Computerworld — Axcient Inc. Tuesday announced the availability of a hybrid hosted/on-site data protection and business continuity service, which offers a pay-as-you-grow approach to data backup and replication.

Start-up Axcient's service includes both backup over the Internet as well as a leased on-site appliance for near-line data restoration.

The on-site backup storage appliance allows customers to complete one-click rapid restores, so systems can be up and running within minutes of data loss, said Axcient CEO Justin Moore.

Moore said customers are charged a monthly fee, starting at less than US$100 for a 500GB storage array and backup service. "There is no long-term agreement," he added.

The Axcient service will be sold exclusively through IT service providers and is targeted at small to midsize businesses with up to 500 workstations and/or up to 10TB of stored data.

"The most important thing to remember is that backup is about recovery," Moore said. "Online backup is an important component because it delivers disaster recovery and compliant archiving, but for fast recovery, you must have the backup data stored locally. Axcient offers the best aspects of an on-site solution, plus the best aspects of an online solution as a single integrated service."

The Axcient backup service requires no software, easing implementation in physical servers or virtual machines, the company said. Backups can be set up to occur hourly, daily or monthly on systems ranging from a server to an individual PC, and bandwidth can be throttled for nightly backups, Moore said.

The Axcient Web-based management platform is securely accessible by authorized administrators from any location. The data is encrypted through the Axcient on-premise device, causing little impact on overall production system performance, the company said.

"Solutions such as those from Axcient that enable more efficient data protection, faster recovery and greater business continuity are shrinking end-user pain by reducing downtime, simplifying the management of explosive data growth and easing pressure on capital expenditures," said Brad Nisbet, an analyst at market research firm IDC.

Axcient said its online backup and restore business continuity services include the following:

* RapidRestore Data Backup Services for laptops, servers and workstations running multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac OSX and Linux

* SmartArchive Data Retention Services, which includes an algorithm that reduces data-corruption problems, decreases backup windows through compression, and provides customizable archiving and retention settings

* SmartDR Disaster Recovery Services, which provide data and system protection that allows for rapid return to business in case of a site failure

"The problem with traditional backup is that you have multiple vendors and capital expenditures for the hardware, software and services, so that meant high upfront start-up costs. And there is no one source to go to when problems come up," Moore said. "With ours, you have one throat to choke, so to speak."