PathFinder Data Survival

Data Survival’s software’s efficiency allows for the backup of large volumes of data quickly and reliably over traditional telecommunications lines.

Data Survival is the premier provider of electronic data backup and storage; and is located in the Southeastern United States. The goal of Data Survival is to provide businesses with a secure, efficient, and cost-effective means of electronically storing data. To this end Data Survival is committed to provide superior, individualized services utilizing current and proven technologies.

Utilizing Data Survival services can virtually replace the entire tape backup and offsite storage programs for servers, PCs and notebooks. No costly tapes are involved and the data is compressed so it takes significantly less space to store. Depending on specific requirements, an unlimited number of generations of data can be stored and saved. In addition, this type of data storage is the most secure and reliable your business could choose. Isn’t any company’s data and continued success worth it?

Data Survival is staffed with experienced managers, account and technical representatives available to meet the needs of all customers. Combined experience of the principals of the company includes 45 years of professional service in the government and private sectors that includes engineering, technical support, sales, sales support, and customer service experience.

Data Survival understands the importance of customer service and provides a complete integration plan prior to installation. Data Survival stays actively involved during software implementation to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, the customer’s personnel are thoroughly trained and are provided with on-going support and satisfaction interviews.

As a professional service provider, Data Survival is a member of Professional Records and Information Services Management (PRISM), an organization created for companies that provide their clients with protection, access, retention, storage and disposal of their vital information.

The Data Center
Data Survival is located just outside of a metropolitan area north of Atlanta, Georgia, USA with complete control and ownership of its facility.  The facility has alternative power sources and communication links to Tier 1 providers with 100% uptime service level agreements. Data Survival maintains Internet connection speeds of 1.5 Mbps per 500 GB of client data. The facility includes a state-of-the-art climate controlled server room protected with FM200 fire suppression. Alternative power is supplied by a diesel generator equipped with an automatic transfer switch. Data Survival has around-the-clock monitoring of security, fire, communications and power. A dedicated staff is on-call 24/7 365 days a year to ensure that all systems are operating at optimum levels and are always available to all customers.

A Better Solution for Today’s Needs
As your businesses data grows, so does your need for a better backup solution. Traditional tape devices are slow, cumbersome to work with, and prone to error. Disk-to-disk backup is faster but still difficult to get off-site. The DSI Backup™ solution offers the ability to get a fast, multi-platform, secure, off-site, backup every night without human intervention. It is HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley compliant and enables your data to be available 24/7/365 to avoid interruptions in productivity and loss of revenue.

Simplify Your Disaster Recovery Plan
Backups are typically the last priority for an IT department. Even when traditional tape backups are consistently done, the increasing backup window and other factors make it nearly impossible to put your disaster recovery plan into action. DSI Backup™ fixes this problem by automating the entire backup and recovery process and reducing the number of points of failure. It also eliminates the purchase and maintenance of special hardware and eliminates costly, restrictive licensing arrangements.

The DSI Backup™ Solution
Security. Reliability. Convenience. This is what distinguishes DSI Backup™ from the competition. Data Survival’s software’s efficiency allows the backup of large volumes of data quickly and reliably over existing telecommunications lines. The data is then stored encrypted in Data Survival’s secure, off-site vault allowing for 24/7/365 access.

Backups are normally scheduled after business hours when telecommunications lines are least active.  The backup uses a delta processing algorithm which stores and manages the block-level changes to files, rather than the entire file, so that only the changed blocks are transmitted each night. This enables every backup to be a full backup, but takes only a fraction of the time of a typical full backup. Not only does this significantly decrease the backup window, but the backup set is reduced, freeing up valuable time and resources.

The customer determines the backup schedule depending on specific needs. A restore is a simple “point-and-click” process that takes only minutes to complete. With its automated backup and recovery process, DSI Backup™ provides a less expensive solution that is easier to manage and maintain than traditional methods.

The Components
The DSI Backup™ solution consists of two primary parts for the customer; the Agent and Central Control.

The Agent.  The DSI Backup™ Agent is installed on each server that is backed up. It checks for new files and block-level modifications to existing files. The changed files are compressed, encrypted and sent over TCP/IP to Data Survival's secure off-site vault.

Central Control.  DSI Backup’s™ Central Control is installed on the system administrator’s Windows™ workstation and gives him complete control over the entire backup and recovery process.  From this easy-to-use graphical user interface, the system administrator can manage every facet of the backup and restore process for every server on his LAN or WAN.

