United Computer Group, Inc. has announced the addition of the VAULT400 Disaster Recovery Quick-Ship Program for System i data vaulting subscribers. Effective immediately, all IBM AS/400/System i VAULT400 subscribers are eligible for the company's 48-Hour Quick-Ship Program at no additional charge.

For all VAULT400 System i data vaulting subscribers within 48 hours of disaster declaration and receipt of order, UCG at subscriber’s expense (purchased or leased) will ship a complete IBM System i comparable in CPW, memory and disk capacity as requested by the subscriber. (Subscribers should retain their latest System i configuration with UCG by emailing it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..) The replacement system can be shipped anywhere in the continental U.S. The subscriber is expected to pay for the replacement cost plus freight charges. If a facility is not available, UCG can ship it to a UCG data center where support services are available.

VAULT400 is a premier managed service for secure online backup and disaster recovery. VAULT400 backs up an entire organization’s business-critical data to VAULT400’s secure data center. Safe and off-site, the encrypted data is available online at all times for immediate, user-initiated recovery. VAULT400 works seamlessly in an organization’s existing infrastructure. According to the company, “The VAULT400 plug-in technology provides complete DR protection of the system, end-to-end data security, advanced compression, concurrent LPAR backups, and an easy-to-use interface.”

According to Dave Caudle, MIS manager at Lorraine Home Fashions in Charlotte, NC, “LHF protects our 9406-520 System i Server data utilizing VAULT400. They do an outstanding job of compressing, seeding, and handling our daily deltas. The entire process is automated. We get our data off site, compressed and encrypted. The DR Quick Ship Program is an excellent added benefit. We didn’t have a formal disaster recovery plan in place, and the HA products available today are too expensive for a small to medium company such as ours. That said, the DR Quick Ship Program fits the bill very nicely… and we don’t pay for it unless we use it. At that point, insurance will pick up the cost, and a system will be on the way to one of our Charlotte facilities or UCG’s data center should we elect to have it ship there. With other programs, you pay monthly, similar to an insurance policy, and 'bet' on having a disaster. With VAULT400, we pay a monthly subscription fee to protect our data and have it available online 24/7. The DR Quick Ship Program is an additional benefit we receive at no additional charge. It basically comes down to data protection, value, and peace of mind."

UCG’s VAULT400 was recommended to LHF by IBM Business Partner Lyles Data Systems, Inc. (LDS) of Florence, SC. Jerry Lyles, president, said, “We strongly feel that VAULT400 fits the bill for many of our SMB customers. And for larger clients, they may be more suitable for a licensed single- or dual-vault scenario. In addition, the fact that LHF’s ERP vendor, Vormittag Associates, Inc. of Ronkonkoma, NY, with 750 plus installs nationwide, also has a joint venture agreement to market VAULT400, helped validate and solidify the proposal."

Jim Kandrac, president of United Computer Group, said, “We evaluated our current program as well as others offered in the marketplace and decided to include this offering at no additional charge to current and future VAULT400 subscribers. We found that many firms were looking to get out of, or cancel, current agreements with other providers that simply weren’t cost effective. They had been paying a monthly, ongoing fee to other providers and receiving virtually nothing in return. For the same amount of (money), or less, they could receive a valuable service (VAULT400) and be protected with a quick ship program in case of disaster. In addition, we are very pleased to be partnering with... LDS and VAI. Both are top quality firms with staying power. LDS has been in business since 1979 and VAI since 1978."

VAULT400 Online Backup Subscriptions start at $220 per month for 100GB of raw DB2 data, and 1TB starts at $1,500 per month. The managed service is for firms with 10GB to 4TB of DB2 iSeries data. For larger installations, (5?30TB) VAULT400 will license the solution for single or dual vault scenarios. In most cases, end users are able to reduce their back-up window by up to 75 percent and have data online 24/7 for immediate recovery.

About UCG and VAULT400

VAULT400 is a licensed solution of United Computer Group, Inc. (UCG). UCG was formed in 1987 and has served more than 550 clients. For more information, please visit VAULT400 or United Computer Group.