Plan B: data protection and storage solutions for all.

• Author: Gendron, Jane
• Position: Techknowledge

Oops. That file contained every vital statistic on every single client, and, poof, it's gone. The server disconnected. The system went bananas. Shock. Grief. That inevitable string of expletives...but, wait, salvation is on the horizon. It's not Super Man, it's better! It's the back-up plan. A call. A click. Or, perhaps, ignorant bliss as that off-site server the IT department insisted upon kicks into gear. Phew.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Data loss, however it descends upon an unsuspecting business--through human error, flood, fire or some other catastrophic black cloud of misfortune--happens to virtually everyone. According to Renee Murphy of Utah Department of Homeland Security's Ready Your Business Program, Small Business Administration statistics have shown that more than 93 percent of businesses that experience a major data loss are unable to fully recover that information.

"We've all experienced data loss--all of us. We've lost a file. We've done something stupid. In fact, one of the highest causes of data loss is human error," explains Murphy. Lost data, she says, would be terminal for the vast majority of businesses she encounters.

Businesses that weather the data loss storm do so because they are prepared with a trusty Plan B--one that's been through a test-run or two.

The options for data protection and storage range from the old-school tape back-up to a techie menu of services provided at highly sophisticated "Mission Impossible"-esque data centers.

Shall We Co-locate?

It's not a marriage proposal. Co-location allows a business to essentially replicate a server or multiple servers at an off-site, secure spot.

"Customers can bring their IT assets into one of our data centers that have a physically controlled environment, physical security protection and large network connections. They're staffed 24-7 with engineers; they then run their equipment inside our data center much like they would their own office," explains Steve Prather of ViaWest, which offers a core product of co-location and hosting. While a customer brings his own computers in the co-location scenario, hosting is more of a complete hand-off (the data center provides the computers). Hybrid hosting is somewhere between the two, allowing a customer to choose from layer upon layer of services provided by the data center.

"You can kind of drill our entire business down to uptime and availability," says Prather.

ViaWest, which operates three data centers in Utah, four in...