Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

CASE STUDY: DupliDisk

International Forum Systems (IFS), CashRegisterPeople.com, located in South Texas, specialize in point of sale systems for grocery, retail and hospitality applications. IFS are distributors for IBM and NCR, and to complement their product portfolio offer scanners, touch screens, bar code printers, portable data collectors and paper rolls. They are also authorized resellers for PixelPoint POS which is a customized software application for fine dining, quick service and high volume bars. Using PixelPoint POS, restaurants can improve customer satisfaction due to faster service and more efficient table management.

Working in vast South Texas where distances are large, it is vital that customers are guaranteed maximum service all the time. Mike Quinn of IFS explains "We would never install a POS system without DupliDisk, or we will not take the job. Zero down time is what our customers want."

Mike Quinn explains "We chose DupliDisk because of its small cost and high value. It is like an insurance policy that you buy only once. Installation is simple. All I had to do was plug in the card and the software utility did the rest".

The purpose of the DupliDisk is to provide real-time data mirroring so if your hard drive crashes, your computer will continue to run smoothly with no data loss. Unlike other RAID Controllers, DupliDisk is unique in that it works with virtually any operating system, uses no system resources and requires no device drivers.

The DupliDisk operates by writing data both to your original drive and to a backup drive at the same time. Each time you save a document or make a change, the same action occurs simultaneously on both the primary and the mirror drives. The benefit is that there is no delay time and writes are automatic. There is also no issue of having to copy the second drive from the first. Should your hard drive fail, the DupliDisk sounds an alarm and automatically switches all operations to the other disk. Your system continues to operate with no downtime or loss of data.

Mike Quinn will never forget one Friday evening at 5:45pm last summer when he received a call from one of his customers, The Black Diamond Oyster Bar in Corpus Christi. The manager was concerned about an alarm he had heard from his server. Mike sent a technician immediately, but as he was in the area decided to visit the site himself. On arrival, he noticed his serviceman just sitting at the bar talking. Apparently the customer's hard drive had crashed and a replacement was scheduled for first thing Monday morning.

Five minutes later the manager enquired as to what caused the alarm to set off. "Your hard drive crashed!" commented the serviceman. "How is the system still running?" asked the manager in a panic. "DupliDisk!" replied the serviceman, calmly.

That night DupliDisk earned IFS some free beers and the owner was happy he had bought a DupliDisk. "This is the story I tell all my new customers. It's a great selling point", comments Mike Quinn.