(This post was transcribed from an email. Customer details have been removed or obfuscated to protect customer privacy)
Dear Marinus

With the recent problems that we have had over the past couple of days a few questions have come to mind:
(The client's internet connection started 'flapping', and on top of that after some instabilities in the power supply the server failed to boot correctly, resulting in a temporary loss of servive)

1. If the box did blow how would I recover the data and service and how long would it take?
2. Are you keeping copies of the configuration and client data? Or should I have a back up here?
3. Do you offer the service as a hosted service and if so at what cost?

Kind regards

Dear (Customer);
1. You'd put the data on a new box. That depends on the availability of a box. We are looking at a 4 week delay from our supplier for new servers. Some of our clients keep a second box on site in case of that eventuality, in which case the turnaround time is of course much quicker.
If you already have a second box on site, e.g. stored in a closet or something, you can take it out and plug it into the same place as the old box. (To get it online you'd just have to set the IP and gateway up the same as the old box, which we can do before we ship the box to you, but if you change your setup in the mean time, the server you have stored will of course not be updated). Then it's just a matter of moving last night's backup onto the server and starting it up, which we can do remotely. That could typically take as little as 2 hours, but it depends on the size of your internet connection (your database is currently 3.7G big. How long does it take you to download 3.7 GB of data?)
It is also possible to have the second box on site and plugged in to your network, and receiving a backup locally from the other server daily. This Standby server will not be communicating to the meters. Then, if the first box fails, the backup database is already on here, so it is just a matter of switching off the old server and changing the IP and gateway of the Standby server to the old server's settings, and a few configuration settings on the server, and it will start functioning as the Primary server. Of course, any payments into the ledgers during the last day that was lost will have to be re-applied.
Remote support to restore your system as per above is a manual process and attracts an hourly support fee.
Disaster Recovery Procedure test runs can also be done, for the same fee on the same basis.
We suggest that you draw up a Disaster Recovery Procedure for your business, identify the people in your Disaster Recovery Team, and hold regular (yearly or 6-monthly) test runs, to ensure that you and your team are ready in case of such an eventuality, and so you'll know what to expect and the real turnaround times. Disaster Recovery Procedures at a business normally involves more software systems that just our system, e.g. your accounting system, and the people in a Disaster Recovery Team are often people from multiple businesses and departments.
People and systems move around and change over time, so a test run is a good time to prime the team and should be done on a regular basis, otherwise you would find that a certain person doesn't work at a certain business or department any more, or some system configuration has changed without everyone being notified, and then everything takes easily twice as long or more to get sorted out.
2. We do keep daily remote backups of the configuration and client data (terms and conditions apply). The image of your database on our Germany server for this purpose is currently 3.7G big. However you can also keep a backup on site, and the fastest way to do this is to procure a Standby server (see above under point 1, third paragraph). Some clients even use a standby server to mirror yesterday's data to a local server on their corporate network for normal work during the day, because their internet connection is poor.
3. Yes, we do offer a hosted service as well, but in that case the Evergreen license is not available, since we have a monthly cost to host it. For 847 channels you'd be looking at R10164 per month, excl. VAT. If you use 1000 channels, due to a bulk discount, you'll be asked R9000 per month, excl. VAT.
Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.
Yours Sincerely,

Dear (Customer),
Another possibility that just occurred to me, because of your bad internet connection, is that nothing is stopping you from taking your server and putting it at a hosting facility. If it is at one of your ISP's hosting facilities, you may even keep the same global IP for your server, which would mean you won't have to reprogram your modems. Otherwise you would have to reprogram your modems, because they connect to your server.
Anyway, just thought you should know, nothing is stopping you from creating your own 'hosted solution', in case our hosted solution cost structure does not appeal to you.
Also, if you're using a hosting facility for your server, it would be very quick to copy files across the internet, e.g. in case the box fails, because you'd likely be situated on an internet back bone, with lots of available bandwidth. There is also a possibility to run on one of their machines (they often like to 'rent out' servers, relatively cheaply, which they then support and guarantee); with a couple of terms and conditions tied to that, e.g. you won't be able to do CSD, and read PRI meters, but I think you don't use those features anyway. These hosting facilities often have extremely high reliability in their internet as well as their power quality, and they often guarantee uptime for something like 99.9% of the time, or even more strict. If it is reliability and quality of internet service you need, perhaps you should consider this possibility.
Regards,