But whether your company is in health care or finance; small or large; whether you’re located in Tornado Alley or the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast – one of the most important questions about data recovery is, “In-house or offsite?”

Many business owners and administrators like the idea of keeping things in-house.  They feel that keeping things on-site helps protect sensitive data safe while keeping costs down.  This is understandable – after all, why not let your own IT team handle things instead of paying monthly and yearly service fees to have someone else do it for you

The truth is, there are four good reasons to let someone else take control of your company’s data storage and recovery:

1. Experience matters.  So does specialization.  You might have a world-class IT team with an encyclopedic knowledge of backup and recovery.  But chances are, that’s not all they do.  While an offsite service provider does only one thing – store and recover data – your IT team probably does a dozen or more jobs in any given week.  Data recovery is a highly specialized field, and it requires a knowledgeable staff. Going off-site gives you access to a team of focused specialists that you can’t get from within your company.
2.  Location is critical.  When choosing a data storage facility, the ideal location should be close enough that your employees can get there if they need to – but not so close that the site is at risk for getting hit by, say, the same hurricane, earthquake, or tornado that puts your facility out of commission.  Opting for an offsite solution gives you the freedom to choose a location that makes sense for you and your employees – and it may help you bet back on your feet faster.
3. You might not have the space, or the infrastructure.  Service providers that specialize in data storage and recovery are built with disasters in mind – unlike, say, a typical office building, a data storage facility is more likely to have been constructed with stability and safety in mind. Single-purpose data storage facilities are built to withstand disasters and hacker attacks, and they’re more likely to feature advanced security features that the average company doesn’t usually invest in.  Plus, these facilities have been designed by people who know the industry – they’re built to be adaptable and to grow without running out of space.
4. Data recovery is an investment, not an expense.  It’s easy to see data recovery as just one more costly contract – but that’s not the case.  Sure, it might be cheaper to get your in-house IT staff to take control of your company’s data storage and recovery plan.  But if they don’t do it right, the money you save up front might not be enough to cover the costs of lost data down the road.  This is one case where you really do get what you pay for.

What do you think?  Do you handle your data storage in-house or offsite?  Why?  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Investing in Offsite Data Storage: Four Reasons to Outsource is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Israel, Finland and Sweden led the way with a rank of four and a half stars out of five whilst Mexico languished behind in last place with a total of two stars out of five.

The main focal points that the rankings were based on consisted of the country having sufficient firewalls and antivirus protection and factors such as the level of education on cyber-security.

The Defence Agenda think tank team based there rankings on the perceived quality of cyber-readiness which is seen as a massive positive of conducting the research. Raj Samani, McAfee’s chief technology officer stated “The subjectiveness of the report is its biggest strength. What it does is give the perception of cyber-readiness by those individuals who kind of understand and work in cyber security on a day-in, day-out basis.”

So far Israel has set the bench mark for cyber-defence as it is reported that the country receive over 1,000 cyber-attacks every minute but do not suffer a huge amount of disruption or damage. Isaac Ben-Israel, senior security advisor to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated “The hacktivist group Anonymous carries out lots of attacks but they don’t cause much damage. The real threat is from states and major crime organisations.” Ben-Israel also revealed that the country has set up a cyber-taskforce which assesses the threats to key infrastructure such as power and water plants.

Meanwhile, the prominent gang and drug problems in Mexico have been blamed for their poor results. It is widely regarded that such problems have forced the government to focus their efforts on improving the situation and therefore they haven’t had the time or funds to look at implementing policies to improve their cyber defence infrastructure.

The report commended the efforts made by the UK government to improve the country’s cyber defence such as an investment program which is worth £650 million. Not everyone is happy with this investment and what the money is being for. Peter Sommer who is an information security expert argued “A great deal depends on co-operation from the private sector, which controls about 80% of the critical national infrastructure. Over half of the new funding will go to the ‘secret vote’, the intelligence agencies, where value for money will be difficult to investigate. I would have preferred more emphasis on public education – helping potential victims help themselves.”

