AT&T's Remote Vault protects critical data

SAN ANTONIO: AT&T Inc has announced that small businesses can now order the AT&T Remote Vault service with a credit card via a new e-commerce Web site, making it easier than ever to purchase the remote data backup and data storage service. The new credit-card ordering capabilities were developed for the country’s more than 5 million small businesses, including small offices and home offices (SOHOs), many of which understand the importance of backing up their critical information, but have yet to do so.

“While small businesses are increasingly aware of and interested in advanced storage solutions to protect their business information, they still have quite a way to go,” said Raymond Boggs, vice president of small/medium business research at IDC. “Even those that know they should be taking appropriate steps can find the task too daunting. Given their increasing storage needs, though, and the availability of new affordable and automated solutions, we anticipate that more small businesses than ever will be backing up their critical data remotely in the coming years.”

According to a May 2007 IDC report,(1) businesses with fewer than 100 employees indicated that systems designed to support business continuity and disaster preparedness — while providing advanced storage and data protection functions — must be simple to install and manage, with most functionality automated and moved to the back end.

The AT&T Remote Vault service enables small businesses, equipped with a broadband Internet connection, to remotely access, copy and store data from PCs or laptops to an AT&T Internet Data Center, where it is centrally managed and securely protected. The service is fully automated and secure, removing the guesswork and time commitment often associated with manually backing up multiple PCs.

AT&T Remote Vault is another example of how the company is bringing the products, services and tools that were previously available only to large, global enterprises down-market to small and medium sized businesses. The service requires no capital investment other than a broadband Internet connection, and it allows small businesses to add PCs as their business grows. Backups can be scheduled to automatically occur daily or as needed, with backup data easily restorable to customer PCs, through the Remote Vault application.

With Remote Vault, these companies now have an easy, affordable solution to assist in their disaster recovery planning. Specific survey results indicated that:

• More than one-third (36 percent) of smaller businesses say that business continuity planning is not a priority/not important compared with only one-fourth (27 percent) of large companies.
• Smaller businesses are also less likely to have a business continuity plan. One-third (34 percent) of smaller businesses do not have a business continuity plan compared with only one-fifth (21 percent) of large companies.
• One-fifth (22 percent) of smaller businesses say cybersecurity is not part of their overall business continuity plan (compared with 14 percent of large companies).

For PCs and laptops, AT&T Remote Vault is available for a standard monthly fee of $10 for five (5) gigabytes of storage space and $2 per gigabyte thereafter. The service is available to all small businesses equipped with high speed Internet. Small businesses interested in more information or ordering the service via credit card can visit www.att.com/RemoteVaultPC or call toll-free 1-866-ATT-2222.