New service protects Microsoft's Small Business Server

Online, January 22, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Plan B DR has launched a new disaster recovery service for users of Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) that guarantees to restore a fully working virtualised replica, within 30 minutes. Plan B DR's recovery service addresses the complex challenge of restoring or rebuilding SBS and will prevent users from experiencing serious business losses.

Tim Dunger, at Plan B DR explains, "The great risk with SBS is that if you lose it, you lose all your business services together. Companies that rely on SBS typically possess limited or no in-house IT support and worryingly, in a server loss scenario, Microsoft's remedy is to recover from backups. Unfortunately, on average about 20% of backups fail and the backup will only be useful once a SBS has been replaced or rebuilt, which due to its complexity, can take up to 10 days."

Rebuilding a SBS is very difficult because it has a number of key applications that might otherwise be found on separate servers, so the rebuild process is often longer and more complicated. Another SBS re-build challenge is its inclusion of only one copy of Active Directory that controls user access, security controls and other key functions. Without Active Directory, nothing will work and if anything goes wrong with its restore - it is very difficult to diagnose.

Plan B DR has designed a SBS recovery service that is simple, inexpensive and fully managed. The Service uses a dedicated appliance to take SBS snapshots and transfer them off-site to a secure recovery centre, where they are automatically processed and converted to run on Plan B's virtual servers. Plan B test restore every system copy every day to make sure they will work when needed.

A copy of a SBS server can be recovered, and made available across a secure connection over the Internet, ready to work in a network with firewall settings, email redirection and DNS - in less than 30 minutes.

The service is very simple to set up, taking no more than 20 minutes and then runs completely automatically - needing no day to day IT support. The service is also guaranteed with money back penalties and has the added benefit of providing a local file backup that is tested every day.

Dunger adds, "Our DR solution provides companies with virtually immediate access to their recovered SBS - instead of many days of potentially damaging downtime. As our service is fully managed, it is perfect for businesses, with little or no on-site IT staff. The service is also highly affordable and its simplicity doesn't create any extra IT headaches or costs."
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