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Recovery Tier 1 · ~5 min failover

A warm Windows VM. Always ready. Always your data.

Always-Ready keeps a pre-launched EC2 instance in AWS that mirrors your most recent backup. When disaster strikes you click recover and you're RDP'd in within ~5 minutes — instead of the ~30–60 min a cold rebuild takes. No assembly. No waiting.

Always-Ready warm standby in BigMind Recovery Shield — ~5 min failover vs ~30–60 min coldClick to enlarge
~0 min
Click to RDP
with Always-Ready
~30–60 min
Cold rebuild
without it
From $0
Per device / mo
by disk size
Warm
Pre-launched standby
Why it matters

~5 minutes vs ~30–60 min is a different conversation.

Without a warm standby, recovering a downed machine means assembling the backup, registering an image, and booting it cold. For the SQL server the whole accounting system depends on — or the domain controller nobody can log in without — that wait is a very bad afternoon. Always-Ready keeps that machine pre-built and warm, so recovery is click → RDP.

With Always-Ready~0 min
Cold rebuild (no Always-Ready)~30–60 min

Time to a working machine — shorter is better.

Who it's for

Three machines that can't go down.

Always-Ready earns its keep on the one or two boxes whose downtime stops everyone else.

The accounting firm’s SQL server

A 75-person firm marks its practice-management SQL Server as Always-Ready. A power surge takes it offline at 9:42 a.m.; IT clicks Recover at 9:43; everyone’s working on the cloud VM by 9:45. Replacement hardware ships overnight.

The domain controller nobody can log in without

A 200-employee firm runs Always-Ready on its Active Directory domain controller — the one machine that gates the entire workforce. One click, ~5 minutes, everyone’s back.

The MSP’s tiered upcharge

An MSP sells Always-Ready per machine — about $8–$65/mo depending on the machine’s disk size. The math favors it for any client whose downtime costs more than ~$50/hour.

How it works

Pre-launched. Pre-warmed. Pre-paired.

1

You enable Always-Ready

For one or more critical machines.

2

We pre-launch an EC2

In your AWS region of choice. Attach EBS, register the AMI, set the local admin password offline.

3

We refresh on every backup

The warm AMI always tracks your latest image — no cold assembly when you need it.

4

You click recover

We boot the warm EC2 and you RDP in. ~5 minutes total, instead of ~30–60 min from cold.

Always-Ready vs Cloud Desktop

Same engine, two cost models.

Pick by how often the machine actually needs to be running. For a can't-go-down box, flat beats metered; for occasional boots and recovery drills, metered wins.

Always-Ready — from $8/device/mo

For the machine that must come back instantly, every time it’s down. Pre-warmed; click → RDP in ~5 minutes. Best for 1–3 mission-critical machines.

Cloud Desktop — metered $0.20–$0.40/hr

For occasional boots and quarterly recovery tests — pay only while it runs. Better when a machine rarely needs to be up, or you’re recovering many machines.

Pricing

Priced per machine, by disk size.

A per-device add-on for Standard and Pro — $8/mo (≤128 GB) · $17 (≤256 GB) · $33 (≤512 GB) · $65 (≤1 TB). EC2 keep-warm and storage are included; no appliance to buy and no per-socket licensing, because it runs on AWS in your chosen region.

Best fit: 1–3 critical machines

The SQL server, domain controller, or file server an organization cannot run without. Beyond a few machines, Cloud Desktop credits scale better.

Predictable per-machine cost

A per-machine price set by disk size, $8–$65/mo — no per-hour metering, no surprise bill after a long outage. Budget it once for the box that must stay up.

No assembly at recovery time

The image is already built and warm. No registering an AMI, no driver injection mid-incident — click Recover and RDP in.

Honest limits

What Always-Ready doesn't do.

Always-Ready is for single-machine rapid recovery. For environments with 10+ critical machines, Cloud Desktop (metered hourly) or a volume arrangement is more economical. It's also Windows-only at launch — Linux is roadmapped for Q3 2026, alongside Cloud Desktop.

For the machine that can't go down, from $8/mo is cheap insurance.

Add Always-Ready to any Standard, Pro, or Enterprise plan for the boxes that must stay up.