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Ten years later at a data recovery pioneer

Unistal is one of the pioneers in the field of data recovery. By Neeraj Gandhi

In the backdrop of ever-increasing information generation, most of it digital, enterprises are continuously looking for solutions to manage the exponentially rising tide of data. This huge growth is putting tremendous pressure on storage media. Sometimes, in the event of a disaster, enterprises tend to lose important data. It is in such cases that vendors like Unistal play a role of cardinal importance.

With nearly 10 years of experience in performing successful data recoveries, Unistal has served customers across the globe including secret services, government agencies, corporate houses, and numerous computer users. “In case of any kind of data loss on any type of computer storage media, Unistal has a solution with fast, advanced and cost-effective products and services ranging from do-it-yourself software products, data loss prevention solutions to a 24/7/365 services network,” said Alok Gupta, Director, Marketing, Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd., India.

Laying the foundation

Headquartered in New Delhi, Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd. started its operations in 1994. It’s been more than ten years now; Unistal has successfully carved out a niche for itself in the data recovery space. Today it is one of the data recovery industry’s largest; most experienced and technologically advanced providers of data recovery products and services. With over a hundred employees, the company has nine branch offices in India. In addition to these offices, the company also has a hundred service labs strategically located across India in Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Pune, Noida, Delhi, Agra, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, and in the Middle East and Europe. Over the course of the past decade Unistal’s engineers have recovered data in 75,000 cases. “Constant innovation has led to the development of solutions like Quick Recovery and Crash Proof for operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS, Intel Solaris and Novell NetWare; recovery software for media such as floppies, CDs, ZIP cartridges and thumb drives,” added Gupta.

Establishing the company at that point in time was anything but a cakewalk as people were unaware that data recovery, from formatted hard drives or after a partition was deleted, was possible. Few tools were available to recover data and there was a huge knowledge gap as far as the technical knowledge to use these was concerned. The founders of Unistal sensed an opportunity and the foundation of one of the pioneers in the data recovery industry was laid.

“We started off by educating users about data recovery concepts, possibilities & limitations and then made them understand why this software should be kept handy. Slowly the idea clicked and today Unistal is regarded as a pioneer in the field of data recovery not only in India but abroad as well. Unistal has enjoyed slow but consistent growth from that point onwards,” said Gupta. The company has been heavily involved in R&D on automated data recovery software from its inception.

The first disk recovery software product to see the light from Unistal labs was Quick Recovery software, a data recovery utility that proved to be a smash hit and there has been no looking back. The next in the line was Crash Proof, a proactive solution to recover data quickly and safely; this product was developed in 1999. “This was a unique creation, developed to provide 100% data immortality and it prevents data loss from all disasters,” added Gupta.

The solution was then recognized by the National Informatics Center. This feat was followed by OEM tie ups with HCL, Wipro, PCS etc. These funds helped Unistal to make further investments in its R&D on Quick Recovery software, and soon Unistal launched a full range of Data Recovery Software, that supported RAID arrays, Novell, Linux, Mac OS, Solaris etc.

Unistal’s Mission

The company is committed to meet and exceed customer expectations by ensuring support and providing professional services. To attain this objective, it has developed state-of-art data recovery products and established sophisticated recovery centers keeping abreast with the fast paced information protection market. “Our belief is that our success can be measured only by providing continuous satisfaction to our customers and employees at one end, while enhancing shareholders value at the other,” said Gupta.

Unistal has also started courses in data care and recovery to educate users and empower them with information and knowledge related to data. It also works in close coordination with different government departments and provides them with data recovery and forensic services. The company also plans to launch Locate Laptop and Port Locker software soon. Unistal anticipates that it will grow by 400% by 2010.

neeraj.gandhi@expressindia.com