Instant Restore Technology

SQL Safe Instant Restore Technology allows users to continue to use a database during a restore operation. Instant Restore greatly reduces database and application downtime during a restore operation. With Instant Restore, you can bring a database back online in just minutes by streaming data from a backup file to support application and user requests while the restore (hydration) operation continues in the background.

Most database backup restoration operations take hours. These are hours that users do not have access to the database, which means that workplace productivity plummets in most cases. Idera’s patented Instant Restore Technology allows you to almost completely avoid the workplace slowdown that almost inevitably accompanies database downtime at larger enterprises.

Idera’s benchmark testing indicates that the Instant Restore virtual failover system will often have the database back online and available for users in as little as five or six minutes. Furthermore, the Instant Restore virtualization process takes about the same amount of time regardless of the size of the database.

Instant Restore works by incorporating data map definition files (often just called Map files)  into the backup when it is made, so it is has the basic data modeling framework required to perform as a fully functional database.

No technology is perfect, and it should be noted that although Instant Restore virtual failover databases are available in a very few minutes, they do typically suffer around a 20% performance degradation. While this might result in a few second delay in query response time, which is a very minor impact on productivity relative to no database access.