Category Archives: Backup

Backup, Cequel, Cequel Data Centers, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Partnerships

EVault, Cequel Data Centers Partner for Cloud Backup

EVault, Inc., a Seagate Company, and Cequel Data Centers, LLC, today announced that Cequel Data Centers has joined the EVault® Partner Program and will promote and sell EVault’s cloud-connected™ backup and recovery services at its locations across the United States.

Cequel Data Centers owns Dallas, Texas-based Colo4, Perimeter Technology in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and TierPoint in Spokane, Washington. The three managed services providers currently offer primary and secondary backup and colocation services, and are now extending their cloud services to offer the EVault integrated suite of award-winning, cloud-connected backup solutions.

“As a colocation and managed services company with multiple data centers across the country serving a wide range of customers and industries, it is important for us to offer the best data storage options and continually work to expand our offerings,” said Andy Stewart, vice president of corporate development for Cequel. “Partnering with EVault enables us to deliver a unified solution across all of our markets, allowing us to provide our customers with a range of features and services that go above and beyond what single-site operators can offer.”

EVault provides onsite, cloud, and cloud-connected — or hybrid — data protection solutions to help organizations protect and access their business data. EVault has led the industry in the move to hybrid storage models, with a uniquely integrated ecosystem of EVault storage software, SaaS, managed services, and appliances that help ensure customers maintain business continuity in multi-platform, multi-site environments. EVault data protection, disaster recovery and other storage services are optimized to perform in a distributed environment; supported by a secure, reliable cloud storage infrastructure; and backed by the highest quality customer service.

“Building a strong partnership with a respected national colocation and managed services provider like Cequel is instrumental to EVault’s growth and success,” said Dave Hallmen, vice president of sales and marketing, EVault, Inc. “By joining forces with a national provider of carrier-neutral, data center colocation services to distribute our cloud-connected services, EVault is able to complement our award-winning backup and recovery solutions with Cequel’s leading offerings.”

EVault cloud-connected backup and recovery products and services are available immediately through Colo4, Perimeter Technology, and TierPoint.


Archiving & Regulatory Retention, Backup, Storage

Some Benefits in Using Cloud Computing

Selecting a cloud storage provider depends mainly on your environment and your intentions. Whether you’re a small business, or an individual looking for the best (and often most inexpensive) way to store your wealth of files, cloud storage can be a great solution.

Why the Cloud?

So, why go with the cloud? Aren’t all the external hard drives out there enough to manage all your photographs, video files, music files and other important data? Maybe, but those items eventually break down and become obsolete—which isn’t too helpful when they’re your main method of backing up data. Not to mention they’re very costly to purchase when you have a good amount of data to store.

The benefit of the cloud is, not only is it inexpensive, and in some cases even free, but it allows you to store your data in a secure format that will help alleviate backup issues, while providing access to your files whenever you need them. Cloud services are generally easy to use with just the basics—an Internet connection, a computer, and a browser. This makes it super user-friendly for even the most basic computer users.

If you travel often, cloud storage is a great choice, because you can access your data from anywhere in the world. Much like your own computer, or back up hard drive, the cloud allows you to store information in an organized manner, so you don’t have to sift through endless amounts of data, in the end, saving you a good deal of time and energy.

Cloud Privacy

The cloud uses what is referred to as a software service model, which allows users to access their files by using a username and password. You can access the cloud from any computer with Internet capacity, allowing you access to your files in pretty much the same way as if you were working at home or in the office.

Yet, privacy is one of the major concerns for those considering cloud storage. And it goes without saying that whatever cloud storage company you choose, you want to make sure that your data is safe and that nobody can have access to your files.

In order to do this, you need to understand how certain servers store your data, in a way that is accessible and that you can communicate with the service should anything happen. Let’s say the server crashes for some reason, does this mean that your data is at risk? In most cases, with cloud storage companies, the answer is no, as good cloud storage companies will have backup systems in place that ensure your information will never be lost.

