NEW YORK, August 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

New Software Detects Downtime and Data-Loss Risks; Alerts for Cross-Vendor Best Practice Violations

Continuity Software™, the leading provider of service availability risk management solutions, today announced the release of AvailabilityGuard/Cloud™, a private cloud automated health check solution that detects cross-domain configuration errors across all layers of IT - all the way from application server to the database, virtual machine (VM), physical infrastructure, storage area network (SAN), network-attached storage (NAS) and clustering - in order to eliminate data loss and business downtime risks.

AvailabilityGuard/Cloud was created in response to the rapidly increasing rate at which organizations of all sizes are deploying mission-critical applications in virtualized private clouds and consequently, the sharp rise in private cloud downtime and data-loss events.  While the benefits of virtualization are impossible to ignore, it has also become apparent that managing a private cloud infrastructure frequently involves manually-intensive processes that are prone to failure, often with a devastating effect on business service availability. With limited visibility across private cloud infrastructure layers, IT organizations have been unable to detect problems ahead of time and prevent them from disrupting the business. Even the most sophisticated IT organizations are learning that ensuring continuous service availability and data protection across their private cloud environment is easier said than done.

AvailabilityGuard/Cloud extends Continuity Software's proven downtime and data loss risk detection capabilities from the traditional datacenter environment to the private cloud. The solution enables users to automatically discover and eliminate vulnerabilities well before they impact the business, leveraging the patent-pending Risk Discovery Engine™ coupled with the continuously updated Risk Signature Knowledgebase™ of known and emerging private cloud configuration issues. Moreover, AvailabilityGuard/Cloud provides up-to-date management reports with high-level executive summaries followed by supportive drill-down reporting that make it easier for IT organizations to wrap their arms around even the most complicated environment.

"Constructing a private cloud - and then ensuring the availability of applications and data that run on that cloud is a very difficult task," said Jean S. Bozman, Research Vice President, IDC. "On the cloud, not being able to access applications and data has a highly negative impact on the business-- as operational costs continue to climb until outages are repaired and resolved by IT staff. Many sites are learning the hard way that availability must be built-in from the beginning.  The longer the downtime - the greater the cost. Continuity Software's AvailabilityGuard/Cloud directly addresses these issues by ensuring best practices through automation, and by finding vulnerabilities long before business impact."

Deni Connor, Founding Analyst, Storage and Server Strategies NOW, stated, "Another interesting dilemma resulting from increasingly well-publicized private cloud failures is the possibility of cloud avoidance.  In other words, will the fear of a failure or loss of control cause some IT professionals to simply avoid moving to the private cloud?  Further, would moving critical business applications to the private cloud without the proper tools in place to prevent avoidable failures fall into the negligence category?  And, what does this negligence mean for the business and/or the individual employee from a compliance standpoint - is there a risk of civil and criminal penalties?  The answer is 'yes'."  She continued, "With that said, since the advantages of virtualization are simply too powerful to ignore, avoiding cloud deployment is not a viable strategy. I urge all IT professionals to do their homework, team with the best technology, service providers and/or expert advisors to design and deploy their cloud, and then ensure its success with a solution such as Continuity Software's AvailabilityGuard/Cloud."

"The benefits of private cloud are indisputable, as is the business risk that comes with it," said Doron Pinhas, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Continuity Software.  "As practically every app server, database, storage, OS, cluster and virtualization vendor is updating or publishing a hefty best practices guide on almost a quarterly basis, organizations are finding themselves unable to follow and confidently implement reliable private cloud infrastructure for business critical applications."  He continued, "AvailabilityGuard/Cloud enables organizations to control the risks and maximize ROI by eliminating downtime and data loss threats. It also allows IT organizations to enhance coordination across domains (e.g., virtualization, storage, OS and applications) and increase operational efficiency by preventing problems ahead of time rather than expend excessive resources firefighting critical service disruptions."

IT professionals interested in learning more can email info@continuitysoftware.com to request a risk-free one-time private cloud risk assessment.

Additional Resources:

• Product Information: http://www.continuitysoftware.com/cloud
• Screenshots and Sample Report: http://www.continuitysoftware.com/agc-images

About Continuity Software

Continuity Software is the leading provider of service availability risk management solutions.  Trusted by many of the world's largest companies, Continuity Software's award-winning software mitigates downtime and data-loss risks across the entire enterprise IT landscape, including the datacenter's disaster recovery, high availability, and private cloud environments. With Continuity Software solutions, organizations can be confident that service availability, data protection and business continuity goals will be met or exceeded 365 days a year.  For further information, please visit: http://www.continuitysoftware.com, email: info@continuitysoftware.com, or call: +1-888-782-8170 (United States) or +972 (3) 6470888 (Israel). 

© 2012 Continuity Software.  Continuity Software, RecoverGuard, DR Assurance, AvailabilityGuard and AvailabilityGuard/Cloud are trademarks of Continuity Software.  All other brand and product names in this announcement may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

PR Contact:  
Nicole Gorman
Corporate Communications
Continuity Software
+1-508-397-0131
nicoleg@continuitysoftware.com

SOURCE Continuity Software