Top Construction Distributor Switches to AppAssure Replay 4 to Implement an Affordable Disaster Recovery Solution
AppAssure Replay 4 backup and recovery software ensures that Brock White Company has quick restores, low impact backups and a solid DR solution.
Reston, VA, July 22, 2011 --(PR.com)-- AppAssure Software, a leading developer of award-winning backup and disaster recovery software products for mission-critical Windows application servers, today announced that Brock White Company LLC, a St. Paul, MN based leading distributor of construction materials, switched to AppAssure’s Replay 4 backup and recovery software to solve the challenge of lengthy backup windows and slow data restores, having reduced data recovery time from 12 hours to 15 minutes.
As Mike Somers, Brock White’s IT Director, said, he knew that if one of the company’s Exchange servers went down, that would be a real disaster for his company. “None of our important data was replicated off-site, and that made me really concerned,” noted Somers. As the head of a three-person team that oversees all aspects of Brock White’s technology, Somers knew that Brock White faced key vulnerabilities in their ability to effectively distribute to their concrete and masonry construction markets.
“The company had been using another backup solution for a long time. We used it for application backup, such as Exchange, while using one more tool to back up the VMs,” said Somers. Exchange backups at Brock White were taking longer and longer, up to 12 hours, added Somers.
“The tool left a ‘hanging snapshot’ and corrupted the Exchange VM one day,” recalled Somers. “I personally had to be involved with the restore, trying to monkey around with another backup solution. I spent an entire weekend restoring Exchange – it was awful.”
As Somers stated, this disaster sent him in search of a better product that would give him the confidence and capability he needed in his data. “We looked at one more backup solution for Exchange as a possibility but it was too expensive for us,” said Somers. “Then we heard about Replay and have been completely satisfied ever since.”
“Since purchasing Replay,” explained Somers, “Windows updates have clobbered our Exchange servers a couple of times. But with Replay, we don’t have so much fear. We just roll back to the last good snap and in 15 minutes we can get the servers back up and running.” Somers noted that what used to make the team sweat – mission-critical application servers such as SQL and Exchange going down – doesn’t exist anymore. "In fact, Brock White’s team has had several server outages recently and with Replay, the restores were quick, efficient, and easy," said Somers.
“We’ve now restored a couple of SQL databases with Replay and it has worked great,” he said. “We run document management apps, SharePoint, vCenter, Citrix, IT SQL, Data Warehouse, a budgeting solution application, and a lot of other mission-critical apps on SQL. Our vCenter database got corrupted, but the restores were quick and easy. We know this works. We have extra confidence now.”
While another backup solution's failure debacle was the catalyst for Brock White’s IT team to search for a better solution, said Somers, Replay’s ability to replicate data to an offsite repository quickly became the company’s forward-focused disaster recovery strategy.
“Right now we replicate from the primary data center to one of the larger sites that has a Replay server,” says Somers. “In fact, we have about 24 servers we’re replicating. Luckily we’ve not had to do a restore from one of the remote sites, but we’ve spun out the VM from the remote to a co-lo to test it out, and we’re ready to go. Our DR plan is, if the main center went down, we’d take the Replay server from the co-lo and restore it, and then be back up and running in no time.”
Somers’ DR plan with Replay taking the lead is coming in at half the cost of what Brock White had budgeted for backup alone. “What started as just our backup need quickly became our main DR plan,” claimed Somers. “I tell other people, I know what it’s like to be in their shoes. Replay really does work and I just don’t worry about this now.”
About Brock White Company
Headquartered in St. Paul, MN and incorporated in 1954, Brock White Company LLC is a leading distributor of construction materials providing specialty products to concrete and masonry construction markets in the upper Midwest United States. These products include hand tools, specialty chemicals, waterproofing materials, caulking, insulation, geotextile fabrics, erosion control, highway sealants, concrete and masonry accessories, concrete repair and restoration materials and coatings, landscaping accessories, as well as fireplace and masonry products such as brick, natural stone, and Cultured Stone through select locations.
About AppAssure Replay 4
Replay 4 is the world’s fastest and easiest backup and disaster recovery software for Windows application servers, VMware and Hyper-V Virtual Servers. The only complete “all-in-one” backup and recovery solution, Replay 4 enables local recoveries from any type of failure in just minutes, with the added assurance of offsite application and image backup and bare metal recovery from a total site disaster.
For a free 14-day Replay 4 software trial, visit www.AppAssure.com.
