Horizon DataSys Unveils Software and Technology Roadmap

Horizon DataSys Corporation announced the roadmap of its software developments and upcoming releases.

In early 2013, it introduced their freeware Reboot Restore Rx which has become an alternative for Microsoft’s SteadyState. It is a freeware application for public access PCs that returned machines back to an administrator-defined pristine state after each end-user’s session. In February 2014, the company updated this utility to allow administrators to make the software invisible to public users. There are also other enhancements built into this update, such as Windows 8 compatibility, UEFI/EFI firmware interface integration, support for Windows Group Policies (GPO), and compatibility for GPT partitions for larger hard drives.

On the queue for release in the beginning of 2014 Q2 is an enhanced build of drive vaccine. It is a more advanced replacement for Windows SteadyState than Reboot Restore Rx. It comes with its free enterprise console, auto-reset options, password authentication, and other enhancements. The latest release of this reboot-to-restore software will have a more intuitive interface that will allow users to manage multiple reset points (or “baselines”). Many school systems are looking for alternatives to static restore on reboot solutions – And that is where this fits in. This latest build will also have more navigational ease in setting up scheduled maintenance periods in a few clicks and other improvements suggested by customers.

In 2014 Q3, Drive Cloner v6 is also scheduled to be released simultaneously with a build of RollBack Rx v10x. Integration of Drive Cloner and RollBack Rx will enable the backup of RollBack Rx snapshots onto Drive Cloner images for offsite backup. Drive Cloner offers methods of incrementally backing-up data on various external media including onto external drives and to the cloud.

RollBack Rx is a restore software that integrates with Windows to create instant restore points (snapshots) that enable users to recreate all sectors of multiple harddrives back to how they were the second the snapshot was created. Also known as the PC Time Machine, it can backup large hard drives in a fews. Integration with Drive Cloner Rx will allow users the ability to backup these instant snapshots by being exported onto an image for external backup and off-site storage.

Lyle Patel, president, Horizon DataSys, explained, “Our core focus is securing and recovering your data. Ensuring that you get your PC backup and running quickly after any disaster without any data loss is our first priority.“

Toward this end, Patel explained that all these solutions are together targeted set of offerings designed to maximize the availability of your computing resources and eliminate downtime. There’s Drive Cloner for bare-metal recovery. There’s RollBack Rx which is an instant recovery utility that integrates with Windows and is a competitor to Windows System Restore with more restore points (snapshots) and customization options. There’s Drive Vaccine, a stripped-down version of RollBack Rx that simplifies public computing management by allowing IT admins to pre-define the system configuration to which the machines will automatically return.

Patel expanded that the company expects to soon add to this portfolio of capabilities centered around and DR with a new forensic sector-mapping utility that will be able to search for recoverable files and folders on systems unprotected by any backup product.

“For a while now we’ve felt that there’s a data recovery tool that’s been missing from our toolkit. We regularly get requests asking us if we may be able to help recover data from systems not protected by any of our applications after some hardware or software catastrophe. As it is, we have to inform such people that we’re unfortunately unable to help them. But we anticipate that soon we’ll have a new forensic utility that will allow users to browse the contents of their source drive and discover files that are recoverable.“

The company hasn’t yet settled on a name for this low-level scanning utility.

Andrew Shen, lead developer, expounded that their company mission is to offer a method to confront most common computer threats. And this can be anything from accidentally deleted files to malware and malicious hacks on up to OS stability issues and hardware failures.

“Our ambition is to offer the fastest and most reliable backup and restore for any such issues so that you’re backup and running in no time as if nothing ever happened,” he said.