August 3, 2006

Sonasoft—the gold standard for ‘point click recovery’

Business NewsAlmaden is home of Sonasoft—leader of failsafe recovery systems

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

If you happen to Google “point click recovery,” Sonasoft pops up first on your computer screen. For those in the know, Sonasoft is the gold standard for small and medium companies in search of recovering crashed files.

Sonasoft founder, President and CEO Andy Khanna and investor and board member Garrett Rajkovich have formed a winning business relationship. Photos by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

“Sonasoft is already getting rave reviews for its excellent backup/recovery solutions for Microsoft SQL and Exchange Servers,” said Sonasoft founder, President and CEO Andy Khanna. “We offer a total solution for anything to do with Microsoft: databases, e-mails, files, etc. Sonasoft delivers the simplest, most automated and most cost-effective methods to manage the backup and recovery process and enables corporate executives and IT managers to sleep soundly at night, knowing their mission critical data is safe and secure. Recovering a database or an e-mail or a file that was accidentally deleted by a user takes only minutes to recover.”

Sonasoft, Inc. revolutionized the disk-to-disk backup and recovery process for Microsoft Exchange, SQL and Windows served with its SonaSafe Point-Click Recovery software solutions. Designed to simplify, automate and eliminate human error in the backup and recovery process, Sonasafe also centralizes the management of multiple servers and provides a cost-effective turnkey disaster recovery strategy for companies of all sizes.

“Just recovering a database, an e-mail message or a file that was accidentally deleted by a user takes only minutes,” said Sonasoft Marketing Vice President Vas Srinivasan. “SonaSafe Point-Click Recovery Suite offers a total solution for anything to do with Microsoft databases, e-mail messages, files, etc.”

“Today the need for disaster recovery extends far beyond major enterprises. Every small and medium business depends on its network for virtually all its activities. The National Archives and Records Administration reported that 93 percent of the companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more filed for bankruptcy within a year. And anyone who watches nightly television should be aware that disasters could occur anywhere,” said Srinivasan.

Sonasoft achieved record growth during the first half of 2006 including new customers Stanford University, Dolby, Vodaphone, the Julliard School, One World Health, Ophedge Investment, QuitNet, Alexa Internet, Glide Foundation, University of Botswana, Phillips, Hager & North, Abington Police Department, University of San Diego, Ariba and Kokusui Semiconductor. But even the IRS has purchased Sonasoft’s software. The company grew by 200 percent both in revenue and customer installations and Khanna foresees continued customer and product development.

“The company belongs to the employees…” said Sonasoft President Andy Khanna standing with employees. Back row: Adnan Khan, Matt Wahlin, sales manager Mike Khanna, Caroline Will, President Andy Khanna, Ramna Sodhi, Dominic Guzzetti, CTO and VP of Engineering, Bilal Ahmed and Imtinan Hussain; front row: Sanjay Marya, Jay Japra, Shivan Bindal, Maneesh Sharma and VP of Marketing Vas Srinivasan.

Idea impetus
Sonasoft began innocently enough. Three and a half years ago, Khanna searched for a business location close to home weary of long commutes. An Almaden Valley resident for 32 years, he walked into the commercial complex at 6489 Camden Avenue and serendipitously met owner and investor Garrett Rajkovich.

“Right after the dot-com bust in 2001, Andy and his sons came in to look at office space,” said Rajkovich. “I told them now is a good time to start a business because rent is cheap and engineers are cheap. Put together a small group of guys and start thinking of something.”

“Even during the dark, gloomy post dot-com bust, I had a lot of confidence that this valley would recover because of guys like Andy, because they’re working, they’re thinking, the ideas are coming. As long as there are smart people thinking and putting out effort they’re going to produce something,” added Rajkovich.

So confident of Sonasoft’s success, Rajkovich was the first investor and continues to serve as a board member. Khanna’s humbleness is evident as he states, “the company belongs to the employees and the investors.”
“Whenever I come by at night, the lights are on and people are working here,” said Rajkovich. “They never run out of ideas and it’s a real family atmosphere.”

Founder
Andy Khanna arrived in the United States in 1963, one of the first groups of students allowed to attend school from India. He received his BA from University of California-San Francisco and his MBA from Golden Gate University. Money was tight as an undergraduate and the young man worked on farms and as a machinist and said about those days “life has to be better than this.” Another job was a stock brokerage where he was hired as their first student. So impressed with his work ethic, they had him hire seven students who reported to him.
Khanna thought he would go back to his native India after his studies but fell in love with his new country.

In 1970, Khanna became a salesman for NCR. It started a 37-year odyssey into the IT business. He served as president of Datus Inc and Univation, Inc. taking the latter public as the first Indo-American in Silicon Valley. He invented the Route Finder PNA, a state-of-the-art handheld portable vehicle navigations system that combined several technologies and was nominated by the Smithsonian Institute for the Innovation Award in Transportation. He also served as consultant to many Fortune 500 companies. Sonasoft is the latest of four businesses he started.

Khanna has been married to his wife Sally for 37 years. They met when he organized the University of San Francisco’s first International Week, raising $15,000. The couple moved to Almaden Valley 32 years ago to raise their three children. He calls it “the greatest place I’ve ever lived—it’s so beautiful.”

Two of his sons work at Sonasoft: Neil Kumar as vice president of operations and Michael Khanna, sales manager. And Sonasoft combines Khanna’s India and United States’ roots. Sona means gold in Indian and soft from mega-giant Microsoft, which Sonasoft is compatible with.

“I like the thrill of the challenge,” said Khanna. “I believe in the theory of karma. Just do what is in front of you and the rest will work out, and have fun.”

For more information on Sonasoft call (408) 927-6200 or visit www.sonasoft.com.