Forecast International Forecasts Stable Web Servers With Acronis True Image Server

Emergency forces market intelligence firm to recover compromised Web server built on dissimilar hardware

August 3, 2006, Burlington, MA — How does a company repair a compromised Web server that must be operating all day every day without taking it offline or otherwise interrupting its operations? For Forecast International, a market intelligence and consulting firm for the aerospace industry, the answer was to duplicate the faulty server on another piece of hardware, fix all the problems that plagued the original server, then move everything from the temporary hardware back onto the main system. There were only three limiting factors: the Web server must be working 24/7 without any downtime, the two servers were built on very different hardware, and the task had to be done immediately; delay was not an option.

The key to overcoming these obstacles was Acronis True Image Server and Acronis Universal Restore from Acronis Inc., the technological leader in storage management software (www.acronis.com). "Our IT staff rented a server on which it was able to duplicate the requisite software for our Web server and repair the problem, but getting the working Web server from one server to an entirely different hardware platform was another issue," stated Mark Waldorf, director of MIS. "We needed to find a solution that allowed us to quickly move from one system to a completely different system."

Using Acronis True Image Server, Forecast International's IT staff was able to create an exact duplicate of the production Web server on the rented hardware. Once the instability issues were resolved on the temporary Web server, the staff was able to create an image of the duplicate server and restore that image to the compromised production server using the Acronis Universal Restore function. The production server was repaired without ever taking the system out of service.

"Acronis True Image Server for Windows and Acronis Universal Restore really helped us out in a pinch, said Vincent Olenik, assistant network administrator. "It allowed us to apply a stable image of a Web server to our production server running dissimilar hardware and avoid one to two days of downtime that we could not afford."

"Companies that use servers for customer transactions don't have the flexibility to say "We're going to take our server down and essentially close our doors while we repair our hardware,"" said Walter Scott, CEO of Acronis. "These companies realize that every minute their servers are down cost money, and it's an expensive proposition to simply close up shop to repair computer problems. In addition, customers won't tolerate being told that them they cannot complete a transaction because your technicians are rebuilding a server.

"Rather, you want to reassure your customers that no matter what issues your company faces, they can always depend on you to deliver your products and services," Scott continued.

About Forecast International

Forecast International, Inc. is a leading provider of Market Intelligence and Analysis in the areas of aerospace, defense, power systems and military electronics. Based in Newtown, Conn., USA, Forecast International specializes in long-range industry forecasts and market assessments used by strategic planners, marketing professionals, military organizations, and governments worldwide.