack of preparation means that many fail to trial these backup systems and are then left exposed when they are forced to put them into action.

Mr Walker said that the business continuity plans are not only left untried, but they are also unnecessarily complex, making it difficult to implement them. He explained that contacting consumers and explaining issues was key to making sure that customers were not left in the dark and suggested that social networking was the best tool to use in order to spread the word.

Gartner’s Stessa Cohen, pointed out that the downtime suffered by Chase’s online banking service, was actually publicised via Twitter users, rather than through official channels. This increased the level of vexation amongst users as the bank was portrayed as being uncommunicative.

Cohen claims that businesses which harness social media tools and keep in direct contact with users may not find that they are able to deploy disaster recovery planning any quicker, but that they may stifle the ire of customers in the short term.

Mr Walker identified that the negative side of social media usage was that giving out details of a problem would not only alert customers, but also competitors and the press, perhaps increasing the risk of damaging the affected firm’s reputation.

Mr Walker said that businesses simply had to get better at handling disasters and involving customers in the progress of reparations.

Importance of business continuity highlighted by online banking fail is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Business continuity planning has to take into account a large number of scenarios, from power cuts and flooding, to natural disasters and security breaches, according to Forrester’s Stephanie Balaouras.

Balaouras explained that the decision makers at the head of smaller firms and enterprises had been reluctant to invest in business continuity and disaster recovery in the past, because there is inadequate data relating to the probability of the most catastrophic events ever occurring.

To counteract this problem, various data protection firms and analysts have compiled formal explanations of why business continuity planning is essential. Balaouras cited a recent statistic which found an average business would encounter nearly 400 disasters annually, equating to nearly £70 billion pounds of lost business each year.

In 2009 the league table for the most disaster-affected nation was headed by the US, with catastrophes costing the economy close to £7 billion. It was followed by China, which lost around £3 billion to disasters and then France, which saw £2 billion slip away in the same manner.

Industry watchdogs are attempting to promote the importance of a business’ ability to recover operational viability as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster and Balaouras identified 22 different global initiatives with this goal in mind.

SMEs are likely to benefit from business continuity planning, not just in the event of a disaster, but when they seek to secure business partnerships with third party firms. A study conducted two years ago found that 80 per cent of businesses had been asked to prove their disaster recovery capabilities before entering into a working relationship with another organisation.

Over a third of the respondents to Forrester’s recent survey said that they were going to be bolstering investment in business continuity over the next year by a minimum of five per cent, while only a tenth said that they were having to cut spending in this area.

SMEs seek to improve business continuity and disaster recovery is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.