The best cloud storage services also employ the most advanced security options out there, in most cases better than what most small businesses or individuals can afford on their own. But even with these security measures, there’s always a slight chance that something could happen, so just be preventative, and make sure that your important files are backed up elsewhere. This will also give you some peace of mind, even if nothing should occur.

Another benefit of cloud storage is that it eliminates the need for an IT staff and expensive backup servers. If you have a small business, you can have your staff access all files via the cloud, therefore eliminating the need for an on-site server and thousands of dollars in IT staff paychecks. With cloud storage, if a problem arises, you only need to contact your company’s customer support should any problems arise.

Suffice it to say, the cloud obviously has it detractors, who feel that it’s an unsafe way of storing private information. Yet, with recent developments in safety, the cloud has basically revolutionized the way we manage our data, as well as how we do our business online. If you’re still wary of making the switch to online cloud storage, talk to some who use it. See what their feelings are. Most have found it quite beneficial, with cloud storage offering a great alternative to backup servers and hard drives.


Backup, Code 42 Software, CrashPlan, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity

Code 42 Software Expands Endpoint Backup Solutions Ease-of-Use

Code 42 Software Inc., developers of cloud-based endpoint backup solutions for consumers, businesses and the enterprise, today announced at Cloud Expo West 2012 expanded capabilities for its entire family of CrashPlan endpoint backup solutions. This new version of CrashPlan expands the company’s recognized dedication to ease-of-use by both end users and data backup administrators, and provides powerful new enterprise functionality for managing private clouds.

“Code 42 is committed to giving enterprise administrators the private cloud management capabilities they demand,” said Matthew Dornquast, chief executive officer, Code 42 Software. “Our new functionalities make our solution unique and give admins what we believe is the best private cloud management solution on the market today. In addition, a key differentiator of all our CrashPlan offerings is our ability to support a variety of platforms – Mac or Windows, Linux or Solaris. We give users the powerful, trusted backup solutions they need, on the platforms they want to use; and Windows 8 upgraders will be happy to know that CrashPlan is already fully compatible.”

Available today are a variety of additional capabilities for Code 42’s enterprise solution CrashPlan PROe which extend the solution’s ease-of-use for administrators, such as:

  • Single-point upgrades of private clouds – With this new version
    comes automatic upgrade functionality for storage servers, which makes
    managing private clouds easier and less time-consuming. Once all
    servers are individually upgraded to the current version,
    administrators can upgrade their entire private cloud with a
    single-point upgrade for future releases.
  • Support for Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML 2.0) –
    This version of the SAML
    OASIS
    standard for exchanging authentication
    and authorization
    data between security
    domains enables web-based authentication and authorization
    scenarios including single
    sign-on (SSO). Organizations utilizing SAML 2.0-based SSO
    technologies (such as Shibboleth) can now integrate CrashPlan PROe
    with those systems, which simplifies the authentication process by
    delegating all authorization to the organization’s identity provider.

CrashPlan PROe is lauded by global organizations such as Google, Adobe, Netflix, LinkedIn and Salesforce.com for its reliability, performance and invisible nature. In addition to its new capabilities, PROe gives the enterprise:

  • Continuous, silent backup – Works quietly, continuously in the
    background to unobtrusively protect data according to admin or user
    settings.
  • Self-service restore – When a restore is required, users can
    initiate it themselves – with only a few clicks – and without needing
    IT intervention.
  • End-to-end security – Encrypts data on the device and again
    during transit, and keeps it encrypted during data storage.
  • Flexible data storage options – Offers both public and private
    cloud data storage across multiple physical locations via a hybrid
    architecture.
  • Superb performance – Innovative compression and multi-threading
    technologies provide superior performance; a byte-level differential
    only transmits and stores new information.
  • Dynamic data balancing – Provides optimum use of available
    storage and bandwidth within and between servers and data centers.
  • Easy monitoring and administration – Gives admins a real-time
    view of the entire system and an easy way to control every aspect of
    the backups – whether for 200 users or two million – via an
    intuitive admin dashboard and console.
  • Easy, trusted access to data while on-the-go – Gives users
    secure access to all their data from anywhere via mobile apps for
    Apple iOS, Android or Windows Phone; apps feature one-touch update and
    the same industry-leading security as the PROe desktop applications.
  • Customizable backup sets – Provides an easy way to back up
    different groups of files and folders on different schedules and/or to
    different destinations.


