Neverfail offers resiliency for BlackBerrys

Resilient computing provider Neverfail is now supporting the BlackBerry in its attempt to win business from smaller companies.

Resilient computing has long been the preserve of large firms who purchase high-end, fault-tolerant computing products. It is becoming increasingly possible for companies on a more modest budget, according to Neverfail this week.

Based in Texas, privately held Neverfail has spend several years trying to persuade companies that they should be considering the issues around resilient, or even fault-tolerant, computing. After catering for the Windows Server market, the company thinks the next step is protection for handheld devices.

"BlackBerrys are used by so many senior executives now. Many IT managers know that the BlackBerry is supposed to be a low priority but if it fails then that's what they'll get a call from the CEO about," explained Neil Robinson, Neverfail's chief executive, in an interview with ZDNet UK this week.

Neverfail bases its resiliency service on the premise that all that is required for resilient computing is a duplicate server for each individual server, and the free passage of information between the two. If one is lost, then it's simple to recover all the data from the other.

The problem with this approach is that ensuring data is maintained across two servers in such a way that it is instantly available in the event of a problem is expensive and generally requires specialised software and hardware. Neverfail, though, argues that this isn't the case with its product.

Neverfail has been successful enough over the last three years to progressively grow and now to pick up awards for the technology, including two awards from this year's Microsoft TechEd conference, held earlier this month.

A turnkey solution is £10,000, which works out at an average price of £4,000 a year for a three-year contract with full support.