Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER USES DUPLIDISK TO SECURE CLIENTS' DATA

When it comes to data security, no one is more cautious than those involved with criminal histories, jail management and county crime laboratory management. Ohio-based Text & Data Technologies Inc writes software applications for a wide variety of criminal justice agencies including prosecuting attorneys, sheriff's offices, clerks, courts and crime laboratories.

"Providing a turnkey solution for our customers that include hardware, networking, a database file server and workstation PCs means that all areas of our support have to be in 100 percent order, 100 percent of the time," commented William Verna, Text & Data Technologies' vice president. "Apart from being very competitively priced, we chose Arco Data Protection Systems' DupliDisk because it is OS independent, which is important when our customers are running NT, 2000 and LINUX. In all areas the mirroring is transparent and there are no OS-driver conflicts or other similar issues. Also, one of the benefits of using DupliDisk is that a background rebuild can be initiated when the mirror is replaced which eliminates downtime."

Using patented technology, DupliDisk writes data both to the primary hard drive and to a backup drive at the same time. Each time any change is made to data, the same action occurs simultaneously on both the primary and the mirror drives. There is no delay time and writes are automatic. Should a hard drive fail, the DupliDisk sounds an alarm and automatically switches all operations to the other drive. The system continues to operate with no downtime or loss of data.

Text & Data Technologies uses DupliDisk for RAID1 mirroring of their servers and for backing up. The DupliDisk RAIDcase product is particularly useful for backing up as the advanced bus management enables users to regularly rotate an additional drive.

"We have found this to be more reliable and more cost effective than utilizing a tape drive. An entire bootable drive with data can then be moved off-site or to a fireproof vault. The key-lock drive caddies provide for additional security," continued Verna. "DupliDisk is far more than just a back-up. From our perspective, DupliDisk enables us to manage, rather than react to server hard drive crashes. The customer can continue to work and we can plan together when the server goes down for maintenance. This is a much better alternative than re-routing technicians, disrupting schedules and most importantly, having our customer's system down for an extended period."

Verna concluded by saying, "When it comes to service, we have found Arco Data Protection Systems to provide excellent service and technical support. They are friendly, competent and easy to deal with".

In almost every business, data integrity and data security are fundamental, but for certain sectors, it's even more critical to find the ideal solution. So, for the criminal justice system of today, it's time to lock up that old system and throw away the key. The new guard here is in the shape of DupliDisk.