Why should I backup my data?

If you don't know the answer to this, you probably aren't a good candidate for the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service service.

What does the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service do?

The Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ Backup and Recovery Service is a complete managed service solution providing online backup, recovery, and electronic vaulting for your servers running Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Solaris, or Linux.

Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ Backup and Recovery Service makes backing up your data easy and convenient. You specify what you want to back up and when, and Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ backs up your data over your existing Internet connection. You can back up data to an offsite location, and also to an appliance at your own site for quicker recovery time. Using unique replication technology, Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ Agent software copies only the data that changes on your protected system, including open files such as databases and email servers, minimizing server load and bandwidth requirements.

Recovering your data is just as easy. Whether you need to recover your entire computer or to restore a few files, Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ enables you to choose the most recent version, or an historic version using Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™’s patented Time-Slice Restore technology. Either way, you select the files to be restored from a tree file system view. If you are using an appliance, you have the convenience of restoring any amount of data quickly. From the offsite vault, you can restore data over the Internet directly to your computer, or request that a large amount of data be shipped to you on a restore device.

The personalized web-based interface (Iron Mountain LiveVault Service Web Management Portal) enables you to manage the entire online backup and electronic vaulting process from a web browser. You can add computers, configure your backups, request restores, and check the status of your backup and restore operations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from any computer, anywhere.

Your data transmission over the Internet is secured by a combination of password-protected SSL-level web access, electronic key technology, advanced encryption techniques, and industry-standard digital certificates.

And Iron Mountain Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ provides constant monitoring of your backup and restore operations through the Service Operations Center (SOC). The SOC utilizes cutting-edge software to monitor and maintain all the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service™ operations and systems. If the SOC sees a problem with your system, they contact you before any trouble occurs.

What types of operating systems are supported?

• Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (all flavors and service packs)
• Microsoft Windows 2003 Server (all flavors and service packs)
• RedHat Linux 7
• Other versions of Linux may be available so please contact us so that we can check.

Why should I use the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service online backup service?

• Security

  • Your data is encrypted, using 256 bit AES encryption, and is securely transmitted to a secure offsite storage facility.

• Reliability

  • The service has a 100% guaranteed recovery rate.  Did you know that the restoral from a tape backup can fail 50% of the time? 

• Ease of Implementation

  • You sign up for the service.  Go to a website and download and install the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service software agent.  The agent is managed using a web based interface as opposed to a software client that has to be manually installed on every computer that you may want to manage the service from.

• Reduce staff overhead

  • The software is installed and is then monitored by the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service Network Operations Center (NOC).  Your staff is good but they probably aren't trained professionals on monitoring and managing your backups 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

• Recovery Time

  • All you have to do is login to your Iron Mountain LiveVault Service website and select which files you wish to restore.  You could restore the most current version or the version from several days ago.

• Current backups

  • Your backups can run continuously 24 hours a day or you can select certain time periods in which you want to backup data.  I bet your current backup solution does not offer that feature. 

• Cost

  • For a fixed rate each month, you can rest assured that your data has been successfully backed up and that you can actually restore a file or files without a need for a college degree in Computer Science.
  • People tout the inexpensiveness of tape.  This is kind of a ludicrous statement when all the initial startup and ongoing costs. 

    • Initial Cost of the tape drive.

      • How much does a tape drive cost?  Inexpensive tape drives can cost several hundred dollars and you get what you pay for.  The good ones cost several to tens of thousands of dollars. 

    • Getting the tape drive installed.

      • This can cost a couple of hundred dollars or if you are lucky you bought the tape drive when you bought the server. 

    • Buying the tape backup software

      • You could use the software that comes with the operating system but it can be hard to setup and certainly difficult to manage remotely or centrally.  If you want software that is relatively robust, you are going to spend several hundred to several thousand dollars.  If you want software that is going to backup your Microsoft SQL Server or to backup your Microsoft Exchange Server, you are going to spend additional money.

    • Rotating the tapes

      • You have to manually rotate the tapes or if you are lucky you have an auto tape loader that does this for you.  It can be difficult to remember the proper rotation scheme.

