Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority Picks Up Server Availability with Neverfail

AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Stranded is not a word the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) wants to hear from anyone -- especially not from elderly and disabled patrons who rely upon METROLift for transportation. With Neverfail software now protecting its dispatch and scheduling system, Houston MTA is able to mitigate this risk while serving more than 5,500 patrons each day.

"METROLift is a very important and highly visible division of Houston MTA," said Rik Deere, IT Manager of Houston MTA's database administration group. "Short periods of downtime on the METROLift dispatch and scheduling system can result in many missed appointments. Our dispatchers rely on the system to coordinate the special transportation needs of these patrons within the Houston metro area. Neverfail for SQL Server provides instantaneous failover capabilities for this mission-critical database and the associated application servers."

Neverfail's continuous availability technology provides assurance that Houston MTA will fulfill its transportation commitments. In order to achieve this, scheduling information such as pick up and drop-off times, locations and other scheduling information is replicated in real time between Houston MTA's primary and secondary SQL Servers which support METROLift's automated scheduling system. Should a technology disruption occur and cause the primary server to fail, customers who are online can continue with scheduling their rides as Neverfail takes over and makes a switch to the secondary server. Once the issues are resolved, a switchback is made to the primary server -- again with no interruption of service or communication, and no need to restart any application.

"A customer's time and confidence are valuable, and it's great to see such a direct investment into protecting that," said Dave French, Neverfail Americas CEO. "We're pleased to provide public organizations like Houston MTA with robust and affordable solutions that enhance the end-user experience by ensuring critical business applications and data remain available."

About the Neverfail Group

Neverfail is a leading global software company providing Continuous Availability and Disaster Recovery for critical Windows-based applications. Continuous Availability brings together High Availability, Disaster Recovery and Database Protection software with best practice monitoring and automation. Neverfail's predictive approach protects businesses during planned maintenance and IT outages. Regardless of the type of problem, from a single component failure to a full site disaster, critical business applications will continue operating without disruption. With Neverfail, users remain continuously connected to applications such as Exchange, SQL Server, File Server, IIS, SharePoint(R), RIM BlackBerry(R) and IBM(R) Lotus(R) Domino(R). More information can be found at http://www.neverfailgroup.com.

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     Ann Taylor                              Beth Monaghan
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Neverfail is a trademark of Neverfail Group Limited. All other trademarks, including Microsoft, Windows, and Exchange, are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright (C) 2007 Neverfail Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, or translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means without prior express, written consent of Neverfail Group Limited.