High availability provider Maxava, together with business partner Bell Data of Japan, have worked with Japanese clients to save business-critical data and restore business operations after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of last March. Both companies continue to work closely to restore business operations for customers affected by the disaster. 

Maxava solutions have been used to assist affected businesses after recent global disasters including the earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, tornadoes in the U.S. and the events in Japan. In Japan, Maxava’s support team has worked closely with partners to quickly role swap data from affected systems and business locations to enable the fast restoration of business operations, according to the company. 

"One of our affected customers is a large manufacturer whose mission is to provide their critical products to customers throughout Japan, even through a disaster," said Yasuki Takano, Maxava's Japan sales manager.  "By using Maxava HA to quickly role swap their data, the customer was able to continue their business, getting their products into the hands of the professionals who desperately needed them to assist the victims of the disasters.  It's times like these when you realize that your technology solutions really play a role in your customer's business to the benefit of people who need their products and services,” Takano said. 

The large manufacturing customer in Northern Japan has been using Maxava HA since 2007 and has 21 offices and factories with more than 800 employees.  The tsunami and resulting nuclear power plant damage caused power shortages with resulting announcements of planned power outages for three hours daily, which created severe service shortages. 

Maxava and Bell Data worked closely with the customer to role swap systems to a safe location in Kyushu from the affected system in Tokyo.  Maxava’s real-time replication and backup kept the customer’s systems running; otherwise, the system would have been shuttered for a week at a time when the company’s products had an immediate and urgent need, the company said. 

"This customer was smart to work with Maxava to build a comprehensive business continuity plan," said Yasuki Takano.  "Without this BCP, they would not have been ready to react when the earthquake struck.  The training the customer went through also made the reaction to the emergency run quickly and smoothly." 

Maxava’s assistance to customers in Japan is the subject of a session at "Case Study Seminar for BCP," on June 15, 2011, at IBM Tokyo Hakozaki, featuring Maxava's Takano. 

Maxava's comprehensive product line includes Maxava HA Enterprise+, Maxava HA SMB, and Maxava HA Data Stream.  The Maxava HA Suite provides real time replication for IBM i for enterprise strength disaster recovery that many organizations are putting in place to protect critical corporate data and for compliance purposes.