Backup, Hosting and Data Availability in VETport
Redundancy, backup, hosting options, high availability, security, migration of data and our commitment to data availability
10 December 2010

Redundancy, backup, hosting options, high availability, security, migration of data and our commitment to data availability


VETport runs in the cloud but can also run locally on a practice's own hardware, serving the intranet and the internet from the site. Backups are included on the cloud service, offsite backup is available separately, and an instance can be moved between hosting options in hours rather than weeks.

This documents objective is to answer questions about redundancy, backup, hosting options, high availability, security, migration of data and our commitment to data availability.

VETport although cloud based is completely capable of running locally (your private cloud), and serving to the intranet and internet from the local site. How hard would that be? Not hard at all - an instance could be moved from the cloud and be up and running in a matter of hours(depending on database size) as long as the local hardware infrastructure was in place. However the Amazon cloud is an extraordinary infrastructure and we get to take advantage and leverage that infrastructure by being there. It is not absolutely required but is highly recommended.

Create your own instance on Amazon or any other cloud. You can control your cloud wherever it is, independent of VETport.

We of course offer backup strategies on the cloud included in our service. We offer a fee based backup solution to an offsite location as well. You can backup the full database at periodic intervals to an offsite location.

VETport tables are fully accessible within VETport including the full xml based medical record. A clinic may take all or any set of tables once monthly at no charge. Pull them down and open them in excel! There is a nominal fee for downloads in excess of once monthly.

In addition to the tables and xml based medical record from within VETport you can download the following: A folder per client, within each client folder a folder for all that client's pets, within each pet folder a pdf version of the medical record, an html version of the medical record, all images, and all attachments. These files and folders are generated at the time of your request through the browser. There is a small charge per client download for this file generation to offset the costs of generation and transmission. This is meant as a failsafe backup, and for anyone wishing to move to another system as it along with the tables and xml files provides in exquisite detail and machine readable format every aspect of the data within VETport, as well as an immediate human readable medical record in pdf or html.

For very high availability needs, you can have 2 instances with a virtual failover. VETport is capable of transactional mirroring on 2 independent systems.

The possibilities with VETport are not limited unlike every other veterinary software we have seen and worked with. No other vendor has as open and available data as VETport.

No clinic among hundreds now has ever had significant connectivity or operational issues on our cloud. We have clinics across the world using VETport i.e. USA, Canada, Cayman Islands, South Africa, UAE, India, China, Malaysia, Australia.

For connectivity issue we simply recommend a fallback internet access point. In my clinic we have an iPad on Verizon. It gives us complete continuity if there is a rare internet outage. For a large practice you may want a hotspot available or multiple tablet devices.

Pictures should be part of the Veterinary Medical Record

"Picture is worth a thousand words". It is important to have pictures of Patients with the medical record. It helps with the workflow, identification, personalization, and description of detail. How seamless is the process is what determines if the same gets captured and uploaded. One can capture outside VETport and also within. The new feature of being able to take images from iPAD /iPhones or Android based devices makes the process seamless within VETport. Just click on "choose file" anywhere in VETport.. and the image can be grabbed stat or uploaded from the existing images on the device. VETport DX-shoot i.e. capturing an image and sending an email to VETport to add to a Q is generally used when capturing outside VETport

Frequently asked questions

Can VETport run on a practice's own server?

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Yes. The same system can run as a private cloud on hardware you control, serving both the local network and the internet. Moving an instance between hosted and local takes hours, depending mainly on database size.

Who is responsible for backups?

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Cloud backups are part of the service. Practices that want a copy under their own control can add an offsite backup, which is the arrangement most multi-site groups end up choosing.

Can we get our data out if we leave?

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Yes, and you should insist on that from any vendor. Ask for the export format, how long a full export takes, and whether it includes attachments and images, not only the database tables.