The report concluded that in order to improve cyber-defence, there needs to be better communication between countries and a willingness to share data. The report also stated that cross boarder law enforcements needs to be improved and given more power.

Samani argued “Cybercriminals route their connection through multiple different countries. If criminals are particularly clever, they go through countries where they know there isn’t any co-operation. The bad guys share information – we need to do the same as well.”

These suggestions have been constantly acknowledged as the most efficient and effective way to improve cyber defence but the feasibility of it is very unrealistic. Dr Joss Wright who is from the Oxford Internet Institute argues “They’re recommendations that people have been saying for maybe 10 years. I would love to see good information sharing but when you’re talking about national security, there’s a culture of not sharing. They’re not suddenly going to change 70, 100, 1000 years of military thinking.”

UK Rank Favourably in a Cyber-Defence Survey is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

Distributors must stay relevant to solution providers as the technology landscape shifts.  The danger for distributors is that solutions providers start dealing directly with Cloud providers, and miss out the distribution middle man.

Cloud Computing is not just another fad which distributors need to slightly adjust their business model to. In the past businesses tweaked their models through charging for services they had produced for free, such as tech support.

The Cloud phenomenon is different and appears to be here to stay, leading to distributors having a bit of an identity crisis. They want to get in on the action, especially as the industry is set to become a $241 billion industry by 2020. However they are unsure where they fit into the equation.

UBM estimate that up to 38% of all IT expenditure is going to move to purchasing off-premise solutions by 2013. To meet this a third of all solution providers are aiming to change their business model within this time period.

Where distributors may not loose out so badly is within the Private Cloud space. In this market companies are buying hardware in order to produce a Cloud infrastructure behind their own corporate firewalls. IDC estimates that Private Cloud implementations will grow at an annual rate of 28.8% through to 2015.

It is the SMEs which are more likely to jump two footed into a Public Cloud solution hosted by a 3^rd party provider, producing no need for a distributor. This is the market where distributors they will loose out, and could be labelled as unnecessary purchasing mechanisms.

So what about the distributors who are supplying the Cloud providers themselves? There is a harsh irony in the way that IT distributors have supplied Cloud providers in the past few years inadvertently supplying the force that hopes to steal their sales. However distributors have no choice other than to supply the future.

For distributors the future is unsure but may not be a gloomy as some would have you believe. In the past they have proven to adapt well to changes in computing. The task now is to establish a firm identity in the Cloud space. Perhaps the safe option would be to specialise in working with companies implementing Private Cloud solutions.

How will Cloud Computing Affect IT Distribution is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

The new company, which has not been named yet, will enable doctors and healthcare facilities to share patient information, streamline and manage new payment models, and shift focus from single-patient care to continuous population management, said Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE.

“The global healthcare challenges of access, cost and quality of care delivery are creating a new focus on the performance and accountability of healthcare delivery systems — in every country, at every level of care,” Immelt said in a joint press release issued by GE and Microsoft.  “This venture will demonstrate what is possible when leading companies with complementary capabilities work together to meet a common goal.”

GE and Microsoft are both known for producing a wide range of products and services related to healthcare.  The new joint venture will give users in the healthcare industry the option to mix-and-match some of each company’s most popular and widely-used products, including electronic data-sharing platforms like Microsoft Amalga and GE Healthcare eHealth, as well as Microsoft expreSSO, Microsoft Vergence, and GE Healthcare Qualibria.

“Combining Microsoft’s open, interoperable health platforms and software expertise with GE’s experience and healthcare solutions will create exciting opportunities for patients and healthcare providers alike. Working together, GE and Microsoft can help make healthcare systems more intelligent and cost efficient while improving patient care,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

In addition to streamlining communication and making it easier to access patient data, the new company – which is still awaiting regulatory approval before it launches early this year –  is expected to cut down on healthcare-related infections by helping medical professionals more quickly identify patients who are especially at risk.  Additionally, the new venture should make it easier for patients and their doctors to co-manage diseases and chronic conditions by sharing and tracking home testing devices.

