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The Day His Infallible RAID Array Failed

“My day without data was like losing 15 years of my life,” states Bal Klear, one of the principals of Applied Engineering Solutions Ltd. Bal thought he had permanently lost fifteen years of technical drawings, specifications, proposals, and accounting data stored on a poorly set up RAID 5 Array and tape backup system.

It was “not only the data on the hard drives of our RAID 5 that we thought we had lost,” recalls Bal. “There were also our archives on tape and our daily, weekly and monthly tape backups.”

“Thanks to CBL, we did not have to redo projects from the start or face potential lawsuits from clients for failure to deliver on contracts.”

For a fully computerized organization with employees who communicate extensively by electronic means, this data loss “was truly devastating.”

For four long days, a local computer company in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada attempted to restore the electrical and lighting consulting firm’s RAID system, but no progress was made. AES then shipped the drives and data to a Vancouver data recovery company.

“We were without our data for another week, only to be told it was hopeless,” remembers Bal. “Only by pure luck did I find CBL through a search on Google”

Within 48 hours of sending AES’s hard drives to CBL, Bal received the good news. The data on the RAID was recoverable.

“Thanks to CBL, we did not have to redo projects from the start or face potential lawsuits from clients for failure to deliver on contracts,” adds Bal.

Today AES uses a network solution which allows its data to be stored safely and securely on a RAID system. In addition to its RAID backup, AES also maintains a complete onsite backup on a second server. Bal advises, “We also have deployed a backup schedule which allows for incremental daily backups, and a complete weekly backup every Friday. Offsite, we run two mirrored backup servers.. This is all accomplished at a fraction of the time and cost of previous tape backups.”

Words of Advice
“Money is no object when it comes to ensuring that your data is secure and backed up,” advises Bal. “Ensure your backups are actually functioning and you have offsite backups.”

“Use a good company for setting up a network system. Choose a company that not only has good products, but a firm that can offer you real solutions and out of the box ideas. And, if you ever have a failure, then CBL should be the first company you call for data recovery,” concludes Bal.

That’s good advice.

To learn how Bal Klear and his company address the need for effective building electrical system design which incorporates energy efficient solutions, visit Applied Engineering Solutions Ltd.