Changing the way you think about Backups and Restorations

Encryption
From the minute the DSI Backup Agent selects the data to be sent to Data Survival’s secure vault, all data is encrypted. The data remains encrypted during backup, over-the-wire, and while in storage until the customer decrypts the data using Data Survival’s software and the customer’s personal encryption password. This is all done with a variety of encryption levels and without significant overhead.

Data Format
All files transferred between the Agent and Data Survival’s vault are formatted in SIDF; a structure independent from the operating system. This allows files that have been backed up from one server to be restored to another server that may be running a completely different operating system. It also ensures that the data being backed up today will be accessible in the future, regardless of changes in operating systems.

Restores
With Data Survival, restores can be accomplished easily, quickly and at any time. Since 90% of restores are for a single file or folder, Central Control allows system administrators to choose which version of the backup to restore from, and choose whether to do a total restore or select specific files and directories to restore. It also provides the ability to restore to the original location or to specify a location to restore to. The Data Survival Vault Manager assembles the data image to be restored and sends the recovered file(s) to the specified location.

Worry-free security
As a Data Survival client, the customer can rest assured that Data Survival’s primary concern is the security of the customer’s data. This is accomplished through the security of the software and the security of the data Survival data center.

The customer (and all) data is encrypted (with a pass phrase that you choose) through the entire backup and recovery process; before the Agent sends the changed data to the vault, while backups are transmitted from the customer’s server to Data Survival’s vault, within the vault itself, and while being restored from the vault to the server. Only the customer can decrypt its own data during restoration using the software and the customer’s personal pass phrase. Even Data Survival employees do not have access to the customer’s files.

Data Survival clients can rest easy knowing their data is stored in a state-of-the-art data center. Equipped with backup power generators, redundant Internet circuits, advanced fire suppression systems, and hardened physical security the Data Survival data center provides superior protection. Data Survival provides a backup to each vault, so the customer is essentially getting a backup of a backup. Data Survival also uses enterprise class firewalls and other electronic security measures to ensure that the customer’s data is as safe as possible.

Encryption Strengths

• 56-bit blowfish
• 56-bit DES
• 112-bit Triple DES
• 128-bit Blowfish
• 128-bit AES
• 256-bit AES

DSI Backup™ is designed to work on the following operating systems:

• MS Windows 2000 Server (SP4)
• MS Windows 2000 Advanced Server (SP4)
• MS Windows Server 2003 - Standard Edition (SP1 and R2)
• MS Windows Server 2003 - Enterprise Edition (SP1 and R2)
• MS Windows Storage Server 2003 (SP1)
• MS Windows Small Business Server 2003 (SP1)
• MS Windows XP Professional (SP2)
• Red Hat Linux 7.1 (kernel v 2.4.2)
• Red Hat Linux 7.3 (kernel v 2.4.18)
• Red Hat Linux 8 (kernel v 2.4.18)
• Red Hat Linux 9 (kernel v 2.4.20)
• Red Hat Linux Enterprise AS 2.1 (kernel v 2.4.9e57)
• Red Hat Linux Enterprise ES 3.1 (kernel 2.4.21-15.ELsmp)
• SUSE Linux Professional 9.1 (2.6.5-7.111-default)
• HP-UX 11.0, or HP-UX 11i
• AIX 4.3.3 (run-time library: xlC.rte 4.0.2.0)
• AIX 5.1
• AIX 5.2
• IBM iSeries (AS400) V5R1 (latest IBM PTF’s)
• IBM iSeries (AS400) V5R2 (latest IBM PTF’s)
• IBM iSeries (AS400) V5R3 (latest IBM PTF’s)
• Solaris 7 (Patch 106327)
• Solaris 8
• Solaris 9

Note: A Windows™ NT 4.0 or greater workstation is required for Central Control

Partnered with PathFinder, DSI can provide internet connectivity to a customer’s facility anywhere in the world; and that connectivity can easily be achieved with PathFinder’s satellite broadband solution.  Whether the satellite connectivity is utilized as the primary internet connection, internet connectivity redundancy, or disaster recovery, PathFinder can provide the link.  With a PathFinder satellite solution acting as a redundancy path for the primary internet connection for Data Survival, DSI can guarantee a 100% uptime broadband service level agreement for the data backup and restoration process.

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