Ontrack's new Ontrack Online service provides accessible up-to-the minute updates and reports on the current status of files and systems.Along the same lines as a UPS tracking system, Ontrack Data Recovery has launched its new Ontrack Online service, which allows organizations and IT administrators to keep close tabs on critical data recovery efforts.
The Ontrack Online service provides accessible up-to-the minute updates and reports on the current status of files and systems—some of which are salvageable, and how to best respond for those well beyond saving.
Currently available as a free option to existing Ontrack Data Recovery customers, the new Ontrack Online service lets parties securely track their specified recovery job from initial evaluation, along its various stages of retrieval, right up through to the completion of the recovery service.
A typical recovery jobs seven "stages" first involve an invitation e-mail, password and URL sent to allow secure log-in toward establishing a link and a corresponding job number.
From there, a receipt of the drive requiring recovery is delivered to the customer online, then the initial evaluation and diagnostics process begins.
Once the job is finished, customers can view the condition of recoverable files through OnTracks VeriFile report, said Jim Reinert, senior director Software and Services for Ontrack Data Recovery, a business unit of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Kroll Ontrack Inc.
Traditionally, Ontrack Data Recoverys "InLabs" service entails customers sending in their crashed or damaged hard drives to any of the data recovery companys 17 labs worldwide for expert inspection and data retrieval depending on the corruption or severity inflicted upon the affected device.
Mark Fairo, a systems analyst for North Wells, Pa.-based Merck & Co. Inc., says he has used the new Ontrack Online service a few times to stay on top of—and keep clients informed about—recovery efforts surrounding legal hold data and other sensitive information buried on laptops he has sent to Ontracks InLabs service.
"Its just easier, I think, than having to make a phone call all the time [to Ontrack]. You can use the online Verifile [report], and once they have your data recovered, you can track and see what kind of data youre going to get back, and you can make a decision if you want to go on with recovery or just forget about it, and you can do that right with a link they send you," said Fairo.
"It basically saves a lot of e-mails back and fourth and instead of having to pay a price to get data back for what you need [for recovery] you get to see that information before you even have to decide," he added.
For Allen Shevach, sales and service consultant for Charleston, S.C.-based Software Solutions and Designs Inc., the new Ontrack Online service allows his organization to augment its "hand-holding" with the customer to solve their problems, right down to the most minute recovery detail.
"Every four to six hours, I can get on and find out the status of what the status is for that individual job. I can see what they found, if it needs to go to the [InLabs] clean room, all the way through to the end result. Thats incredible," Shevach said.
To read more about storage recovery solutions, click here.
"I can call customers up on the phone with results that I can see in real-time, and a directory infrastructure image in real-time with the status of every file they recovered, down to file size, file name, and tree structure."
Ontrack Data Recovery features an entry-level EasyRecovery software option for simplified in-house data retrieval purposes.
For remote branches and dispersed operations, a Remote Data Recovery Service is available from Ontrack.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and small business storage hardware and software.
Data Storage, Data Backup and Storage Virtualization 
