Two Minutes With Jon Klaus of KeepGoing.biz
DBJ “Two Minutes With…” Series: Jon Klaus of KeepGoing.Biz
by Shashana Pearson-Hormillosa, Staff writer
Jon Klaus never expected to start two technology companies. But when his friend Bruce Beaty approached him about starting an IT company for small and midsize businesses, he knew he could do it. The pair launched VentureNet, Inc. in 1990, with Klaus focusing on marketing and Beaty in charge of IT. But the duo kept running into one primary problem: data storage and protection.
In 2007, Klaus launched keepgoing.biz as a way for small and midsize businesses to have business continuity so that even if their systems fail, they don’t have to stop working. The cost of the service, which may include an on-site keepgoing.biz storage server, 256-bit encryption and redundant off-site storage, starts at $300 per month, depending on the data needs. keepgoing.biz has served hundreds of clients to date, including the American Red Cross of Dallas. Klaus was interviewed by staff writer Shashana Pearson-Hormillosa.
Q. What is business continuity and why is it important to small businesses?
A. Businesses want and need to ensure that they can continue no matter what happens. The world is full of unexpected events. Protecting data is ensuring that businesses can keep going. We back up disk to disk and with virtualization, which means that if their server dies, we can recreate or mirror their hardware environment. We back up data to a data center in Baltimore, Md., or Phoenix, Ariz., so that if something happens regionally, clients are protected.
Q. How is KeepGoing.Biz different from other companies that offer this type of service?
A. Our solution is geared toward small and midsize businesses only. We have a space set up in our office where clients can come plug in to their keepgoing.biz storage server and work on their files. It’s in case anything should happen to their space. We call it disaster recovery failover space. We also guarantee our clients won’t lose their data. If they lose their site completely on their end and we lose our keepgoing.biz storage server at their site, it takes about 48 hours to get another server box here from either Baltimore or Phoenix ready to go to work that would pretty much mirror the keepgoing.biz storage server. We can put that up wherever they need it, whether it’s on our site or in a hotel conference center.
Q. What advice would you give someone starting their own business?
A. I’m a believer in finding out what you’re passionate about and designing a business plan around that. What keepgoing.biz offers is managing the risk involved in starting a company of your dreams. One area where you can manage your risk is to ensure you don’t lose your data.
