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Horizon DataSys' Rollback Rx Is A Prescription for Personal Logical Data Protection
There is a critical need to provide data protection for personal computing devices--notably, desktops and laptops. That protection has tended to be in the form of backup, either locally or over the Internet. While that is useful, there is also a need for safe recovery from logical data protection problems, such as restoring crashed systems to a working state. Rollback Rx, Horizon DataSys’ snapshot software product, is designed to provide that level of data protection.
David Hill
August 16, 2011
4 Min Read
Most data protection software and hardware products are designed for servers, yet there is a critical need to provide data protection for personal computing devices--notably, desktops and laptops. That protection has tended to be in the form of backup, either locally or over the Internet. While that is useful and necessary, there is also a need for safe recovery from logical data protection problems, such as returning your system to a clean state or restoring crashed systems to a working state. Rollback Rx, Horizon DataSys’s snapshot software product, is designed to provide that level of data protection.
Snapshot technology has long been available for server-based systems, ranging from the smallest business to the largest enterprise. Rollback Rx has provided that key snapshot capability for desktops and laptops for some time now. Why is that so important? Mainly because effectively working PCs are key to the productivity of most workers. Here are just some of the things that Rollback Rx can do to help recover quickly from PC problems:
Roll back your entire computer to a clean state after a virus infection or some other form of corruption
Recover accidentally deleted files
Restore a system that has crashed to a working state
Back out from a failed software deployment process.
Users have flexibility in specifying snapshots. Automatic snapshots can be taken, such as when rebooting, or they can be scheduled at a specific time, such as just before testing a piece of software from which a rollback may be necessary if the software installation does not go as planned. Snapshots are relatively fast and are not capacity intrusive.
Most products that I discuss are used for server-level requirements, and, since I am not in the benchmarking business, I really cannot try them personally. Even when a product is suitable for my desktop, I am reluctant to use it. (After all, how many external disk drives can I use?) However, some time ago, Horizon DataSys asked me to try Rollback Rx and gave me a free copy. Frankly, I only began using it after the company asked whether I had installed it. And quite frankly, I am happy that I did.Now, I am also not in the business of giving testimonials (quotes yes, testimonials no), but I feel that my own experience can provide insight as to the value of snapshot technology at the desktop level. And the first thing that happened is that, within a couple of weeks of installing Rollback Rx, my Outlook PST file went away (size 0 bytes). That was before I had Internet backup, and I wasn’t too sure about my local backup. Fortunately, I was able to restore to an automatic Rollback Rx snapshot.
Horizon DataSys saved my bacon on a number of other occasions with my old system, as well.
So when I moved to a new PC last year and went with all the new Microsoft products, including Office 2010, Horizon DataSys kindly provided me with another complimentary copy of Rollback Rx. I didn’t think that I would need it, but I wasn’t taking any chances. And, again, I am glad that I did. As a user, I am not happy about not being in total control of what can be done on my computer without my express permission. One night, I left my computer on to perform a large number of automatic updates, but in the morning my computer seemed to be hung and turned out not to be usable. Restoring to a Rollback Rx snapshot restored my computer (and my sanity).
Given the growing amount of malware lurking online, one also has to be cautious when retrieving information. A company I trusted gave me links to a site with some files that they thought I could use. I did, and somehow the site altered my PC in ways that I had not authorized. I felt that my PC was becoming a zombie, and I was really happy when I was able to restore my system to normalcy with a Rollback Rx snapshot. My Internet backup and my local backup would not have been able to do that easily, if at all.
So even with a new system, Rollback Rx has proved valuable.
Now, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), if it ever becomes widely adopted, could replace the need for individual data protection of desktops and laptops (as IT would provide data protection as a service). Until then, businesses are going to need to make sure that personal computing devices are protected. Backup is the standard approach, but that tends to focus more on physical data protection rather than logical data protection.
Snapshots are one good, proven way of protecting logical data, and numerous vendors, including Microsoft, provide some recovery capabilities for desktops and laptops. I am personally familiar with Rollback Rx and have used it for some time. The bottom line of my own experience is that snapshots (or something similar) should be in the data protection arsenal of every PC user, along with backup software. For me, Horizon DataSys’s Rollback Rx provides exactly the sort of protection I need.
Except for providing me a complimentary copy of Rollback Rx, Horizon DataSys has not been and is not currently a client of David Hill and the Mesabi Group.
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