Disaster recovery: version 2.0 of online back up?

Data is becoming more and more vital for businesses, and it is becoming even more difficult to protect that data. That's the word according to KeepItSafe managing director, Americas and ANZ, Jonathan Crowe.

Traditionally, online back up services could take days to get a business back up and running, Crowe says. But these days, businesses are always on and they need to be able to recover quickly from a disaster.

He explains, "With online back up, you've got to order new hardware, rebuild all your operating systems and applications, recover all the data. But with disaster recovery solutions, you can be back up and running within hours.

KeepItSafe was founded in 2006 and launched in New Zealand two years ago. Focused primarily on online back up solutions, the company is venturing into disaster recovery.

"Recovering a file is very straight forward, but disaster recovery is like version 2.0 of online back up," he says. "We protect your entire infrastructure, and can recover it extremely quickly.

Crowe says networks are no longer as safe as they once were, and his company is seeing a lot of external threats that are forcing businesses to realise they need protection for their data, because ultimately that's what is driving their business.

Besides external threats, Crowe says internal threats are becoming more commonplace is business. In the face of mobility and BYOD, Crowe says IT decision makers are struggling with the concept of wanting to facilitate people and allow them to do their work, while at the same time mitigating the risk involved with devices people are using for personal use.

"We do have failsafes within our system to be able to focus on those specific threats," Crowe says. "It's not just back up and disaster recovery; the system can pick up on unusual or suspicious activity. One of the services we provide is a proactive service where we can highlight those things to IT managers.

Crowe says of the reasons businesses choose KeepItSafe over its competitors is because it provides a fully managed solution. "We do the installation, the day-to-day management of the back ups, and we're also there for the recovery 24/7," he says.

With a presence in ten regions across the globe, Crowe says having a local team is a key factor of the business. "We pride ourselves on having a local team in each region, because ultimately we're selling peace of mind to our customers, so they need to have the confidence that we are supporting them locally and that we keep their data within the region and we're not going to ship it off overseas," Crowe says.

"Everyone has a mobile device and everyone is using cloud services, so as data protection and compliance becomes more important, we're seeing increased demand for our services," Crowe says. "It's not just about software anymore, it's about service, and we really customise solutions that work for our customers.