Backup, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Hardware, IceWEB, NovaStor, Partnerships, Storage

IceWEB Adding NovaStor Backup to Storage Appliances

IceWEB Inc., today announced they will bundle NovaSTOR’s Advanced Backup software with IceWEB’s Unified Storage Appliances.

“NovaSTOR is an excellent companion product for our IceWEB appliances because of its broad set of market applications,” said Rob Howe, IceWEB, CEO. “Their products span the same market spaces as ours—small, medium, large and cloud-based enterprises. They cover Windows, Linux, VMWare and Unix servers and clients in a myriad of configurations, mirroring our model. Because it is not always possible or cost-effective for companies to enable total unified storage protocols everywhere in their enterprise, we are providing significant additional value to our customers by enabling them to utilize NovaStor to target an IceWEB appliance in their network in order to satisfy their backup and disaster recovery needs for every location. Enabling them to have the ability to utilize a world-class product like NovaSTOR is yet another area in which IceWEB brings them excellent value when they purchase IceWEB products,” Howe concluded.


Backup, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, VMware

EVault 7: The New Shape of Backup and Recovery

EVault, Inc. today announced the release of EVault 7, a significant update to its cloud-connected backup and recovery platform. The new release offers a more resilient architecture, with enhanced replication and additional deployment options that customers can tailor to their needs. EVault 7 delivers faster backups – up to 100 percent faster for VMware environments than EVault 6 – and is optimized for a distributed environment. As part of this release, EVault is introducing a new management interface built around the ”social business.”

“With EVault 7, our customers are seeing the future shape of data protection,” said Terry Cunningham, president and general manager, EVault. “Our backup and recovery platform is designed for a cloud-connected world – and now it’s faster, smarter and more resilient than ever. We’ve also added a management interface built on a social platform, so customers can stay on top of their data protection operations and collaborate in real-time with colleagues, peers and the EVault team.”

Unlike  solutions that force customers into a rigid deployment model for backup and recovery, EVault 7 now offers geographically-distributed replicas in a private cloud, a service provider cloud, the EVault cloud – or in all three. Should an IT organization want an onsite cache of their data for fast, local recoveries, they can deploy EVault Express Recovery Appliance: Virtual Edition and get LAN-speed backup and recovery. Because the virtual appliance fits within current environments, it lowers total cost of ownership by leveraging existing IT infrastructure and eliminating the need for additional capital expenses.

Smarter, faster and more efficient than ever, EVault 7 helps IT managers put an end to worries about backup and recovery windows. Updated support for VMware environments includes fast granular restores of files and folders from only a single backup of the virtual machine, delivering backups 100 percent faster than EVault 6. With WAN-optimized data transfer that now has faster replication, EVault 7 customers achieve efficient bandwidth usage, storage optimization and end-to-end security. Granular recovery will also be available for mailbox and message-level restores within Microsoft Exchange applications by the end of the year.

“With EVault, we know that we can deploy cloud-based backup and recovery without having to sacrifice security, speed and efficiency,” said Bill McCown, Director of Information Technology at C&J Energy Services, Inc. “EVault 7 also gives us the system and application support we need, at the level we need it. I can protect and recover my data within time windows that don’t disrupt our business.”


Backup, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Proact, Sweden, User Story

Proact supplies virtualised infrastructure, cloud backup to Grafia

Proact has implemented a new, virtualised infrastructure and a new storage environment for Grafia. The contract also includes backup to Proact’s secure cloud and consecutive support. The implementation project commenced and was completed in the summer of 2012.

Grafia is one of Sweden’s most sought-after companies in the field of model and product photography, supplying photos to companies such as clothing giants Kappahl, Brothers, Lindex and MQ. To enhance the performance and flexibility of the business, Proact has implemented a new, virtualised infrastructure and a new storage environment.

