Big rig gig for back-up firm Asigra

Remote back-up software company Asigra has announced a deal that will see its software used by a major Icelandic drilling company which needs to secure data created in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

And, according to Eran Farajun, executive vice president of Asigra, "It doesn't get much more remote than that."

The deal sees Icelandic data-centre service provider SecurStore providing Iceland Drilling Company with Asigra's agentless back-up and recovery software.

Iceland Drilling Company has rigs off Iceland and also in the Azores, approximately 1,000 miles off the coast of Portugal and North Africa. It backs up more than 500GB of data via a satellite link to a secure data-centre back in Iceland.

As such, a remote, managed back-up solution, which removes the need for a physical solution - such as tapes which the company used before - makes perfect sense, Farajun told silicon.com.

Farajun said: "These are hostile environments and the restore time with traditional methods would be huge.

"There are major physical restrictions such as distance and if they wanted to get a back-up tape out to one of these rigs there would be all sorts of issues such as how it gets there. If that tape has to travel by air, land and sea they are going to be waiting a long time."

Om Sigurdsson, financial manager of Iceland Drilling Company said the improvement has been considerable. "The speed and reliability of our back-up is outstanding," he said.

He added: "We don't have to waste time changing tapes and tracking their location. Should one of the rig's computer systems fail we can remotely retrieve the data from the last back-up almost immediately."