Online backup and offsite replication have just become far more accessible, practical and efficient with the launch of our first online products.

BackupNOW offers managed online backups with minimal data transfer, while ServerNOW maintains a full replica of the customer's server with almost continual updates, ensuring near high-availability at low cost.

The new services extend a suite of services that is already the most comprehensive in the market. Only Plan-b offers customers fully equipped standby office facilities and our expertise in server recovery is unsurpassed.

"Online backups in various guises have been available here and there, but it has never been this efficient and affordable," says Symon Thurlow, Technical Director of Plan-b. "We deliberately delayed our entry into this market until the technology could offer our customers great ease, efficiency and value for money."

Online backup relieves the need to transport physical data such as tapes, making backup easier. It also facilitates faster recovery of lost data.

The two features that make Plan-b's new online backup services unique are that they are integrated into a comprehensive business continuity service and that it employs the most advanced technology yet developed.

BackupNOW is the only managed online backup service in New Zealand that de-duplicates data before it is transferred. It uses advanced technology that analyses data on the customer server in small blocks, comparing it with all the blocks of data already held at Plan-b. If the same data block already exists at Plan-b, it is not transmitted. Instead only a pointer to that data is included in the customer's backup.

"With so many businesses running similar software, it is inevitable that there would be massive overlaps in stored data," says Symon.

For the customer, the benefit is that only a relatively small amount of data needs to be updated each time, saving on time and telecommunications costs.

Having the data available online also speeds up recovery. If only a specific file or group of files are lost, the customer can restore it from their workplace or home within minutes using a user-friendly password-protected and encrypted service.

At the other end of the scale, if multiple servers have to be restored, these can be done concurrently. Instead of the time for the complete restore being the sum total of the time it took to restore each server, it would only take as long as the single server which was slowest to restore. For customers with multiple servers, this could cut restore time to a fraction of what it would be otherwise.

"The advanced de-duplication technology enables us to maximise storage and offer the enhanced recovery performance at a very competitive price," says Symon.

ServerNOW, our other new service, refreshes a full replica of the working server at frequent intervals.

"Essentially its role is to back up functionality, not just data. It includes everything from enterprise resource software to the latest emails. Should the customer server fail for whatever reason, the replica we hold could be only a few minutes old."

In technical terms, customers can achieve a recent recovery point objective (RPO). Because turning the replicated server on only takes a few minutes, customers can also achieve a faster recovery timeframe objective (RTO) than with other more traditional recovery methods.

"Customers who suffer site failure and who relocate to our OfficeNOW emergency standby facilities would also gain additional value by using ServerNOW, as we could have their own server environment ready and waiting by the time they get to the facility. Everything will be familiar to staff and working as they expect."

RecordNOW, a related product, is also due for launch within the coming weeks. RecordNOW is geared specifically towards sending transaction logs offsite at set intervals. This is especially useful for businesses that do phone or Internet transactions which cannot be reconstructed from a paper trail in case of system failure. Every time certain customer-defined thresholds are reached, the data is shipped to Plan-b for backup.

"While much of our business is about backing up data, we believe that backing up is not the purpose, but only the means to an end," says Symon. "What it's really about is mitigating the risk of business interruption. We absolutely have to be able to restore the data and functionality that is backed up. That's where the true value lies and that is always our focus. Many online backup providers use low-cost storage, but with our focus on prompt recovery, we use high-speed, enterprise grade infrastructure."

The new products not only make backup easier, but they make restores more reliable. The backed up data is continually scrutinised and tested to ensure that it is recoverable.

"We believe that with Plan-b's new services, perhaps for the first time, New Zealand businesses have a robust online backup option that makes solid business sense."

In February 2009, Plan-b extended our services to businesses and organisations in the Wellington region for the first time.

A well-known figure in the Wellington ICT industry, Paul Webb, has been appointed to head up our office in the capital. Webb holds an MBA from Massey University and has over 25 years industry experience, most recently at IBM and Fujitsu.

"This is an exciting opportunity for Plan-b and the Wellington region, because nobody else is offering a full range of services dedicated to business continuity," says Paul.

"Flooding, fire, a server outage... there are a hundred reasons why an office may be out of action or out of reach. If this happens, our clients can simply call Plan-b and be set up in a fully equipped office within the hour," says Webb.

For the moment, Plan-b's mobile office facilities will be deployed in Wellington, but the company will have a full-time contingency office facility in the city later in the year.

"Plan-b has robust services and proven processes that can help any organisation get back up and running with little interruption and minimal loss," says Webb. "The services we offer are as essential as insurance and quality control. Every business should have it."

The power outages in Auckland on 3 February 2009 marked the third occasion that LeasePlan activated OfficeNOW, the standby facility service they get from Plan-b.

"It's like insurance," says Chris Marshment, customer relations manager at Plan-b. "Our customers share the cost of maintaining the facility and can move their staff in there at short notice in a crisis."

The facilities are fully equipped with desks, PCs, servers, telephones, PABX, data circuits and even kitchen facilities and parking for staff. Plan-b has two fully set up locations in Auckland and one in Hamilton, with a Wellington facility to come soon. In addition, the company has two mobile standby facilities that can be parked and powered up at a customer's existing premises.

Anne Birkinshaw, office manager for LeasePlan, says their company had staff working at the Plan-b premises in Mt Wellington within an hour of the power going off. The outage occurred at 1.10pm on 3 February. By 1.20pm, LeasePlan had notified Plan-b that they would like to use the stand by facilities. By 1.45pm, a number of LeasePlan staff were working at the facility.

It is part of LeasePlan's service level agreement to be available to field calls and support customers, so it was crucial to keep the phone lines open and the computer infrastructure operational.

"We have a UPS, so we could continue taking calls at our regular office in Remuera for a while," says Anne. "Once our staff were in the standby facility, it was simply a matter of switching over calls coming in through our main line to Plan-b. Using the equipment in the standby facility, we had Internet access to our servers, which are based in Melbourne. We were able to provide our usual service. Most of our customers didn't even know there was a problem."

Even if LeasePlan had been reliant on local servers, Plan-b's server recovery capability would have had them up and running very quickly.

"Most of our customers use our backup tape management and server recovery services along with the access to standby facilities," says Plan-b's Chris Marshment.

"Usually what people want in a crisis are phones, access to computer systems and a place to congregate. In a crisis, more than any other time, staff need to congregate. They need to be able to talk about what is going on and what needs to be done until normal operations are restored."

LeasePlan has been using Plan-b's business continuity services since April 2006.