Imagine coming to work one morning to find your server down. When you power it up instead of giving a cheery beep the hard drive just starts to make ominous whining noises. It looks like you just lost your server and all its data. When was the last time you tested if your backup system worked? If the answer is never, you are about to find out the hard way. Hopefully you will not be among the ~50% who, according to Gartner, find that their tape recovery operation fails.

Do you have a good data protection plan and a clear path to restore your systems quickly? Best practices dictate that there should always be a usable and recoverable copy of your data both on and off-site. Unfortunately, the cost and complexity of providing small and mid-size firms with an off-site copy dictate that most have an inferior solution, or even worse, no solution in place at all. A well-planned data protection strategy will save you both time and money when your computer systems fail and files are deleted – as they will.

What is the risk of data loss?

Did you know that over 80% of all data loss is accidental deletion of files and directories, while only 18% can be attributed to system failure? Only 2% of data loss can be attributed to catastrophic events. The ARCHEON is built for simple data recovery for all of these circumstances. It enables drag-and-drop recovery from the majority of data losses that firms deal with daily, full data set restoration for system failures, and system replacement plus emergency data access for major disasters.

The ARCHEON appliance itself is designed to eliminate the risk of data loss due to disk failure by using disk mirroring and RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) technologies. The hardware will continue to function with no data loss after a disk failure.

What is ARCHEON?

The ARCHEON service is a unique combination of on and off-site data protection rolled into one, fully monitored, transparent, easy-to-use turnkey package. The service begins with a highly specialized file-serving computer appliance deployed at your site. The ARCHEON data protection Appliance is fully integrated with your existing network, and has the capability to function as a file server in case of a primary server failure. We at Broadleaf understand that multiple copies of your data stored in multiple places is the best way to ensure that you have access to your business critical data files when you need them most. ARCHEON was designed from the ground up specifically to address smaller business's data protection needs.

How does the ARCHEON service work?

The basic service is simple – Broadleaf saves complete sets of the data you want protected both on and off-site, giving you three levels of protection for your business critical data. The ARCHEON gives you the option to protect specific directories, entire systems, even your small to medium sized Exchange or SQL databases. Unlike other data protection systems, adding a system costs nothing, so you can protect 1 server or 20 servers for the same monthly fee. Broadleaf charges by the size of your data set, not the number or type of servers you are protecting.

Broadleaf understands that you are busy, so we have designed this service to work transparently with both your existing servers and user systems. The ARCHEON on-site appliance securely and silently backs up the data you choose from your servers four times daily, plus it automatically keeps three months of file changes in a read-only archive. You control what directories and files you want protected for each of your servers. Off-hours, the ARCHEON then transfers any data changes to Broadleaf's secured data center over the Internet for an extra level of safety.

Unlike other companies that just sell you the hardware, your ARCHEON appliance is fully managed. Broadleaf monitors for network connectivity, disk usage and successful nightly backup completion. We will even email you a daily report showing how much data is protected and how many files have changed. The Broadleaf operations team will contact you if we encounter a problem that cannot be resolved internally. You have the peace of mind knowing that you can call Broadleaf Services at any time.

How can I protect my Exchange and SQL databases?

The standard ARCHEON service is designed for flat file data (drawings, spreadsheets, documents, etc. and small databases). For companies that have Exchange and SQL Server databases, Broadleaf offers the ARCHEON+ appliance.

How do I access my files and directories?

You access your protected data and the read-only archives using familiar Windows tools. For the occasional administrative access, there is also a standard web interface. Some companies even take advantage of Broadleaf's ARCHEON management and choose to make the ARCHEON appliance their primary flat file server.

What happens in case of a file loss or major disaster?

Recovering a file from the ARCHEON appliance read-only backup archive typically takes about one minute. For more serious data loss situations, contact the Broadleaf operations team to start the appliance recovery process. Since Broadleaf is monitoring your system, we will often proactively contact you if we detect a problem with your ARCHEON. Typical recovery scenarios include:

File Recovery – Any lost or damaged file can easily be recovered via the ARCHEON's intuitive drag and drop architecture. Using standard Windows tools simply choose which read only directory you wish to recover from – last week, or last month, select the files or directories, then drag and drop them back to your working directories or desktop.
Appliance Recovery – If you appliance is inaccessible or destroyed, Broadleaf will provide a replacement appliance pre-loaded with your current dataset to a location of your choosing.
Emergency Access – For interim access until the replacement appliance is delivered, Broadleaf offers secure 'read only' access for a select number of users to your data from our data center.

Is the ARCHEON service secure?

Broadleaf knows that you company data is the heart and soul of your business, so we have built the system to be completely secure. The appliance installed on your site is locked down so that you have access to your data, using your standard Windows user accounts and permissions, but nobody can touch the system software. The data is taken off-site through a secure VPN tunnel and it is stored in a SAS 70 Type II certified data center, specifically designed for operational continuity through disasters.

Does ARCHEON scale?

You don't have to worry that you have invested in technology that won't support your growing company. ARCHEON is designed to grow right along with you. Out of the box it supports 150GB of data protection, a simple upgrade brings the protection to 450GB, and an additional unit provides close to a TB of data protection.

What platforms do you support?

While the majority of our customers are using Microsoft Windows, Broadleaf is protecting customer servers running Unix, Solaris, Linux, Macintosh and Novell.

Will I need more network bandwidth?

If you are like other typical businesses, you already have enough Internet bandwidth to support the ARCHEON service, unless you still have dialup connectivity. Since the off-site data transfers occur at night, they do not affect your regular business Internet traffic. You do have the option of limiting the ARCHEON network traffic if that becomes necessary.

What happens during an installation?

A typical installation takes about 15 minutes. Once your pre-configured ARCHEON appliance arrives at your site, simply plug it into your network and power it up. After the system appears on your internal network, install our intuitive agent on each server you wish to protect. The agent does not require a server reboot and installation takes about one minute.

Why ARCHEON?

Because Broadleaf's ARCHEON service puts data protection and user-friendliness first, our disk-based appliance is designed with built-in hardware and data redundancy. With the ARCHEON service, you can stop worrying about all those tape headaches:

Did the tape backup job actually work? – Since tapes recoveries fail ~50% of the time, there is a good chance you will not successfully retrieve your data.
Where is the correct tape for a file recovery? – Keeping track of you tape libraries can be an expensive administrative nightmare that is often overlooked.
Why is the server/file recovery taking so long? – Recovery of a server from a tape backup can easily take 2-3 days. Unbillable staff time waiting for data access can quickly add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars.
What about off-site backup in case of a disaster? – Proper storage of off-site tapes in climate controlled vaults is expensive, so many companies do not have an off-site data copy or they are stored inappropriately in a principal's basement.

If you have considered other tape alternatives, there are plenty of off-site only backup solutions available, but they assume that you have a working Internet connection at all times. For most backup services recovery is strictly over the Internet, so when you are in an emergency situation - that is when your Internet connectivity is MOST likely not available - you might not be able to recover your data. If you do have Internet access, the data might not be in a useable form or for a large data set (>150GB), recovery could take weeks and, most critically, you still need a working server, which could take days to build.