National Governors Association

The National Governors Association (NGA) faced two business challenges that caused them to look for a better backup and recovery solution. First, NGA had been using a disk imaging software that required a minimum of 1-2 hours to restore data should a disaster occur. In addition, the (unusual) earthquake in the Washington, D.C., area caused a building evacuation and was followed by a separate building-wide power outage. These events reinforced the need for a solution that could be remotely accessible by staff and able to bring systems back up within a matter of minutes – not hours – without a lot of effort or expertise.

As a small non-profit, the NGA looks for the most efficient and effective ways to do business. NGA looked at several products that could protect their roughly 16 physical servers that run a variety of Microsoft applications, including Exchange and SharePoint. Yet many of the options were complex and costly. NGA chose the onQ solution because it fit within their budget and was incredibly easy to use and operate.  “We weren’t planning on spending money, but we thought ‘if we don’t do this, we’ll end up wasting money.’ Our job is to find the best, most efficient way to do business, and we’ve done this in a smart and dramatically cost-effective way,” said Robert Thomas, IT director.

• Easily restore data and applications within minutes vs. hours.
• It works! “I get emails telling me onQ is working. I like knowing that everything simply works – all without having to go push buttons.”
• Ability to have multiple layers of back-up. For example, back up to previous session, or the previous day, or 3 months ago.
• “onQ is a great product. If I had the opportunity, I’d choose onQ again in a heartbeat,” per Robert Thomas.