AmeriVault Offers Outsourced Disaster Recovery

Enterprises seeking to outsource their disaster recovery plans will get a slate of new choices next month from service provider AmeriVault Corp.

Beyond simple backups, the Waltham, Mass., company will offer outsourced storage management and ready-to-go servers to save time in case of a disaster.

"Well back up their data into their [own] data center rather than ours," which is suited for users who want only outsourced expertise but not hosting. Hosting is still an option for backups of the insourcing, called InfoStage, said Bud Stoddard, CEO, founder and president of AmeriVault.

With the other new service, called RestartIT, AmeriVault will periodically restore customer data to preconfigured servers, which can be shipped immediately, Stoddard said. Or with services called Drop Ship and Hot Site, AmeriVault will provide clean hardware and mobile office space, from College Station, Texas, partner Rentsys Inc. and Wayne, Pa., partner SunGard Data Systems Inc., he said.

In another new service, AmeriVault will give users the option of having restored data delivered on tapes or network-attached storage, Stoddard said.

"If you want to do any kind of disaster recovery ... you need to have your data off-site," said customer Rick Thimble, IT director at Moldflow Corp. and an AmeriVault customer for almost four years. Moldflow, in Wayland, Mass., makes injection-molding software for computer-aided drafting and design systems. Of the RestartIT service, "I think thats a great idea," depending on the cost, Thimble said.

AmeriVault is also improving its data reporting features, which can now take action on technical issues instead of just providing alerts. But the reporting itself needs work, Thimble said. Users should be notified when theyre approaching capacity overages, so they can plan accordingly instead of being surprised, he said.

AmeriVault uses software from EVault Inc., of Walnut Creek, Calif., and differentiates itself by offering service-level agreements, Stoddard said. The company runs a data center in Waltham and uses SunGards location in Philadelphia.

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