American Data Technology Inc. Delivers 99.9% Up-time with Dell AppAssure Software

Background

American Data Technology Inc. delivers Information Technology services including web hosting, managed dedicated servers, collocation, Microsoft SharePoint / MOSS hosting, Microsoft Exchange hosting, and web design and maintenance services to 2,500 customers in over 40 countries. A big part of the ADTI value proposition is a promise of 99.9% uptime. (Dell AppAssure software helps them keep that promise for Exchange hosting (Microsoft Exchange backup) customers who rely on ADTI to ensure access to servers, mailboxes, and individual messages.)

The Time-Consuming Nature of Exchange Administration

ADTI hosts over 2,500 Exchange mailboxes for customers in small businesses and larger enterprises. As it does with all the hosted services it provides, ADTI promises Exchange customers 99.9% uptime. While they’ve never failed to meet that service level, ADTI knows that breaking the promise translates directly into lost money. “If we failed to hit 99.9%, we’d owe the customer a credit that relates to the duration of the outage they experienced,” explains Mike Salim, VP and Chief Technology Officer of ADTI. (Dell AppAssure’s Backup, Replication & Recovery software – Microsoft Exchange backup offers 3 innovative technologies which uniquely guarantee near-zero recovery time innovative software running on Microsoft Exchange.)

Speeding Service Delivery with Dell AppAssure

Salim and his team were looking for more robust Exchange recovery when they received a call from Dell AppAssure. Their evaluations pointed out Dell AppAssure’s ability to backup and provide fast recovery for servers, mailboxes, and individual messages. ADTI has one Dell AppAssure server for 6 Exchange servers and one BES (BlackBerry) server.

Dell AppAssure allows users to take snapshots as often as their business needs require. ADTI has determined that taking snapshots every two hours ensures that they can restore customers to a very productive state. And less time is being spent on restoration tasks. “We know that we can restore a complete mailbox or message in minutes as opposed to hours,” says Salim, Salim says that ADTI customers call in for individual message restore help only about once a week. Without Dell AppAssure, even those few requests would be a nuisance and time-sink, but Dell AppAssure turns message-level restore into a value-added service that increases customer satisfaction. “Customers are really happy if you can recover their messages,” says Salim.

Right now, ADTI has focused Dell AppAssure on Exchange and Blackberry hosting services but Salim imagines using its backup and restoration capabilities for all their Windows servers. “We have multiple datacenters and would like to have Dell AppAssure in each one with failover servers ready to go.”

Great Support is Part of the Solution

Any technology that touches the services ADTI sells and ensures is a big part of the business. Support for that technology is as important as features and functionality. Salim and his team have taken advantage of webinars and conference calls to get up to speed and rely on Dell AppAssure tech support to get fast answers to questions.

“Dell AppAssure technical support has provided outstanding hand-holding,” says Salim. “Whenever we have questions they are very quick to respond. It’s nice when your vendor shares your commitment to customer service.”

About American Data Technology Inc.

ADTI is a privately-held organization that has been providing web hosting since 1995. The company’s founder Mike Salim is a true pioneer of internet development. As an active team member of National Science Foundation Project (1989-1993) he made significant contribution to development of internet backbone. This benefits our clients greatly as the company is built on solid technical expertise.