“Of course, our success is based on the fact that we supply high-quality images, but the fact that we supply technical solutions that allow our end-clients to receive and manage our images with ease is also a factor. These technical solutions, which make us highly competitive, are entirely dependent on a flexible, high-performance IT infrastructure and storage environment,” says Martin Gårdmark, CIO of Grafia.

To meet Grafia’s demands for outstanding flexibility and performance, Proact presented a solution comprising a new, virtualised infrastructure and a storage and backup environment. The Proact solution also includes the backup of vital applications to Proact’s own cloud, thereby giving Grafia greater access and reliability if anything were to affect the local infrastructure.

“Grafia has a clear vision regarding what its IT environment has to supply to the business and what it should facilitate. The solution which we have devised and implemented gives Grafia outstanding performance, reliability and, above all, the flexibility the company needs for its business,” says Martin Ödman, Regional Manager at Proact.


Backup, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Remote backup service, Site Management, Storage

The Online Data Backup Revolution

There is no doubt that in conjunction with online management and collaboration, online data backup and storage into the cloud has revolutionised the way organisations do business and in turn, these are reshaping the marketplace of business itself. This is part of the revolutionary change that cloud computing represents and is building a truly global market place where even small companies can trade throughout the world. A major benefit of this is that companies are no longer required to be confined to one physical office or location meaning employees can now be found scattered all over the world. In turn, this new “cloud marketplace” is brings increased opportunities for sales, as the global network enables connections with more and more companies and by extension, they are able to reach significantly more end users.

Until now all businesses have husbanded their data and controlled it as far as they can by keeping it exclusively on their own premises. The main change with the cloud is one of mentality; it’s now OK to have your data held and managed by someone else and the supporting economic justifications for doing so are now compelling.

To properly analyse this revolution and the drivers behind it we need to set this in the context of the way data has been backed up until now. Essentially backups are not a glamorous, high-profile task in any business and particularly in a small or medium-sized business, there is always something more pressing to do than to work on them. Consequently many businesses operate backup with processes that that are incomplete or in some other respect inadequate:

  • Critical data is not backed up or is backed up infrequently, putting recovery at risk.
  • Backup is a manual process based on tapes which are frequently over-written and seldom checked so consequently they may be impossible to read rendering the process pointless as restore is hopeless.
  • Backup processes rely on the expertise of one individual who may not be available if a recovery is needed.
  • Backups may be stored only locally, close to primary servers, putting the business at serious risk if that local site is compromised.
  • Backups may be taken off site but again this is a manual process reliant on human intervention.
  • Backups do not meet regulatory requirements or industry standards for data protection and retention

Most small and medium-sized business use some form of backup solution, however these solutions are typically time-consuming to operate, used inconsistently, or offer inadequate protection from disasters such as fires and floods. Lack of time, staff and expertise means many businesses have used a backup solution for years that is costly and/or out of date.

Here is where we see the true value of the online data backup revolution in delivering a quick and easy method of doing state of the art backup. Online backup aka “remote backup” delivers enterprise-class data protection to small and mid-sized businesses without the associated complexity and cost of management. Online backup runs as a service by sending backup data securely over the Internet to a highly available data center where it is held on highly available storage arrays which in turn are managed by data protection experts. High availability is a key element here; it specifically refers to redundancy built into the hardware and the data center such that any single part of the system can fail without losing either data or access to the data. So, every system will always have at least 2 power supplies, hard drives are held in arrays configured to allow for failure of individual hard drives and yet still deliver the data held on the array, data centers have redundant air conditioning systems, power feeds etc. In this way should your business suffer a disaster your data should be accessible at any time from any point in the world with internet access.

Like any cloud backup service, it should be self-provisioning with an administration console accessed on-demand through a Web browser. In this way the organisation eliminates the need to purchase hardware, manage complex installation, or manage software upgrades. The system adds new features seamlessly which are delivered automatically to all customers simultaneously. These services use a pay-as-you-go model based on storage usage with some optional cost features and the monthly or annual subscription fee includes 24×7 support. Most providers deliver an elastic service meaning customers may adjust usage up or down without penalty and costs are predictable.

