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I’ve written previously about the importance of disaster preparedness (data archival; backup/restore), virtualization technology, and the use of the latter by small businesses in addressing the former.

In summary, in my experience, companies of all shapes and sizes are challenged when it comes to disaster preparedness (DP). And I’ll be the first to admit that data backup is only one aspect of that. But it’s a critical aspect, especially for those firms (like mine) whose only non-human assets are “soft”.

The good news for firms like mine is that software can, and should, be the solution. What do I mean by that? Simply this: DP software can make your business resilient, even when facing a total loss of your primary office or data center, for example. And while DP software has historically been incomplete, difficult to use, and full of hidden costs and risks, that’s about to change.

I’ve created a new product called Restorify (owned by a company under the same name; the website is here, but it’s still just a placeholder). Restorify allows small business, engaged with an IT professional or managed service provider (MSP), to replicate their virtualized line-of-business (LOB) servers offsite. Replication is efficient and secure and can happen over LAN, WAN, or internet. And here’s the key point: we replicate the entire virtual machine, and incrementally update it as often as you want.

What’s the benefit to the MSP? Twofold: first, you host the offsite storage of the server images, so you tighten your bond with your customers.

Second, you minimize the impact of server or data loss. Since you’ve always got a copy of the latest virtualized server image, all you have to do is copy it onto a temporary host (just has to be compatible with the virtualization solution you’re using; see below), drive it to the customer site, and plug it in. You’re back up and running in two hours instead of two days, and the pressure is off while you work on fixing or replacing the production server.

What’s the benefit to the end-user/customer? Loss of a key LOB server can be equivalent to loss of the entire business; this is something to be avoided. But even if the data is available, each hour spent waiting for a server rebuild is another hour of lost business, lost revenue. Restorify minimizes post-disaster downtime for small businesses, and it does so without the hidden costs of tapes, USB hard drives, and failed restores.

Restorify currently supports Microsoft Hyper-V. Support for VMware (including the vSphere-compatible hypervisors such as the ESX family) is coming.

Interested in an evaluation license for Restorify? Please email us at info at restorify dot com.

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Just found the link to this interview that Stephen Forte and I did way back in June at TechEd (Los Angeles).

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