What do you think of this announcement?  What’s your take on healthcare and the cloud?  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

GE; Microsoft Announce New Developments in Healthcare is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

For an organisation with an expansive IT environment or one planning rapid expansion an agentless architecture is extremely beneficial.

Such a solution means that only one backup agent is required across an entire network.  Backups can therefore be managed from a single console making administration infinitely easier.

The software is generally installed on a dedicated backup box and if granted with universal administrative privileges, can ‘agentlessly’ browse across any network.

The pricing model which goes hand in hand with having agentless architecture is another attractive aspect. This is because of its simplicity.

Often the cost of backup will seem extremely reasonable on the surface. However then the end customer will be hit with agent, plugin and licensing costs. If their environment is large, these can be extensive.

Asigra’s architecture allows Backup Technology to offer a service whereby the pricing structure is entirely based upon the amount of data being backed up. There are no hidden costs whatsoever relating to licensing, plugins or agents.

In addition support is provided across Windows, Linux, UNIX, Novell & IBM, again from a single point of administration.

When choosing a backup product do not be mis-led by extremely cheap data quotas, only to find that there are huge setup and licensing costs. Choose a service which is geared for the enterprise market and which envisages expansion with ease.

Advantages of Going Agentless with Asigra is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

It soon became apparent that Terlesa Cowart, the court stenograph for Chavianowho’s trial, had transferred the the transcripts to her personal computer and deleted the files from the stenograph. However, Cowart’s personal computer became infected by a virus and all of the files on it were deleted, including the vital transcript notes.

Stenographers are expected to keep two records of the transcripts on both paper and digital disk. Cowart did not follow these regulations as it is believed that she didn’t bring enough rolls of paper to the court case and therefore relied on a digital copy alone.

The Miami Herald has reported that Cowart has been fired after the revelations. It was also reported that her former employer, Goldman Naccarato Patterson Vela & Associates Inc, have claimed that this hasn’t been the only occasion when she has run out of paper during a trial.

As Chavianowho is set to be given a new trial, it will only result in the family and friends of Acosta having to go through the anguish of reliving the event again because of the negligence of one person.

Ed Griffin, Miami-Dade State Attorney’s spokesman stated “The overturning of a murder conviction always means terrible pain for the victim’s family and frustration for prosecutors and police officers.”

As reported, if this wasn’t the only case where Cowart ran out of paper during a trial, there are bound to be concerns whether transcripts are still available from other trials. If it turns out that other transcripts have been lost, it may well result in more than one convicted prisoner being given a new trial.

This latest case of data loss emphasises the importance of backing up important data securely. Long gone are the days where it was satisfactory to keep one copy of an important file, especially on a computer. Hackers have become more sophisticated with their methods and important data is being put at an unnecessary risk of being lost if it hasn’t been backed up.

Data Loss Results in Convicted Murderer Getting a Re-trial is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

When you think about data backup and recovery, you probably think of natural disasters – floods, hurricanes, fires, and the like.  But cybersecurity expert Richard Clarke says that the biggest threat to our sensitive information may not come from the sea or the sky.  It may come from China.  Or Iran, North Korea, Russia, or any other nation with the technical capability to launch a cyberattack on the United States.

At a recent Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) colloquium, Clarke – a former counter-terrorism czar for presidents George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton – said that he doesn’t believe that the United States is prepared to defend itself from a full-scale cyberattack.

Clarke told conference attendees that the United States’ networks were “as porous as a colander.” He said that the country’s cybersecurity was so weak that he’d encourage America’s leaders to think twice before going to war with other nations.

“I can’t assure you that as you go to war with a cybersecurity-conscious, cybersecurity-capable enemy that any of our stuff is going to work,” Clarke said, adding that a retaliation launched by another country could cripple the country’s power grids, banking systems, military communications, and transportation systems.

Clarke told attendees that the U.S. needs step up its cybersecurity efforts.  He urged the government to take action to protect the country from debilitating cyberattacks and to prevent other countries from stealing sensitive information.  He also encouraged government organizations to be more vigilant and proactive when it came to malware and viruses.