The automated nature of online backup services delivers “always-on” protection with backups either triggered by file changes or run to a schedule, which means they eliminate the requirement for staff to perform manual backups or manage storage media. Once the initial backup has been performed, only block-level changes are sent over the Internet, which means bandwidth is used efficiently.

Online Backups run on all computers in your company – not just the file servers and even laptops not connected to the office network full-time can be backed up. Online backup software backs up all the proper files without needing to run several types of backup software to back up various file types. Online backups are properly versioned for point-in-time restores with multiple copies kept and automatically verified.

Using online backup services means files are encrypted prior to transmission, and are stored in encrypted form on the backup servers. In this way they are compliant with privacy and data security regulations. Backed up data are encrypted with a password known only to you which means nobody except you – not even the Backup Service Provider has access to your information which means nobody can steal your data. Reports are emailed after every backup and these can be used to audit business practices and to keep track of your backups. Should your backups encounter any kind of problems, you will receive an email describing the problem.

Restores can be achieved in minutes by the end user by choosing files from a list, or running a wizard. Restores can done from anywhere on the Internet using a web browser and operate 24/7/365 without the need for outside expertise or end user intervention. Restores can be done any time – weekends, holidays, and nights and so are quick and easy to test. Worries about running out of drive space, or replacing old drives disappear as the provider handles all that.


Backup, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity

Infographic: How Critical is a Business Backup?

BUMI, a provider of managed online backup and recovery solutions for small to mid-sized businesses,  announced the findings of its annual industry survey, which analyzed current approaches to data backup and recovery. The survey, which polled CEOs, business owners and IT professionals at small- to mid-sized firms, found that 98 percent of respondents felt that more than one day to restore data after an incident was unacceptable even though almost a quarter of respondents did not regularly check the restore process of their data backup operations.

Click for Original

 

“Backing up your data is only the first step in protecting your organization. What really counts is how quickly and effectively you can recover your information,” said BUMI CEO, Jennifer Walzer. “A common misconception is that once backups are put into place, you’re all set. Unfortunately, data backup is not a flawless process. Glitches occur and hardware fails. It’s important to routinely test backups so that you can catch problems before they become disasters, but most organizations just don’t have the time or resources.”

Survey Highlights:

  • A large number of organizations test their restore process infrequently if at all. Nearly 24 percent never test and 17 percent only test yearly. Of the organizations that test more regularly, 27 percent do so quarterly, 19 percent monthly, 12 percent weekly, and less than one percent test on a daily basis.
  • More than one-third (36%) of respondents have no idea how much an hour of downtime costs their organizations. Of the organizations that were able to place a dollar amount on downtime, 31 percent estimated the cost at thousands of dollars per hour. The rest valued it at hundreds of dollars (26%), hundreds of thousands of dollars (6%), and one million dollars or more (less than 1%), respectively.
  • Thirty percent of respondents felt that business continuity was the most important consideration in backing up their data. Twenty percent listed disaster recovery as their top priority, while the same number ranked compliance the highest. The remaining participants were mainly concerned with security (16%) and redundancy (13%).
  • Virtualization is playing a role in many of the survey participants’ disaster recovery methods. Forty-one percent of respondents already use virtualization and 31 percent plan to in the near future. The rest do not currently use virtualization and do not plan to.


Amazon S3, Backup, CloudBerry Backup, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Google Storage, Storage, Windows Home Server

CloudBerry Lab Updates Cloud Backup Windows Tools

Image representing CloudBerry Lab as depicted ...

CloudBerry Lab has released CloudBerry Backup version 2.9, an application that allows users to backup their data online to their cloud storage accounts such as Amazon S3, Windows Azure and Google Storage.

