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February 13, 2007

Press F11 to Recover Data

Acronis' disk imaging technology means PC crashes aren't the disaster they once were

The next time your hard drive crashes, just reboot and press the F11 key to restore any lost data in a matter of minutes — it's simple, fast and efficient. That's the promise of Acronis' disk imaging technology, according to Mr Walter Scott, the company's chief executive officer and president.

Acronis is a United States-based software company known for its disaster recovery and backup-and-restore solutions for consumers and enterprises.

The company's disk imaging technology enables fast recovery because it uses the bare-metal restore technique, where backed-up data is saved in a form that allows one to restore a computer system from the same hardware — thanks to a hidden partition on the hard disk — or to a completely different computer system, but with all the files, settings and operating system intact. This avoids the pain of installing everything from scratch.

"Traditional backup technology is good at backing up data but it's bad at one thing — it takes too much time to restore. Speedy recovery is the essence of disk imaging", said Mr Scott.

Acronis claims that True Image, its suite of disk imaging products, is easy to use for both consumers and enterprises, and data can often be recovered without the support of a dedicated IT team. A compression algorithm compresses backed-up data by up to 60 per cent, reducing the amount of storage needed.

By reducing support and the amount of hardware needed for backup and data recovery, costs are kept low. This makes it appealing for small and medium businesses, especially those that have not invested in older legacy backup solutions like tape.

"Tape sales are falling. Disk imaging is cheaper, faster and easier", said Mr Scott.

Disk imaging can also provide disaster recovery support in larger environments because it enables data backup over networks. Acronis' latest product, Full Circle, allows data to be moved seamlessly to and from physical and virtual servers.

Corporate customers represent 80 per cent of Acronis' business. In Singapore, the company's diverse customer base includes NTUC Income, Creative Technology, Gucci, HBO, Nanyang Technological University, the Housing and Development Board and the Defence Science and Technology Agency.

Acronis plans to invest more resources here — bringing in more marketing and public relations development and putting more money into its accounting group — to make Singapore the hub for its Asia-Pacific operations.

The company has a dedicated Russia-based research and development team working on its software. Its products are 64-bit capable and support the Linux and Windows environments.

The company is also looking to develop software for the Mac platform.