Hovan Capital Management, LLC

Complying With Data Protection Regulations Through LiveVault

Customer Challenge:
Keeping its data safe to comply with industry regulations.

“We’ve been asked about disaster recovery by many of our clients,
and it’s great to be able to say that we use LiveVault. It makes us
a more responsible company and a more attractive investment
advisor to our clients.”

Investment Advisory Firm at Risk for Natural Disaster
When Kurt Hovan established his investment advisory firm, Hovan Capital Management, LLC, he chose to locate it in scenic Belvedere, California. Belvedere is a small island community just north of San Francisco, with fantastic views of the Bay Area. Such a locale was hard to pass up.

However, the picturesque view and close proximity to San Francisco also bring business challenges. Not only is Belvedere in an earthquake zone, but also, as an island in San Francisco Bay, it is victim to a lot of bad weather, which causes numerous power outages.

A Need to Invest in New Data Protection
In order to address the effects of such power outages, Hovan Capital sought the advice of Langtech, an IT solutions provider. Hovan says, “We clearly needed a better way to protect our data, particularly in light of new financial industry requirements to have a formal business continuity plan in case of a major disaster. Our previous method of data protection, by backing up our desktop computers to each other, was no longer feasible as our business expanded and grew more complex.”

During the consultation, Langtech recommended the LiveVault Online Backup and Recovery Service™ to Hovan Capital. Langtech felt that LiveVault was the ideal solution to provide Hovan Capital with superior data protection and help the company meet financial industry regulations.

Predictable Data Protection for Unpredictable Conditions
With LiveVault, Hovan Capital backs up all of its server data on a continuous basis via an Internet connection to a secure offsite facility. There it is made available for immediate recovery in the event of a disaster, such as a server crash, virus, human error, earthquake or other physical disaster.

“It’s incredibly important that we’re able to get all of our business data offsite immediately,” says Hovan. “Given that we experience frequent power outages, it’s reassuring to know that our data is in a secure
facility almost as soon as it’s created.”

LiveVault is designed for small and medium-sized businesses, such as Hovan Capital, whose servers reside outside of major data centers. Unlike other forms of data protection, LiveVault guarantees recovery of all business-critical data and ensures that companies will return to the state of their business prior to a data-loss event.

Hovan says, “We’ve been asked about disaster recovery by many of our clients, and it’s great to be able to say that we use LiveVault. It makes us a more responsible company and a more attractive investment advisor to our clients.”

Easy Restores at the Click of a Button
Hovan Capital has already put the LiveVault service to the test. Hovan says, “We were working on a 40-page legal document when a power outage wiped it out. This document would have been impossible to recreate since we had been working on it in tandem with our lawyers. Fortunately, with LiveVault, we were able to easily restore it in minutes. Plus, the document was up-to-date, whereas with other forms of backup, it would only be current from the night before.”

To restore a document, Hovan logs on to LiveVault’s Web interface. There, he can access his server directory, and just click on files he wants to restore. The download process starts immediately and Hovan Capital can be up and running again in just minutes. LiveVault also allows Hovan Capital to initiate a restore from a remote desktop. This means that if the company’s server ever goes down over the weekend, an employee can restore the server data by logging on from home, rather than having to initiate the process from the office.

Most importantly, LiveVault assures Hovan Capital that its data is protected. “Our business was extremely vulnerable to data loss prior to LiveVault,” says Hovan. “Something as prevalent as a virus could have easily attacked all of our desktops and wiped out our data. LiveVault now assures us that all of our information is kept secure and we can restore it in an instant.”