Anyone who has lost a system disk on a server, workstation, PC, or notebook has experienced the frustration of the incredible complexity and associated time required to restore the computer to its original state. While it’s of course necessary to recover lost files and data, the process of tediously locating all of the operating system and application media, re-downloading all of the software for which media isn’t available, and locating and entering all of the original license keys and authorization codes is the real productivity killer. It’s not unusual for people to never bring their computer back to its original state because they simply can’t find the original versions of their operating systems and applications or they can’t find the license keys and authorization codes.

The figure below represents a simplified process flow depicting typical recovery of a computer.

Unitrends was one of the pioneers of BareMetal data protection. BareMetal is a technology designed to dramatically decrease the time and effort required to restore a computer to its original state in the event of a system failure. BareMetal protects not only the typical files and data of the user but also the operating system and applications. Because the operating systems and applications are protected, you eliminate the following steps:

Installing the operating system
Installing the device drivers
Installing the operating system updates
Installing applications
Applying application updates
Configuring the operating system and applications
Locating and re-entering the license keys

Instead the administrator simply recovers from the previously created BareMetal media and optionally the BareMetal snapshot and then from the backup of the files and data.

The figure below depicts the BareMetal advantage in terms of time and complexity of system recovery.

Unitrends has led in BareMetal recovery technology and techniques. We have pioneered advanced BareMetal technologies such as hot and dissimilar BareMetal. While the rest of the industry has attempted to match what we’ve done, we’ve aggressively continued to move forward with technologies such as dissimilar P2V (Physical-to-Virtual) that enable companies to integrate their existing environment with virtual environments in an integrated and seamless fashion. In other words, our technologies allow fast recovery times without forcing you to upgrade your entire storage infrastructure and rely on only expensive SANs for all future storage growth…an option particularly attractive as DAS (Direct Attached Storage) prices per terabyte continue their dramatic decline while SAN storage prices remain stubbornly high.

Windows Bare Metal Restore & Backup | Linux Bare Metal Restore Software