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Data backup, business continuity and disaster recovery service provider Axcient announced the launch of Cloud Continuity, a service aimed at small to medium-size businesses that enables companies to launch all of their servers in Axcient’s cloud. When local servers fail, users can run a virtual office on Axcient’s cloud platform, enabling employees to continue working on their data and applications, and from any Internet-enabled device at any location.
The company said Cloud Continuity can be set up in minutes and doesn’t require users to make any changes to their network environment, install any software or make any upfront investments-the platform is offered as a monthly service. Built on HP hardware and available through resellers in early November 2011, Cloud Continuity is offered as a pay-as-you-grow service.
“Traditional backup systems just don’t offer the level of service that Axcient does. We were using both Acronis and Symantec, but had problems getting them to do what we wanted,” said Shane Linde, a network engineer at The Computer Center. “The appeal of Axcient is that, with one device and one vendor, we provide customers with ultimate continuity. For financial, legal and health care practices with strict recovery time objectives and compliance requirements, or any business that can’t afford a day of downtime, the additional protection of having data and applications live and accessible in the cloud gives them a backup plan for their backup plans.”
Research by Contingency Planning, Strategic Research Corp. and DTI/PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the effect of downtime and data and application loss on small to medium enterprises caused 70 percent of small firms to go out of business within a year of the event. While many midmarket businesses have some type of backup solution in place, Axcient said few have considered the cost of downtime between the point of data loss and the time their systems are fully restored and operational.
“For SMBs, losing access to their data and applications can mean losing their entire business,” said Meaghan Kelly, vice president of channel sales development and strategies for HP. “Until now, companies have been forced to rely on antiquated data protection methods, such as tape, to protect their valuable assets. Axcient Cloud Continuity enables SMBs a complete backup and continuity solution that protects not only their data, but also their applications, so SMBs can focus on doing what they do best, running their business.”
Justin Moore, CEO of Axcient, said the majority of vendors that are focused on the data protection market have built partial solutions that require an SMB to work with multiple vendors, and most of those solutions only protect the data. “With Cloud Continuity, we can ensure that businesses continuously have access to both their data and their applications no matter what happens. We’re going to make downtime a thing of the past for SMBs,” he said. “By leveraging the scalability and cost savings of the cloud, we are able to provide SMBs with enterprise-class service and technology at SMB price-points and SMB ease of use.”