Cervalis Rounds Out Service Portfolio With Continuity and Security Offerings

Adam Eisner, theWHIR.com

January 14, 2002 - As the hosting industry begins to mature, so too are Web hosting customers. Once blind to issues like security, data protection and the importance of backup services, many companies are now more aware than ever of the importance of protecting their IT assets - particularly after the events of September 11th.

As a result, managed Web hosting firm Cervalis cervalis.com is unveiling a number of new security and backup features geared toward companies that can't afford to have their Web site compromised or taken offline for any reason. The new line of services, dubbed the Cervalis Business Continuity program, is essentially split in to two major initiatives: business continuity, which ensures the continual uptime of a client site, and disaster recovery.

"We felt that there's more awareness for backup, disaster recovery and business continuity issues," says Zack Margolis, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Cervalis. Disaster recovery and business continuity were "something that we wanted to have in our arsenal of products."

The focal point of the company's new suite of services is its "hot stand-by" Web site feature, which provides a "high-end offering for customers that can't afford even a few hours of downtime," Margolis says. "This gives them additional coverage in case of general area problem or emergency." Services offered within this initiative include daily or weekly site back-up and complete site replication, right down to the hardware, software and network configurations. "It kicks in very quickly as soon as there is an emergency," he says.

Cervalis will complement its new line of recovery and continuity products with a line of seminars, the first of which will be held in late January. The free seminar, titled "Business Continuity: Ensuring Your Future," will feature presentations and demonstrations from Cervalis, research firm The Gartner Group and others outlining the importance of issues like security, disaster recovery and business continuity.

Margolis says public response for the seminar has been positive, another indicator that companies are becoming more aware of security issues. Less than a week after announcing the seminar, more than 75 people have already signed up to the event. "It shows that [continuity] is a very key issue right now," he says.

Although its suite of continuity services will be geared toward Fortune 500 companies, Margolis says Cervalis is not losing sight of its target market - Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). "Because we feel this is a high-end offering, we wanted to address that market first," he says. "It is not, of course, a cheap offering, because you need to replicate everything, and not everybody can afford that."

Margolis says security and data retention will be at the core of the company's new service offerings in 2002. "Clearly what we see from our customers are that business continuity, security issues, data security... are important," he says. "We believe that business continuity issues and security issues will be at the top of the line." And aside from possibly helping to preserve a company's bottom line, it also provides them with peace of mind. "Basically, we feel that through that product line, we can cover a customer to any degree of confidence and comfort that they need in order to make sure that their operation is 100% secure."