Goldstar Software's Data Protection Services (GSDPS)

Goldstar Software is pleased to announce the Goldstar Software Data Protection Services, otherwise known as GSDPS. GSDPS offers Btrieve and Actian PSQL/Zen database users an opportunity to properly protect your database through a tiered backup solution, sized to meet your data protection needs with the features and capabilities you want -- all at a price you can afford.

GSDPS is actually a suite of services and options, designed to help meet your company's needs. A more complete description of the options is shown below.

Pay-As-You-Need-It Solutions

For our smallest customers, we offer a very simple pricing model -- we will help you with your backup needs for a fixed, hourly support rate of $250 per hour with a one-hour minimum. We will work with you to review your exact needs and then use our remote control support capability to attach to your server and set up the backup system that works best for you. We can leverage the Backup Agent or VSS Writer to help automate the tasks, or we can provide continuous operations mode scripts for more fine-grained control over the backup process.

Fixed-Cost Solutions

Not sure how to proceed and don't want to take the time to figure it all out? We have built the following fixed-cost solutions to meet the most common backup requirements for companies with an existing backup strategy needing to integrate :

Backup Agent Integration: Are you running a server-based backup package? Actian's Backup Agent is ideal for server engine users who have simple backup needs and do not have time to learn how to properly install and configure the product. We can provide a remote installation and configuration of Backup Agent for a flat cost of $300 (including the $210 software cost). We will help integrate the Backup Agent software with most server-based backup packages, ensuring that the database is backed up properly. (Some more esoteric or complicated packages may require an additional configuration fee.)

Backup Agent Script: Not running a backup package on the database server, but you still have a PSQL/Zen server engine? Actian's Backup Agent will still work, but it gets a bit more complicated. Instead of integrating with the backup package directly, we use the Backup Agent to make a snapshot backup or your database into a second directory, and then you can configure your backup package to ignore the primary database directory. This solution provides the Backup Agent software, along with a script for moving the data safely to the backup directory once per day for a flat fee of $400.

Backup Agent White List Option: Ensure that specific files are ALWAYS backed up with the proper database settings by building a White List for the Backup Agent. We can add this to either of the above solutions for $50.

Continuous Operations Mode Script: When you are running the Actian PSQL/Zen Workgroup Engine, you may not have the Backup Agent software to automate the process. Instead, you must manually program the database's Continuous Operations Mode to obtain a clean backup. We can work with you to build a proper backup script that moves the database into Continuous Operations mode, migrates the data to a backup directory, and then restores the database to normal mode again. The starting cost for this setup is $250 for a single data directory, and $50 more per directory containing database files.

GSDPS Tool : If you have a more complicated PSQL/Zen database configuration, especially if it precludes you from using Continuous Operations Mode normally, then our GSDPS tool may be right for you. For a one-time licensing fee of $495, we provide you with our backup tool designed to take snapshots of your database files one file at a time. The GSDPS tool is user-configurable to back up multiple folders (including sub-folders) efficiently by only copying changed data, and it can even send you an Email when it is done to confirm proper operation!.

Managed Backup Option: Since the backup process does not automatically handle changes to the data set that often accompany application upgrades, some additional monitoring of the database backup process is required to ensure that your backup stays clean all year long. For $1000 additional, we will work with you once per month to check the status of the backup process and make any adjustments necessary to maintain proper operation. This is especially important for the Continuous Operations Mode Script users.

Rolling Backup Option: Is one backup per day sufficient for your operations? How useful would it be to have four separate backup directories, rotating copies of the database every 6 hours? Assuming that you have sufficient disk space on your network, we can add anywhere from two to six rolling backups (i.e. every two hours) for an additional $100.

Off-Site Data Storage Option: In addition to the on-site (i.e. local network) storage offered by these solutions, Goldstar Software can also configure your database server to push data to an off-site data storage facility with NO user interaction! Pricing is based on the number of GB to be stored off-site, on a one-year contract.

DataExchange Implementation

For those sites where even rolling backups are not frequent enough, we also offer complete implementation services around Actian's DataExchange product. These solutions require a software purchase (of DX) as well as a substantial investment in testing, training, and on-site implementation services ranging over several days, so it is quite expensive overall, but if you need an active--to-active database replication for PSQL/Zen, it is the only option available. See the DataExchange web page or contact us for more details on this option.

Off-Server Backup Storage

Do you have critical data that you just want to get stored somewhere other than the server, in case of a disaster? We can help with this, as well! Each of the following solutions is priced based on your volume of data and frequency of updates, so contact us for more details.

Continuous Data Protection Appliances: We can provide and install one of a series of Continuous Data Protection appliances that can be configured on your network to constantly monitor data and automatically replicate up to 600GB of data to a separate hard disk on the appliance, allowing for easy user-based recovery of any file from any point in time. This can include data from laptops, desktops, and servers, as well as databases.

Bare Metal Recovery Option: Need protection from a hardware failure? The Bare Metal Recovery option can be added to the Continuous Data Protection appliance to allow for storing an entire image of a systems hard disk, enabling you to recover from a complete disk failure in minutes.

Off-Site Data Storage Option: In addition to the on-site (i.e. local network) storage offered by the Continuous Data Protection appliances, these systems can also be configured to push data to an off-site data storage facility with NO user interaction! Pricing is based on the number of GB to be stored off-site, on a one-year contract.

Want to learn more? Contact Goldstar Software for more information about these solutions!