Computerworld

​World-first as Plan B partners with Panasonic to launch Cloud Archive-as-a-Service

Kiwi firm partners with tech giant to introduce a world-first innovation in Cloud archive-as-a-service technology.
Plan B and Panasonic announced the launch at events in Auckland and Wellington

Plan B and Panasonic announced the launch at events in Auckland and Wellington

Plan B and Panasonic have partnered to introduce a world-first innovation in Cloud archive-as-a-service technology.

As explained to Reseller News during events in Auckland and Wellington this week, businesses in New Zealand, and across the world, today face unprecedented and unrelenting growth in data volumes and data security concerns.

To combat this, and by utilising Panasonic’s Blu-ray and new Archival Disc technology, Plan B has built the first application-based solution for businesses to securely access and manage their archive data in the cloud as a service.

“From our first introduction to this technology we believed there was an opportunity to change the way businesses manage their data, lowering costs and improving performance,” says Ian Forrester, Managing Director, Plan B.

Forrester - who picked up Plan B's Service Provider of the Year award at the 2015 Reseller News ICT Industry Awards last month - says Plan B’s Cloud Data Archive allows businesses to archive and recover files using a mapped network drive rather than manual processes requiring offsite media.

Offering the ability to manage archive expenses with an all-inclusive cost structure, the offering also allows organisations to move aged data off production infrastructure to reduce unnecessary costs and impact on.

Working off a 50 year lifespan, Forrester says businesses can act, safe in the knowledge, that the integrity of archive data with physical WORM (Write Once Read Many) technology prevents accidental or malicious file deletion.

By hosting archive data in New Zealand also, Forrester says cloud archive-as-a-service helps eliminate frequent data migration though media life cycle as Blu-ray and Archival Disc.

“Plan B has built a unique solution that will create opportunities here and overseas for our archiving technology,” adds Mark McKanny, Director, Panasonic New Zealand.

Forrester adds that the new Cloud Data Archive service fits naturally alongside Plan B’s existing hosted infrastructure, backup and recovery services, thus making it easier to access an archiving solution that will protect business data now and in the future.