AmeriVault Debuts DR Service for i OS Servers

Published: September 9, 2008

by Alex Woodie

AmeriVault is now in the i OS disaster recovery (DR) business. Last month, the Waltham, Massachusetts, provider of online vaulting and DR services, unveiled RestartIT-VDR iSeries, a new offering that combines remote backups and hot site services, enabling i OS servers (and the businesses that depend on them) to get back online within hours after a disaster.

There are several components to AmeriVault's new RestartIT-VDR iSeries offering. The service utilizes customers' Internet connections to remotely back up their i OS (formerly i5/OS and OS/400) servers to one of AmeriVault's i OS servers located in one of the company's data centers.

Following a disaster declaration, AmeriVault will rebuild its customer's machine on one of its i OS servers, a process that is normally completed in just a few hours, the company says. The customer can then access its applications over a secure VPN connection and get back in business.

Meanwhile, as the customer works to repair or replace its production machine following the disaster, AmeriVault permits the customer to work off AmeriVault's backup machines for up to 30 days, free of charge.

AmeriVault says its new RestartIT-VDR iSeries offering overcomes several roadblocks to a quick recovery for organizations affected by a server outage.

For starters, many organizations fail to adequately safeguard their backup tapes, such as an operator taking tapes home instead of storing them far enough away that they wouldn't be affected by a regional disaster, such as a fire, earthquake, terrorist attack, or even a hurricane.

Secondly, traditional DR approaches often require shipping tapes long distances. However, this is fraught with danger and uncertainty, not to mention the chance that it may take weeks to get the tapes. Lastly, it may take another week or more to obtain another server following a disaster, further delaying recovery efforts.

AmeriVault partnered with SafeData on the RestartIT-VDR iSeries offering. SafeData has partnerships with several vendors for its backup and recovery technology, including E-Vault for disk-to-disk (D2D) backups, and Vision Solutions for real-time replication and high availability.

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