IBM rolls out smart cloud for DR

IBM has unveiled new cloud services that enable clients to protect, store and retrieve their most critical data in minutes versus days in the event of a disaster.

The new IBM SmartCloud Resilience services allow customers to protect their data and applications faster, cheaper and in a more flexible manner than they could before within traditional data center environment. By using the IBM cloud, claims the company,  organisations can more easily and cost effectively provide continuous service to their customers and ensure that their data and applications are protected and secure. IBM’s cloud allows clients to securely manage and balance workloads, lower application and system downtime, and reduce data loss. These services help clients to avoid capital expense by more efficiently monitoring operational expenses and service levels, reducing the burden on IT staff.

“Now more than ever, companies are relying on a massive amount of data to run their businesses, storing it longer and retrieving it as needed,” said Rick Ruiz, general manager of IBM’s Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. “This creates a need for a business resilience strategy that will ensure continuous operation and create a competitive advantage to enable growth opportunities. Our new cloud services bring flexibility, scalability, and rapid provisioning to help accomplish that.”

The new services include:

• IBM SmartCloud Virtualised Server Recovery – The server recovery tool increases the reliability and efficiency of recovery to help practically eliminate business downtime, and minimise data loss. Provides clients with an easy-to-use portal for remote access to bring back their business on IBM’s recovery infrastructure in minutes in case of outage, not hours, replicating both server software and associated data continuously; Eliminates the issues of recovery on physical non-like hardware and travel to disaster sites.

• IBM SmartCloud Archive – Designed specifically to meet stringent privacy and regulatory compliance, from advanced search and indexing and retrieval, to eDiscovery capabilities. Provides clients with an advanced document and records management system to deal with structured and unstructured content; control over rising data storage costs; and improved availability of critical business content.

The new services complement IBM’s existing SmartCloud Managed Backup offering which has been used by hundreds of clients for the past two years. The managed backup cloud provides flexible, automatic management and monitoring of backup and recovery processes, including hardware, software, installation and support, and can be delivered in a public, private or hybrid cloud environment.

This service can be combined with the Archive and Virtualized services for storage, data protection and replication. Other cloud-based business continuity tools include the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Suite for Unified Recovery (6.2), which provides disaster recovery software that can be enabled as a cloud storage option.

IBM has been working with the United States Golf Association (USGA) since 2008 on a variety of information protection services, including building a comprehensive infrastructure recovery solution.

The new services are a part of the IBM SmartCloud portfolio, consisting of next-generation, enterprise cloud technologies and services offerings for private, public and hybrid clouds based on IBM hardware, software, services and best practices.