mulligan-faqs

What is The Mulligan™?

The Mulligan™ provides two critical business protection services in one appliance.

It’s a “replica” server replacement… available within minutes after a primary server’s failure. The Mulligan™ performs all the functions of that server while it’s being repaired or replaced, including access to the same data and same applications that were on the failed server.
It’s a “safety net” for your data… providing daily monitored backups of your critical files and folders to our local Durham operations center.
Together these functions provide incredible data protection for any failure scenario.

Why is it called The Mulligan™?

It might be a funny name, but it’s serious protection for your business.

If you play golf you know that a Mulligan™ is used when you re-tee or drop a second ball after a horrible shot leaves you in a bad situation. For casual weekend golfers, a Mulligan is a friendly second shot… a second chance without a penalty stroke to save the hole or your entire score. So, as fans of the game who often need a Mulligan (or two) on the golf course, the team at SecureNA found it appropriate to name the box after a shot that has saved us during many rounds of golf.

The concept of The Mulligan™ for data is the same… get another chance when things go wrong. If a server goes down and everyone needs to continue working, or if your building experiences a fire, theft, flood, or some other catastrophic event, your data is safe. You get a “second shot” – The Mulligan™ for business data.

How does The Mulligan™ keep our business running when our server goes down?

If your server breaks down — power supply goes out, hard drive crashes, motherboard fails, etc. — our local Durham datacenter receives an immediate alert and The Mulligan™ goes to work as your corporate server. The design of the Mulligan™ includes the ability to make an exact copy of your server settings, policies and data every 15 minutes.

Once your server is repaired, we will move all of the data that has changed in the interim back to your new or repaired server. We will make the entire process as painless as possible.

How does The Mulligan™ compare to online backup services?

Online backup services sound quick and easy, and most are far from it. You either have to wade through learning the software, or you have to trust the provider’s generic software to back up the right items. Anything over a certain size or certain types of files are often excluded. It’s mentioned in the fine print if you read it… so hopefully you’re storing everything where they expect you to have it, don’t have anything “too big,” and know how and when to adjust settings.

With The Mulligan™, we backup your files to our operations center in Durham. Unlike other offsite storage vendors, we will work with you to identify what files are critical in your environment, what’s not, and we’ll update what’s being backed up offsite as your needs change over time.

What are other limitations of Internet backup solutions if I have a fire, theft, or flood vs. The Mulligan™?

Restoring of your data after the disaster is a BIG difference.

Let’s say you have 500 gigabytes of data stored offsite via online backup software, and you lose the server or laptop that houses that data to a fire, theft, flood, etc. A typical restoration practice from online software backup is to push your data back via the Internet. Today’s typical business grade internet connections can download only about 0.42 gigabytes (420 megabytes) per hour. This means that TWO WEEKS LATER, you’ll have all your data back.

Sure, some online backup services can overnight your data for additional fees costing as much as $5000.00 dollars. The data arrives one to three days later via courier service with just the data; no applications or operating system are on the drive. Next, you need to have it installed and the data transferred correctly back where it belongs. Do you have staff trained to handle this? How much will it cost to have an IT company come onsite and handle it for you? What if you try to install it and the drive is damaged or the data not complete?

Isn’t a disaster bad enough without adding insult to injury with additional fees and delays?

With The Mulligan™ , your data is securely stored locally in Durham, NC, in our data center. Should you need to restore all of the 500GB of data, our professionally trained engineers will copy your data directly from our servers onto a new Mulligan™, then deliver and install it at your office. We’ll even transfer the data over to your servers and set up the file and folder permissions at no additional cost.

With The Mulligan™ , all vital disaster recovery services are included in our flat monthly fee… from capturing and securely storing your data, to delivery and restoration of that data once your primary server is working again.

We have more than one server. Is The Mulligan™ still something we can use?

Absolutely. The Mulligan™ can be built to handle the backup of up to 3 servers per Mulligan™ depending on various factors. We’re working on additional versions of The Mulligan™ that could handle more in one box in the future. Our technological design allows us to install more than one Mulligan™ onsite if needed.
We are cloud based with no server. Is The Mulligan™ still something we need?

No, actually. If you are cloud-based without anything onsite, we have other methods of protecting that data in conjunction with or in addition to your hosted provider’s backup. Please reach out to us and we’ll talk about your situation with you in detail.

How much storage space do we get with The Mulligan™?

The Mulligan™ standard model holds up to 2 terabytes (2,000 gigabytes) of backup at your site and comes bundled with 500 gigabytes of offsite storage at our facility in Durham.

The Mulligan™ can be built to handle more than 6 terabytes (6,000 gigabytes) onsite, and we’re happy to discuss additional offsite storage needs anytime.

Why should we care if you provide backup services like our “own IT department”?

Because your own IT department wouldn’t treat your data like it’s just more data. They know the business depends on it, and they put best practices in place to assure it’s handled appropriately to assure business continuity. With each clients success, SecureNA’s level of success grows – and to ensure mutual success, we handle the backups like your own IT department would handle them.

Storage is a commodity. Getting the cheapest 3rd party storage service just means I get a lower cost product and have more money to run my business… it’s just drive space, right?

Storage is a commodity. Your data isn’t.

If you trust companies in other states with other laws to handle and secure your easily read and copied corporate data, go ahead. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying all server farms are dangerous, just impersonal and unlikely to do anything if your data is compromised — and since you don’t have a personal and direct relationship with the people housing YOUR data, you can’t even do anything if something does happen. Suing won’t get your data back or help you figure out how a database was hacked. The next time a privacy policy changes and your data is mined for information, how will you know?

Bottom line — if you have a backup solution in place from a vendor, ask them where the data is stored and how it’s protected.

I trust my bank with my money. Trusting other companies is part of doing business. Aren’t you just being overly cautious?

If a bank is robbed, your money is still protected. Money in one bank location is the same as money across the country. The problem with data is that it’s unique to your business, and if no one is watching, it can be copied silently without anyone knowing it was copied. Couple that with the fact that anyone with a server, an Internet connection, and a decent website can start offering backup storage out of their basement. Sound safe? If you are comfortable trusting a company you can’t hold accountable, potentially across the country, to protect your payroll documents, your tax records, your sales forecasts, or any corporate secrets, then we wish you luck.

Hey, we know we sound paranoid… it’s what makes us better at this than most. We’re worried that your proprietary data or your financial records could wind up stolen from an online service that is attacked every single day. We’re worried that you have a document here or there with a Social Security Number on it, and one “whoops” and you or your employees could have a credit problem.

When it only takes one time to make private information public forever, it’s hard to sit down and ignore the fact that most small businesses probably don’t know what’s going on with their backup.

Just make sure you know who you’re really trusting to store your data… because it might not be who you think it is. Unlike money in the bank, there are no police or agencies protecting your data from bad handling… and I.T. companies are not required to tell you where they store your data.

What if we want even faster recovery from a catastrophic event?

If you’re interested in 100% business continuity during fire, flood, or other catastrophe that would take out your entire site, SecureNA offers business server hosting. However, this type of service must be planned in advance, since it’s not something we can offer after an data loss event.

Reach out to us below and let’s discuss further.