Application-Consistent Backup The Only Effective Way To Move To The Cloud With Security, Peace Of Mind, Says Infinitely Virtual CEO

SANTA MONICA, Calif.  (March 6, 2012) – For businesses contemplating a move to the cloud, there’s backup – and then there’s backup.

According to Infinitely Virtual, a leading provider of virtual server cloud computing services for small and mid-size businesses, data protection and backup must occur at the highest level, if cloud migration and implementation initiatives are to be successful.

The company knows whereof it speaks.  Infinitely Virtual announced today that it has passed the SSAE (Standards for Attestation Engagements) No. 16 Type II audit, one of the most rigorous auditing standards for hosting companies.  Conducted by The Moore Group, CPA, the audit confirms the highest level of service and reliability attainable for a virtual server hosting company.  To be SSAE compliant, a hosting provider should offer SSL capability, enterprise-level, application level protection, hardware firewall, IP-restricted FTP, managed backups with 14-day retention, advanced monitoring and multi-level intrusion prevention.

“Having passed the SSAE 16 audit is another indication of our commitment to providing customers with the most secure, technologically advanced hosting service in the marketplace,” said Adam Stern, Infinitely Virtual founder and CEO.  “Companies using our hosting service now can achieve SSAE 16 compliance without the expense.  But there’s a message here for every small and midsize business evaluating cloud hosting – being a smart IT consumer means understanding, at a very basic level, what best practices are, and how to locate providers who adhere to them consistently.”

WHO:      Adam Stern is an entrepreneur who saw the value of virtualization and cloud

computing more than five years ago.  Stern’s company helps businesses move from obsolete hardware investments to an IaaS [Infrastructure as a Service] cloud platform, providing them the flexibility and scalability to transition select data operations from in-house to the cloud.  Stern founded Infinitely Virtual in 2007, to provide virtual dedicated server solutions to growing enterprises, offering what was essentially a cloud computing platform before the term existed.  Since 2007, Infinitely Virtual has grown exponentially through its offering affordable, customized cloud-based solutions, using the most sophisticated technology available.  Host Review named the company to its list of “Top Ten Fastest Growing” enterprises in 2011. 

WHAT:   At the heart of Infinitely Virtual’s secure hosting system is its “application-

consistent” backup methodology, which enables fast, seamless restoration of data.  Unlike some providers – who perform “crash-consistent snapshots,” causing data to be missed and up to a day to restore -- Infinitely Virtual takes application- consistent snapshots and actually instructs the operating systems to close all transactions to the database so data can be restored instantly and with zero corruption.   Says Stern:

“When considering moving IT operations to a cloud computing platform, one of the biggest questions enterprises have is security.  If I move some of my data offsite, do I sacrifice any data protection?  What level of threat detection will I have to support mission critical data?  Should any kind of system crash occur, what can I expect in terms of backup and restoration?   Businesses cannot afford IT downtime, and certainly any loss of critical data costs them in business productivity and operating expense.  It’s important to go the extra step in developing and executing application-consistent backup to prevent the loss of data and to avoid costly downtime by enlisting the fastest restoration method available.”

WHY:    When evaluating whether a hosting provider has application-consistent backups,

 Stern offers this checklist of other security and backup items a business needs to consider:

• What happens prior to backup?  Does the provider’s backup quiesce all database and disk transactions prior to backing up the system?  If not, corruption will occur when the data is restored.
• What type of data and information is backed up?  Not all providers allow you to restore individual files or your entire server.  For fast recovery, businesses need the option of restoring individual files or the entire server. 
• How far back does the backup go?  In protecting against loss, there is a big difference between four days and four weeks.  Your entire server should be backed up daily and data should be retained for at least four weeks.
• Is there additional backup offsite?  Thorough business continuity solutions include replication of all data and virtual servers to a production data center in a form that allows them to be booted up in the event of a long term outage.
• Do you have time for tape?  Tape backup is of particular concern, Stern advises.  If a hosting provider is using tape backup, it could easily be hours before data is restored.  A business may find itself at the bottom of a long list of customers waiting for restoration of servers, applications, and data if a problem occurs.

HOW:   To speak with Adam Stern, contact Ken Greenberg, Edge Communications, Inc.,

  818-990-5001, or email ken@edgecommunicationsinc.com.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, via terminal servers, Sharepoint servers and SQL servers – all based on Virtual Dedicated Servers.  The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership, Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 technical support. With an innovative approach to virtualization – one that includes reliance on its IaaS and SaaS tools for its own operation -- Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.  More information about Infinitely Virtual can be found at: http://www.infinitelyvirtual.com or call 866-257-8455.