About AppAssure Software
AppAssure Software is a leading provider of innovative backup and disaster recovery software for Windows application servers. AppAssure’s flagship product, Replay 4 is an application-aware, disk-based imaging solution that automatically and continuously snapshots entire Windows application servers delivering accelerated application backups and disaster recovery for in minutes. For more information about AppAssure Software, visit http://www.appassure.com.
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As Mike Somers, Brock White’s IT Director, said, he knew that if one of the company’s Exchange servers went down, that would be a real disaster for his company. “None of our important data was replicated off-site, and that made me really concerned,” noted Somers. As the head of a three-person team that oversees all aspects of Brock White’s technology, Somers knew that Brock White faced key vulnerabilities in their ability to effectively distribute to their concrete and masonry construction markets.
“The company had been using another backup solution for a long time. We used it for application backup, such as Exchange, while using one more tool to back up the VMs,” said Somers. Exchange backups at Brock White were taking longer and longer, up to 12 hours, added Somers.
“The tool left a ‘hanging snapshot’ and corrupted the Exchange VM one day,” recalled Somers. “I personally had to be involved with the restore, trying to monkey around with another backup solution. I spent an entire weekend restoring Exchange – it was awful.”
As Somers stated, this disaster sent him in search of a better product that would give him the confidence and capability he needed in his data. “We looked at one more backup solution for Exchange as a possibility but it was too expensive for us,” said Somers. “Then we heard about Replay and have been completely satisfied ever since.”
“Since purchasing Replay,” explained Somers, “Windows updates have clobbered our Exchange servers a couple of times. But with Replay, we don’t have so much fear. We just roll back to the last good snap and in 15 minutes we can get the servers back up and running.” Somers noted that what used to make the team sweat – mission-critical application servers such as SQL and Exchange going down – doesn’t exist anymore. "In fact, Brock White’s team has had several server outages recently and with Replay, the restores were quick, efficient, and easy," said Somers.
“We’ve now restored a couple of SQL databases with Replay and it has worked great,” he said. “We run document management apps, SharePoint, vCenter, Citrix, IT SQL, Data Warehouse, a budgeting solution application, and a lot of other mission-critical apps on SQL. Our vCenter database got corrupted, but the restores were quick and easy. We know this works. We have extra confidence now.”
While another backup solution's failure debacle was the catalyst for Brock White’s IT team to search for a better solution, said Somers, Replay’s ability to replicate data to an offsite repository quickly became the company’s forward-focused disaster recovery strategy.
“Right now we replicate from the primary data center to one of the larger sites that has a Replay server,” says Somers. “In fact, we have about 24 servers we’re replicating. Luckily we’ve not had to do a restore from one of the remote sites, but we’ve spun out the VM from the remote to a co-lo to test it out, and we’re ready to go. Our DR plan is, if the main center went down, we’d take the Replay server from the co-lo and restore it, and then be back up and running in no time.”
Somers’ DR plan with Replay taking the lead is coming in at half the cost of what Brock White had budgeted for backup alone. “What started as just our backup need quickly became our main DR plan,” claimed Somers. “I tell other people, I know what it’s like to be in their shoes. Replay really does work and I just don’t worry about this now.”
About Brock White Company
Headquartered in St. Paul, MN and incorporated in 1954, Brock White Company LLC is a leading distributor of construction materials providing specialty products to concrete and masonry construction markets in the upper Midwest United States. These products include hand tools, specialty chemicals, waterproofing materials, caulking, insulation, geotextile fabrics, erosion control, highway sealants, concrete and masonry accessories, concrete repair and restoration materials and coatings, landscaping accessories, as well as fireplace and masonry products such as brick, natural stone, and Cultured Stone through select locations.
About AppAssure Replay 4
Replay 4 is the world’s fastest and easiest backup and disaster recovery software for Windows application servers, VMware and Hyper-V Virtual Servers. The only complete “all-in-one” backup and recovery solution, Replay 4 enables local recoveries from any type of failure in just minutes, with the added assurance of offsite application and image backup and bare metal recovery from a total site disaster.
For a free 14-day Replay 4 software trial, visit www.AppAssure.com.
About AppAssure Software
AppAssure Software is a leading provider of innovative backup and disaster recovery software for Windows application servers. AppAssure’s flagship product, Replay 4 is an application-aware, disk-based imaging solution that automatically and continuously snapshots entire Windows application servers delivering accelerated application backups and disaster recovery for in minutes. For more information about AppAssure Software, visit http://www.appassure.com.
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AppAssure Software, Inc.
Steven Toole
703-480-0178
http://www.appassure.com
Steven Toole
703-480-0178
http://www.appassure.com
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