So what does this mean for your business?

Well, to start with, it’s important to remember that disasters aren’t always natural.  Your business may not be located on a flood plain; and you may not live in a part of the world that’s prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes.  But manmade disasters – terrorist attacks, for example, or cyberattacks – can happen anywhere.

Would your organization’s sensitive data be protected in the event of a manmade disaster?  What is your company doing to protect your systems from viruses and malware?  How quickly would you bounce back if a cyberattack wiped out, say, your financial information or client records?

Are you prepared for a cyberattack?  What is your backup plan?  Is your company a colander or a fortress? Leave a comment and tell us what you’re doing to protect yourself against disasters – natural and manmade.

“Porous as a Colander” is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

He came back talking about de-duplication and the fact that data was being stored on their servers rather than on the customer’s site. He then concluded by shrugging his shoulders and saying “The future is bright so give us all your data.”

For a start de-duplication is not a differentiating factor which other software is missing. Secondly the whole point of off-site backup is to get data offsite, so the second part of his answer did not make any sense. So what is the secret to companies offering unlimited storage?

The model which such companies use is that the few users which utilise a large amount of storage will be balanced out by those that use little storage.

The other part of the model which is talked about in the interview is economies of scale. The more customers which join the more storage costs fall.

So the short fall is that someone is going to place all your business data (an unlimited amount) on the cheapest hardware which they can get through bulk purchasing. Then hope that the law of averages work out so that other companies will not eat too far into their unlimited quota.

In this scenario profits rely on making hardly anything per customer but having millions of customers. However when you see this model failing for the likes of Mozy in the consumer market, it does not bode well for the business market. Mozy was one of the original pioneers in the space and unlimited storage is a great concept. However as people create an ever increasingly large digital footprint, it is simply unrealistic.

Tread carefully when considering an unlimited service, especially when it comes to protecting your business data.

Why Unlimited Backup Quotas are Unrealistic. is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

“By the end of this century, intense, heavy rainstorms that now typically happen only once every 20 years are likely to occur about twice a decade”, the report stated.

So far, the predictions made in the report seem to be accurate:  The last few years have seen a heightened level of natural disasters, prompting thousands of businesses around the world to reassess their continuity and disaster recovery plans. With more and more sensitive data being stored electronically, these companies have begun to take online data backup services seriously in a bid to reduce downtime and avoid extensive loss in revenue.

Last month, Thailand experienced its worst flooding in seven years. Bangkok – the center of commerce and trade in the country – was completely inundated, and hundreds of businesses lost a considerable amount of revenue as a result. Most businesses in Thailand had been slow to adopt cloud computing and backup data centers as part of a contingency plan, but in the wake of these historic floods, companies are taking their data backup seriously.

Monsinee Keeratikrainon, manager of global research firm Frost & Sullivan, said demand in cloud computing services was set to expand more quickly because of natural disasters like the flooding in Thailand.

“The cloud will likely get more attention from companies as they prepare business continuity plans for any future crisis,” she said.

So far, backup centers in Thailand have received a lot of attention:  Demand for offsite data storage centers in Thailand rose by nearly 300% during the floods, mainly from manufacturers who needed to transfer their data to a safe location.

“The cloud market in Thailand is expected to grow by 50% to 1.5 billion baht (USD $47,800,000) next year,” Keeratikrainon said. This growth has the potential to prompt an investment of at least 500 million baht (USD $15,000,000) in expanding online data centers to accommodate demand.

But the growth of the cloud market isn’t confined to Thailand. As natural disasters increase worldwide, the demand for backup data centers is increasing with it.  The United States has recently experienced one of its worst years in natural disasters. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US experienced over $55 billion in damages from natural disasters in 2011, the worst in US history.  This has prompted US businesses to embrace data backup and disaster recovery systems. IT companies that provide support and strategy services for small and medium-sized businesses have experienced significant growth, citing the rise in natural disasters as one cause. ProviDyn, one such company, has increased revenue by 75% in the past year, and recently expanded their staff by 25 percent.

