Having one less thing to worry about when looking after over 60 children has come as a great relief to staff and management at the Johannesburg Children's Home (JCH). With the introduction of Attix5 Backup Professional to protect essential data on the Home's computers, there is no longer any stress related to doing backups and ensuring that information is secure.
Established in 1892 by a small group of dedicated women, JCH is Johannesburg's oldest charity. The organisation provides a safe refuge for 64 children of all races who have been found in need of care by the Children's Court.
According to Narisha Govender, JCH director, getting employees to perform manual backups using memory sticks was an ongoing struggle. "We all appreciate the importance of backing up information, but it remains a huge challenge. Often, we simply don't remember to do it as we just run out of time," she says.
Govender stresses however, that information for the organisation is extremely important. "There are statutory and legal requirements in terms of the Child Care Act for record-keeping related to the care of our children," she says. "There is other sensitive information such as that relating to fundraising, our manuals and policy documents and human resources information. Like any company, this data is essential for our daily operations and without it we could simply not operate."
While JCH receives a State subsidy for each child in its care, this covers just 11% of actual costs. As a result, the organisation is dependent on the generosity of the general public to continue its operations. Attix5 provides its Backup Professional service to the Home free of charge.
"With Backup Professional, we have the assurance that backups take place every day, automatically, on every machine which contains important information," says Govender.
This has resulted in complete peace of mind, confirms Margaret Michaels, whose responsibilities include IT for JCH. "There have been occasions in the past where I would take my hard drive home with me when on holiday. That's no longer necessary," she relates.
The technology behind the solution is impressive, but Michaels and Govender note that it is the simplicity of its operation which leaves the biggest impression.
Pointing out the ease with which Backup Professional takes care of JCH's essential information, Michaels says the technology does its own thing. "The backups come on and run as scheduled each day. It's a very painless process," she says.
Michael Law, Attix5 MD, says many small to medium businesses find themselves in a similar situation to JCH. "In today's day and age, we all appreciate the value of information. That said, we also tend to have bad habits when it comes to backing up - it is a hassle, there is always something more pressing to do and we forget. Backup Professional takes care of the responsibility of protecting data for you, and stores your information on a secure remote platform."
The solution works by compressing data and transmitting it securely over Internet lines, for storage in a remote data centre. Using advanced compression technology, it uses very little bandwidth. Users can restore data over the Internet to any location worldwide.
From a management perspective, Govender says it is nice to know that the information is backed up daily. "That's a comfort as we have the assurance that people can get their data back and continue to be productive even if something major goes wrong. We know that our data is safe and secure in Attix5's data centre at all times," she concludes.
For more on the Johannesburg Children's Home please visit: http://www.jch.org.za/
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