AmeriFirst Finance Chooses Sphere 3D SnapServer NAS and RDX QuikStor Removable Backup Appliance for Protecting Business-Critical Data

SAN JOSE, CA and MISSISSAGUA, ON--(Marketwired - Dec 18, 2014) - Sphere 3D Corporation, (NASDAQ: ANY), a virtualization technology and data management solutions provider, today announced that AmeriFirst Finance, a privately-held financial services company offering consumer loans and third-party portfolio management for more than 35 years, has selected the SnapServer^® network attached storage (NAS) and RDX^® QuikStor^® removable storage system for automated disaster recovery and backup of their business-critical data.

To provide the highest level of customer service, AmeriFirst Finance required a secure, robust and automatic way of protecting data with offsite disaster recovery. To avoid disruptive access to data, they needed a solution that would ensure constant availability to their customer loan documents and maintain full disaster protection to guarantee compliance.

AmeriFirst chose a multi-layer storage approach using the scalable SnapServer NAS array, the Snap Enterprise Data Replication (EDR) software, and the RDX QuikStor backup system to ensure permanent data accessibility. This tiered methodology allows fast, instant access to data in the event of a disaster, or if data is brought off-line or during a component failure.

"We installed our SnapServer NAS and attached the RDX QuikStor, and were pleased to see that SnapServer with its enterprise GuardianOS software now has a robust, direct backup solution for our crucial data," said Jim Houser, Director of Information Systems at AmeriFirst Finance. "Doing backup through software on a Windows computer was horribly slow. This direct SnapServer NAS to RDX connection is killer fast! Additionally, we used the Snap Enterprise Data Replication software package to replicate our local SnapServer to a remote SnapServer. The added layer of replication gives us a great disaster recovery tool and the peace of mind knowing our data is available in the event that a site goes down."

Houser added, "With RDX working as fast as it does, and having it directly managed in the SnapServer GuardianOS, this now makes it feasible to perform a secure counter-to-counter air flight delivery of current production data to our external third-party servicer in the event of total disaster of the first and second layers of data protection that Snap EDR is providing." 

About RDX
The RDX series with AccuGuard^® enterprise software provides encryption, deduplication, scalability, centralized management and reliability for backup, archive, data interchange and disaster recovery. RDX provides enterprise performance and fast access, with transfer rates of up to 650GB per hour and capacities up to 2TB per cartridge. Users have enough capacity to support a wide range of storage requirements, ensuring their data is fully protected.