InMage Systems, a leading provider of business continuity and disaster recovery (DR) software, recently introduced a Government Program designed specifically to meet the technology and financial budget requirements that are unique to state and local government agencies. This comprehensive program enables agencies to rapidly meet compliance requirements and achieve operational excellence in the area of Continuous Data Protection (CDP). The InMage solution, DR-Scout, is a turnkey DR/business continuity software product that enables agencies to protect their data in the event of a natural disaster or everyday application or server failure. Furthermore, InMage’s CDP-based software provides comprehensive protection across most leading applications with push button failover capabilities for Microsoft Exchange and SQL, Sharepoint, Oracle, Blackberry Server and SAP. Program highlights are centered on InMage’s flagship DR-Scout product and include specialized financing, custom solution design, and certified professional services.

The New Mexico Administrative Office of the District Attorneys (AODA) is an organization already reaping the benefits of the Government Program. "DR-Scout is unquestionably one of the most successful IT implementations we’ve ever had from an outside vendor," said Eddie Chavez, CIO of the New Mexico AODA. "Our organization manages IT functions for 38 locations and roughly 1,000 end users throughout the state, so ensuring data integrity and protection is an enormous task. DR-Scout met our three main objectives: to improve the recovery process, recovery time and retention. In addition, it enabled us to centralize backup processes and improve IT staff productivity by 20%. I have peace of mind knowing we can not only recover lost files or even entire e-mail boxes, but that we can do so within seconds or minutes."

In a research study conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group, government respondents’ most frequently cited challenges with data protection include the need to reduce backup times (69%), the need to reduce recovery times (64%), difficulty in validating backup success/failure (56%), the need to improve backup reliability (53%), and the need to improve recovery reliability (47%).

"Government IT organizations are challenged to reduce recovery times and improve recovery reliability," said Lauren Whitehouse, analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "InMage tackles recovery issues head-on with its DR-Scout solution, providing local operational recovery and remote disaster recovery, and the ability to retrieve data from any previous point in time greatly improving recovery objectives."

As part of the program, InMage Systems has retained financial services group Municipal Lease to provide special financing for state and local governments. They will have the ability to allocate payments, including license fees, maintenance and professional services, over multiple budget years. Government organizations will also have the option of customizing payments to meet budget shortfalls in the current fiscal year. The lease obligation is subject to the annual appropriations of funds, allowing the state and local governments to finance 100% of the components required to meet this critical initiative. This structure allows them to acquire the right mix of products required to meet their needs, as compared to buying only those products they have within the current year’s fiscal budget.

In conjunction with select InMage Platinum and Gold Channel Partners, InMage will be sponsoring more than 20 regional events nationwide to share the details of this exciting new program. The events will showcase best practices related to business continuance and disaster recovery in state and local government and will include several case studies of successful InMage deployments. Participating Channel Partners have been InMage Certified, ensuring they have the core competencies necessary to architect and implement the InMage DR-Scout solution in government environments. Government agencies looking to attend can visit www.InMage.net to get further details and register for the event.