ANTenna Blog -- Storage

In most cases, backup and disaster recovery companies promise to back up your data. But this new recovery service provider offers a Service Level Agreement that specifies not just that it will safeguard your data and applications, but how long it will take to restore them.

According Simply Continuous CEO Tom Frangione, backup is only the beginning. The key is to restore the data and get the applications up and running again. This is especially true, Frangione says, for midmarket companies dealing with increasingly large data sets that can easily run into terabytes or even tens of tens of terabytes.

Tape backup is the most common backup solution, but it simply isn't good enough for companies with large data sets and tight recovery windows, Frangione said. But most midmarket companies can't afford to run their own fully staffed data centers like large enterprises often do, creating a so-called "recovery gap" where midmarket companies face enterprise challenges with SMB resources.

To fill the gap and replace tape backup, Simply Continuous offers two new services, Data Recovery Vault (for data) and AppAlive(for apps). They both come with a unique recovery service level agreement (SLA) that guarantees restoration of the data within a specified timeframe -- without forcing changes to a company's existing backup practices.

Basically, this is how it works:

1. Simply Continuous installs, configures, and manages an onsite appliance (separate from the -- required -- Data Domain deduplication storage appliance) along with simple software agents on the servers managing your data.


2. The onsite appliance copies and sends encrypted data to secure multi-tenant data center in Scottsdale, Arizona, via secure Internet connections.


3. The entire systems is managed by a "business layer" of management software (complete with online portal and dashboard), that Frangione descibes as the company's "secret sauce"


4. If there's a small problem, the onsite appliance can restore any lost data, by replicating it from Simply Continuous' Data Vault.


5. For larger problems, Simply Continuous can replicate the entire data set to a new appliance and ship it to the customer.


6. In the meantime, using its AppAlive service, Simply Continuous can bring up an application and run it directly from the data center until the problem is fixed.

The Simply Continous Data Vault Architecture

According to Frangione though, apart from the technology, "just as important is a meaningful SLA that specifies when will you get your data back."

What will all this cost you? Frangione says the two products use slightly different pricing models. Data Recovery Vault charges approximately $1/GB/month of de-duplicated storage. "Average" customers typicallly fall in the $2,500-$3,000 per month range, which an on-site firewall, all data center costs, 24x7 NOC and management, our portal, and any data recovery not requiring shipment of a recovery unit. AppAlive is priced according to how much processing capacity is needed, ad typically runs an additional $300-$500 per month.