Disaster recovery planning is often times an afterthought that comes to light when disaster strikes. Very seldom do companies fully recover from loss of critical data which could lead to loss of business. CloudBerry Backup provides a powerful online Backup and Restore software designed to leverage Amazon S3 reliable and secure online storage to make your disaster recovery plan simple, reliable, and affordable.

The latest version of CloudBerry Backup comes with an option to estimate cloud storage costs. The users can set up cost estimates per storage account and specify a limit in GB or in dollar equivalent. When the limit is reached the backup will stop. The software will automatically calculate the costs based on the current storage price offered by the storage provider. Currently Amazon S3 charge 0.125/GB per month. The software will also send an alert to the users when the storage is about to reach the limit.

Another important feature is an option to write Events on backup completion (success and failure) to the Windows Event log. This feature makes it easier to deploy CloudBerry Backup along with the popular monitoring and management systems such as Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), HP OpenView, BMC Patrol, Quest Foglight and a few others that come with a capability to process Windows Event Log and apply certain rules.

With the latest release you can configure Pre- and Post actions that will run before and after the actual backup is running. This feature will make it easier to back up applications such as SQL Server and Exchange. You can set up a Pre-action to back up SQL Server and then you can set up a POST action to clean up the SQL Server backup directory from the older backup files.

Finally, CloudBerry Backup prevents computer from going to sleep mode, so that back up will continue running. With this feature users are assured that the backup will complete on time without interruption.

CloudBerry Backup is also available as a Windows Home Server 2011 and Small Business Server 2011 Essentials add-on. It integrates with the WHS console and offers scheduled backup to cloud storage, hosted on Amazon S3.

CloudBerry Backup is designed to work on Windows XP/Vista/7 and Windows Server 2003/2008. Command line interface allows partners and advanced computer users integrate backup and restore plans with other routines.

CloudBerry S3 Backup for Windows costs $29.99(US) for a single-user license. Volume discounts are available. CloudBerry Backup will be offered without charge to students, educational institutions and non-profit organizations. You will continue to pay Amazon directly for their S3 charges.

For more information & to download the evaluation copy, visit http://www.cloudberrylab.com/backup 
CloudBerry Backup for Windows Home Server is available at http://www.cloudberrylab.com/default.aspx?page=backup-whs


Backup, Business continuity planning, Data recovery, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, Partnerships

EVault Partners with EverGreen Data Continuity to Deliver Disaster Recovery Solutions

EVault, Inc., a Seagate Company, and EverGreen Data Continuity today announced that EverGreen has joined the EVault Partner Program, and will be promoting and selling EVault cloud-connected backup and recovery products and services in the United States. As part of its risk assessment and mitigation service, EverGreen will offer EVault Cloud Disaster Recovery Service (EVault CDR) to further help customers prepare for and respond to disasters and unexpected outages.

EVault CDR is a cloud-based managed service that enables midmarket organizations and enterprise remote or branch offices to securely recover critical systems and data after a disaster. Customers can choose 4, 24 or 48 hour SLAs.

“As a trusted advisor to some of the world’s largest brands and agencies, Evergreen deploys our award-winning Mitigator Business Continuity Management (BCM) software along with our front-end professional services to help customers adequately prepare for any unforeseen event, offering them best-in-class solutions that will meet their needs and mitigate risk,” says Steve Burns, president of EverGreen. “With EVault CDR, we can confidently offer the best disaster recovery service that will help our clients get back to work shortly after a disaster. EVault’s guaranteed SLAs and quality customer service make it a perfect solution for our clients that cannot be without critical systems for an extended period of time.”

All EVault CDR customers work closely with a dedicated, experienced team of EverGreen and EVault DR experts, on call 24/7/365, to guide them through the entire process — from implementation, disaster recovery planning and testing through the execution of system and data recovery processes.

“Building strategic partnerships with industry leaders like EverGreen is critical to EVault’s success,” said Dave Hallmen, vice president of marketing and sales for EVault. “By leveraging EverGreen’s front-line expertise in business continuity coupled with our leadership in the backup and disaster recovery space, together we can help customers mitigate risk, and give them peace of mind that their vital company data is protected at all times.”