    • Getting the tape offsite

      • You could do this manually by having someone in the office take them home.  If that person leaves the tape in the car and it is 100 degrees outside, the tape is probably unreliable.  If that person's car gets stolen, now the thief has your whole company's information in their hands.  Finally, what is most likely, is that the tapes are never moved off-site and if the office is robbed, your backups have just disappeared.
      • If you don't take the tapes off-site and pay someone to do it for you, you will now incur the monthly recurring costs for that.  Finally, have you ever wondered if you can trust the young person to do a good job?

    • Restoring a file

      • So let's say you do need to restore a file.  You have to figure out where the tape is in order to restore the file.  If you have been taking your tapes off-site, you'll have to wait hours for the tape to be brought back.  Then, you may have to look through many tapes in order to find the one that has the file of interest on it.  With tape, you don't get the luxury of being able to restore files extremely quickly using a simple web interface.  Heck, you probably don't get the option of restoring multiple versions of the file or files in question.

    • Your Time

      • How much time do you spend fiddling with tapes, wondering if the backup even worked in the first place, and then troubleshooting the entire process?  We think it makes a lot of business sense to pay a small monthly fee to make these problems go away.

• Copper Bridge's Service

  • Copper Bridge is here to help you.  We don't expect you to be experts in technology.  That is what we do.  We aren't experts at everything.  However, the things that we do know, we know inside and out.  We know Iron Mountain LiveVault Service.  We've been trained and certified by Iron Mountain Digital's staff.  Our connections at Iron Mountain Digital let us ensure that you will get the best possible service.
  • We take the time to talk with you and explain technology to you in plain English so you can make business judgments on the applicability of the technology.
  • Copper Bridge has a suite of services, tools, and knowledge at our disposal that we can bring to bear for you.  The Iron Mountain LiveVault Service is one tool in our arsenal.  We think we have gathered several best of breed solutions and products.

In the event of a data loss, what most likely caused it?

Type of Loss	Description / Examples	Frequency
Human Error	Human error, deletion, overwrite, data entry error, …	83%
Corruption	File corruption, contained virus, application error, …	10%
Storage Loss	Failure or loss of primary storage, e.g. corrupt RAID controller, etc.	5%
Site	Site Disaster	<2%
Server	CPU failure, storage RAID failure, theft, catastrophic virus	<1%

• With human error being the most likely cause of a loss of data, wouldn't it be great if you could restore a file at exactly how it looked at a certain point in time?  With the Iron Mountain LiveVault Service, you can.  You can restore a file, or files, as it looked at a certain point in time AND you can restore that file, or files, from multiple points in time so you can determine which is the appropriate version.

All of this sounds great, so how much does it cost?

Well, that depends.  Please contact us so we can get some background information from you so that we can give you a realistic estimate based on your data protection needs.

• It depends on the number of servers that you need to backup.
• It depends on the amount of data that need to be backed up.
  • The minimum amount is 5 GB.  Just to give you a rough idea of costs, at 5 GB, the cost per GB to backup is a maximum of $28.  if you have more than 2 TB, the cost per GB is $9.  Your actual cost will be somewhere in between this range.
• It depends on how long you need to keep the backed up data.
  • There are plans for 30 days, 1 year, and 7 years.
     
• It depends on whether you want to buy the TurboRestore appliance.  
• Are there any discounts?
  • There is a 10% discount if you sign up for the 3 year contract as opposed to the 2 year contract.
  • If you prepay for an entire year, there is a 15% discount.  Otherwise, you are billed monthly for the service.

If you have a few minutes, here is a great demonstration of the Iron Mountain LiveVault service. 

If you want to see a somewhat humorous look of the serious topic of data backup, please take a look at the Institute for Backup Trauma video, starring John Cleese, www.backuptrauma.com.

 

Please contact us for more information, a free trial, and/or a price quote.

• How does it work?
• Major Features
• Data Security
• FAQ