“At its basic level, controlling data is about controlling risk, which means being prepared in the event of disaster so that you can restore your business without losing its most important asset – information,” said Blaine Rigler, general manager of US-based Iron Mountain Data Backup and Recovery. “The amount of information that needs to be protected is growing at an incredible pace, creating new data challenges every day.”

And no other industry feels these challenges more than the healthcare industry. Natural disasters can cause a healthcare facility more than financial loss; it can potentially affect the lives of its patients if their personal charts or prescriptions are lost. Having their data stored remotely is crucial to restoring the facility’s operating conditions. Last May, a tornado leveled St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., completely wiping out their Electronic Health Records (EHR). But, because their medical records were all stored in a remote data center, they were able to reduce the devastation of the tornado and quickly return to providing for their patients.

“Within seven days, we had the EHR system up and running again, having retrieved the data from a mobile medical unit,” said Michael McCreary, chief of technology services for Sisters of Mercy Health Systems,  the organization in charge of St. John’s rebuilding efforts.

“We were lucky to have a paperless system that could be restored fairly quickly,” McCreary continued. “Some of the hospital’s old paper records got blown 70 miles away.”

Rise in Global Disasters Means Rise in Data Backup Solutions is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.

It is worth reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of these before reaching a decision on which way to go.

The main considerations are what you are wishing to achieve, and how far your budget will stretch. Understanding the difference between Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity is therefore essential. It is worth firstly defining these.

‘Disaster Recovery’ refers to the process of recovering data in the event of a disaster. So the disaster occurs and then the work is done to recover the data or entire infrastructure. The time frame in which this is achieved gradually closes until you reach ‘Business Continuity.’

Business Continuity is a scenario whereby you can actually continue your business through a disaster, without any form of disruption.

Let’s first take a replication scenario with no ‘Point in Time Backup’ procedure in place. There is a storm and lightening strikes your primary offices, frying your main servers.  However all is well because you have been running real-time replication to a secondary location. You can therefore continue operations as normal.

However let’s look at a couple of perhaps more likely scenarios. A file corruption occurs on the primary site. This is replicated to the secondary site making a non-corrupt version impossible to regain. Or a deletion occurs on the primary server. This is mirrored onto the secondary server, again making file recovery impossible.

With a proper backup procedure in place you can refer back to a point in time i.e. when the last scheduled backup was run. If the backup product stores multiple generations you can refer back to a version of the file/database, before the corruption/deletion occurred.

So there are certainly advantages of having real time replication in place.  However the decision to implement replication as a sole DR/BC solution is ill-researched. This is because in many scenarios a secondary real-time mirror of your data is useless.

The other point about replication is that you need much resource in the form of bandwidth to replicate on a continual basis. Backup generally takes place out of office hours when bandwidth demand is nil. Furthermore for replication you can expect to double all your hardware costs.

A further expense is achieving the geographical separation necessary to make it worthwhile. Some businesses choose to solely replicate to secondary servers onsite. However in disaster recovery terms there is little point in such a solution.

The dream scenario is of course to have both backup and replication rolled into one. This way you can recover to a point in time and also maintain a high availability BC solution.

However to have both is expensive and in the current climate businesses often have to choose. Without question it is paramount to prioritise having a ‘Point in Time Backup’ solution in place.

Backup Technology are able to provide a solution which provides ‘Point in Time Backup’ as well as seamless Business Continuity. This is achieved through maintaining an up to date virtual replica of your environment rather than through replication. In the event of a disaster the task is therefore simple. We recover the small amount of changes to your warm standby server. The solution ensures that both Recovery Time Objectives and Recovery Point Objectives are achieved without the huge costs of implementing real-time replication.

Furthermore BTL work tirelessly alongside Asigra to continually develop our DR/ BC offerings in order to keep ahead of the ever increasingly demanding needs of the world today.

Backup Vs Replication is a post from Backup Technology's Blog. Contact us today for further information on our Online Backup and Business Continuity services.