Backups, Cleanups, Batch Processing and Updates
Protecting yourself from disaster, Batch Processing and Keeping the Software Up To Date
Backing up your data is more involved than just making a copy of it. If we only did that, and you made a mistake in the data we’re copying, then your backup also contains the mistake and you may not be able to find the original correct version. So we archive data rather than simply back it up.
There are also various “Batch Processing” operations on the data which cannot be performed in real time without forcing everyone out of the system or causing unnecessary delay and disruption. For example, when you delete a record in the Vizbiz, it only gets flagged as Deleted. It doesn’t actually disappear from the data until the daily cleanup. This is because “packing” a table requires exclusive access to it which would require all other users to exit the system.
Another example is the daily “Pricefile Update” which records the Trading Summary and prices paid by all your customers and updates the records from the latest version of the Order and Invoicing tables. That “sweep” can take several minutes and, although it could be done with each transaction in real time, it would cause noticeable delay every time an invoice or order was created.
Typically we create scheduled tasks which perform a daily cleanup and ENCRYPTED backup of your data between 7 and 9 pm. We then (optionally) copy your Archived backups to an “ARCHIVE-RETAIN” folder AND to a Sync folder in your name but run on the VizBiz account. Later on that evening, our own servers collect all the encrypted backups and store them safely on our site. Hence you have your own local copies of the backups and a safe offsite backup.
Our backup of your data serves the obvious purpose of giving you a safe offsite backup in the event of disaster but it also means that if you have any deep data difficulties we can open up a current copy and take a closer look at the problem in our programming environment. This can reveal problems which may not be obvious through normal online support.
Sync also takes care of program updates. New versions are uploaded to the relevant Sync Folder . They typically arrive on Customer servers within minutes. Next time you go into the program, you are using the new version. It’s that simple.