Corporate Governance legislation and The King Commission have highlighted the need for disaster recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning and Provisioning, as well as the penalties for not having these in place. However, this all comes at a high price. Moreover, much like insurance, it's a cost that has a measure of resistance associated with it because of the low eventuality of a disaster; DR hot sites are the most costly of these services - whether owned or as an outsourced service.
Many companies have resorted to using branch offices for off-site data mirroring, and for use during emergencies, but this does not completely solve the company requirements, and often these plans fall short of the ideal DR planning scenario.
Launched earlier this month by Backup Storage Facilities, "The premise of the MDR is that your disaster recovery site comes to you at your time of greatest need, fully configured for your requirements," says June Welthagen, BSF Group general manager.
She believes that the MDR is uniquely BSF and says that over a 20-year period the company's mission had been to evolve a culture of exceptional service to its clients.
"We are a niche, but critical part of their DR planning and the MDR extends our forte by providing a cost-effective DR site service to all types and sizes of business; larger corporations who need smaller DR sites for branches, as well smaller organisations that need a DR facility but don't want to go the conventional route."
Welthagen says she is particularly excited by the versatility of the approach to the MDR offering: "Although we have developed a standard option that has built-in fire prevention management and consists of an administrative section, a facilities section (power generation and air conditioning) and data centre, our clients can configure the units themselves to include satellite internet access, VoIP phone systems and solar power generation."
BSF Group marketing manager, Darren Stewien, believes providing a complete end-to-end offering is crucial, "We have made sure we've packaged a complete DR solution in the Mobile Disaster Recovery offering; from the service through to financing and operating the unit during a disaster."
The BSF MDR is available as either an outright purchase and self-operation, or a full service offering that includes the following: Finance, maintenance, unit storage, bandwidth availability, site setup and operation when activated. Client units will be housed at BSF, which will provide power and internet access so that clients can update their data or use the site as a mirroring facility. Alternatively, the client will be able to house and manage the unit themselves. Also part of the package is crane, trailer and transport facilities on 24-hour stand by.
The option also exists for clients that choose to purchase the unit outright to utilise the storage facilities at BSF.
For more information go to http://www.backupstorage.co.za.
