What does “better than backup” mean?

It used to be that the only way to protect your data was to make backups. That way, in the event of a server crash, you could restore your data. But backups are a very imperfect solution:

• Backups require their own storage space to house ever-increasing amounts of duplicated data;
• They need to be checked regularly to ensure that they are working correctly, and the data is not corrupted;
• Restoring data from a backup takes time and manpower; and
• Even if the system works as intended, because backups are a snapshot of your data, any information entered since the last backup is still lost and must be recreated.

Over the years, we have helped so many clients deal with backup issues that finding a better solution became one of our development priorities. That is one reason why, starting with RB8 Cloud, we converted the RB system to a web-based application using Microsoft Azure’s Cloud Services, which eliminates the need for your own backup system.

3 ways web-based is better than backup

The first way is Azure’s guaranteed 99.9% uptime, because not losing data or access to your data eliminates the major reason for a backup system. Your RB9 data is duplicated in real time on several servers in different locations, so if one server goes down, another server would be accessed immediately with no interruption in service and no lost data. Your repository files are protected similarly, with duplicates stored in several locations.

The second way is that Azure is more secure. Microsoft’s dedicated resources and processes guarantee the security and privacy of data on Azure, including HIPAA certification and following international standards for privacy controls in the cloud. Your data is available to you and your authorized users only, with safeguards far beyond what a single court reporting agency could provide.

The third way is that it eliminates the need for backup software, hardware and IT to manage it. The cost is included in your monthly RB subscription, and there is nothing else you need to buy and maintain. There is literally nothing you have to do to maintain the integrity of your RB data and repository files on Azure.

Plus one more way RB9 is better

We add one more layer of data protection beyond what Azure provides with a several-day backup of all of our clients’ data. This data is encrypted and stored separately in an isolated area, and would be used in the 0.001% possibility of all of our servers crashing simultaneously.

The way the data is prepared and stored for this purpose does not lend itself to providing copies to clients. If you decide to cancel your RB9, we can give your your data after you stop using RB9 because we will disconnect your service and remove your data from RB9.

To do this on a more frequent basis would be impractical and greatly increase the cost of our service due to the amount of time required, plus the bandwidth Microsoft would charge us for to download this data to our clients.

What if I still want a backup?

We know change is hard, and you might feel more secure with a copy of your data in-house. While we do not provide backups, you can always export data from RB9.

To export data from RB9, click in the lower right corner of a list or report in RB9.

You can export the data as either Microsoft Excel or generic CSV (comma separated values) files. You could save these files as backups, or use your data any way you want in Excel or another program that can import one of these formats.

If you would like to find out more or if you want to try it yourself, contact OMTI Support to request a user account for our RB9 demo site.