AppRiver, a software-as-a-service provider offering E: and Web security solutions, has implemented AppAssure’s Replay 4 backup and recovery software.

Replay 4 is a backup and disaster recovery software for Windows application servers, VMware and Hyper-V Virtual Servers. It enables local recoveries from any type of failure, with the added assurance of offsite application and image backup and bare metal recovery from a total site disaster.

The customers turn to AppRiver for their Exchange hosting and security needs. “People turn to hosted Exchange services to get away from the headache and overhead of backup and other administrative tasks,” said David Liberatore, director of Network Infrastructure at AppRiver, adding that it’s the company’s job to always look for and find solutions that allow it to offer great customer support.

AppRiver was looking for an easy-to-use, fast way to restore single E: messages or entire mailboxes, when they got an introductory call from AppAssure.

The company’s team researched and collected information about Replay 4 and liked what they saw. The company went through lots of scenarios during our trial, said Justin Allen, server engineer at AppRiver. “We kept trying to find fault with Replay but just couldn’t do it.”

Additionally, the company was also seeking a high level of technical support since it’s on the hook to deliver reliable Exchange services to clients 24/7. Company officials said that they needed to know that AppAssure shared a commitment to customer service and would always be available to answer questions.

“They’ve definitely supplied a great level of support and have consistently been there for us,” Allen said. “I especially like how proactive they are, and that they solve problems fast.

Using over 49 Replay servers, AppRiver now provides backup and restore operations, and snapshots are taken every 30 minutes and one backup is kept for each day. “Replay does a great job of compression,” Allen said.

AppRiver’s expansive Replay implementation took a month to complete. “We talked with AppAssure before our rollout to make sure that we were following best practices on building servers and getting everything right,” Liberatore said.

“Once we got that down, we made a plan that allowed us to fit roll-out in with other work we were doing. One server configuration only takes 20 minutes, but we had to factor in rebooting the server.”

Allen said that the company is reaping dividends from Replay’s speed and reliability. He said that it takes less than two minutes to dig into a data store and restore a message. “Without Replay, finding a misplaced or mistakenly deleted message could potentially take days of digging through tapes.”

AppAssure Software is a provider of backup and disaster recovery software for Windows application servers.

Earlier this month, Logan Bank and Trust, a privately owned and operated community bank in Logan, WV, replaced Symantec (News - Alert) Backup Exec with AppAssure’s Replay 4 backup and recovery software for virtual standby and offsite data replication.