Free Servosity Online Backup Trial! Click Here...

If you are from the Greenville / Upstate South Carolina area and are into IT, you likely know Damien Stevens, or at least the name of his company, Servosity.

Today, Servosity announced that in addition to their quality online / cloud backup solution, they will have Servosity DR Server and DR Desktop available! DR Server and DR Desktop are Disaster Recovery solutions that allow you to perform a Bare Metal Recovery to dissimilar physical hardware, recover VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines, and more.

Features:

• Bare Metal Recovery to Dissimilar hardware, VMWare, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox
• Local, Network, and Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Purpose built for MSPs and IT Resellers
• No Hardware Required
• Geographically Redundant SAS-70 Type II Cloud
• Recover a server, desktop, or laptop in just minutes
• Disaster Recovery with snapshots to the Network and Cloud every 15 minutes

Offsite, online, cloud backup for your business

Homeland Secure IT encourages the use of backup solutions to complete your disaster readiness plan. One of our recommendations is to implement remote, cloud based backup. Even if you have existing onsite backup, it gives you an extra layer of protection.

We partner with some of the biggest and most trusted names in offsite, cloud based backup providers such as (locally owned) Servosity, Mozy Pro and of course, Symantec.

Below, Symantec.cloud counters some of the most common objections to backing up your data offsite:

“My data won’t be secure”

• With Symantec Backup Exec.cloud, your data is secured during transit using 128 bit SSL encryption and stored using 256 bit AES encryption when at rest in Symantec’s highly secure, enterprise-class facilities.

“Online Backup will drain my bandwidth”

• After your initial backup, Symantec Backup Exec.cloud uses block level, incremental backup and performs backup of file changes only.
• Symantec Backup Exec.cloud uses bandwidth throttling to minimize impacts to your business productivity.

“It will be too difficult to manage”

• Automate backups to run on a schedule, or to backup when file modifications occur.
• Let us manage your backups for you!
• It’s easy to administer yourself – hassle free set up in just three steps.

“Backup is too expensive”

• BE.cloud offers usage-based pricing with no per-user licensing fees
• Subscription fee includes support, maintenance, and enhancements.
• With this solution there is no need to pay for resources to manage and maintain the backup system or for off-site tape storage.

“We don’t really need backup, we use removable drives and discs”

• What happens if the drive/disc is damaged, fails, is lost or stolen?
• How often are you performing backup? – Using removable drives and discs is a manual process that requires time – your time – to manage them. What could you be doing if this process was automated? Would your backup happen more regularly than it does now?
• Are there PCs or laptops that aren’t protected by using this method?
• What would happen to your productivity if one of these machines suffered a disaster/hardware failure? Would your workers lose data they need to do their jobs effectively? Would you lose any customer records, business or financial information?

“We want to manage our backup onsite”

• On-premise backup solutions can be expensive and require someone (perhaps you) to maintain them.
• On-premise backup solutions place the burden of security, storage and tape/disc vaulting on you. They also expose you to the risk of losing equipment and data in the event of a local natural disaster. - Use online backup with your existing on-premise solution to address off-site protection!
• Online backup replaces large upfront investments with predictable subscription based pricing. Managed virtually onsite using a web browser, you can not only manage and monitor the backup of machines at your location, but also at remote offices and on the machines of your mobile workers.

If you would like to know more about backing up to the cloud, or would like to discuss your backup / disaster recovery plan, please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com today.  We provide complete service and sales of physical, onsite backup systems, from tape to disk in addition to cloud solutions.

Say "no" to stacks of CDs

If you are using CDs,  DVDs, flash drives, external hard drives, or other physical media to backup your notebook computer, you are doing 100% more to protect your data than the majority of all PC owners!

However, you are also spending time connecting devices or inserting backup media and likely are manually starting the backup, leaving lots of room for missed backups. If you are using an external USB hard drive, you may be using the included software to automatically backup to that media when you have it plugged in, which could make for gaps of days, weeks, months, or who knows, even longer between backups.

Those of you who want to insure your data is backed up, automatically, without interaction from you at all, should consider an online or remote backup solution. These are ideal for a mobile computer, whether it is an Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows or even a Linux based system! All you do is establish an account, install the software, configure the software for a time frame for running and you are done. “Set it and forget it” as they say.

When you have your computer turned on and connected to the internet, the data is uploaded to the remote server automatically and you get an email that lets you know that it completed correctly or that a backup was missed. You can see the backup details, you can set the backup to be “continuous” where your files are synced as they change, etc.

Your data is stored remotely on encrypted and secure servers. You can access a single file or restore an entire folder via the application or a handy web interface!

Here at Homeland Secure IT, we use, recommend and offer a free trial of Servosity Online Backup. Servosity is a locally owned and operated business here in Greenville, SC whom we are proud to partner with to bring our clients a rock solid, dependable and affordable backup solution. Servosity works with desktops, laptops, server (including Microsoft Exchange, SQL, and more!) and as mentioned previously, multiple operating systems from Windows to Apple Mac, to Linux, etc.

Free Servosity Online Backup Trial! Click Here...

If you would like more information about how Servosity Online Backup can help you or your business, or you would like a FREE TRIAL of the service, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748. We offer a full range of backup solutions, both physical onsite and remote.  Don’t go another day without KNOWING your data is protected!

You could have a happy ending to your story, where your laptop is stolen (or lost) and the person has mercy on your soul and sends your data back to you (See THIS STORY).

However, if you are like me just a few years ago, you will lose your notebook and your data along with it.

Avoid this by using an online backup solution like Servosity… It is totally automated, and we will provide you with a 30 day trial. Whether it is for your notebook with only a few gigs, or your servers with 100 gigs or more, Servosity will work great for you. It can backup MS Exchange, MS SQL, etc. Mac OSX, Linux, etc are also supported!

For more information about Servosity online backup or other backup solutions such as RDX, Tape Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, etc, please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748.

HP StorageWorks RDX Technology

When selecting a backup solution, you may be considering one of the following:

LTO, DLT, DAT Tape – The de facto standard in backup media for business and enterprise. Though it is growing a little long in the tooth, the format has proven itself to be reliable and affordable when you consider the lifetime of the drive and the media. These are available in a variety of flavors, from SCSI, to SATA, internal and external. And for those needing massive storage and speed, there are enormous auto-loaders such as 96 slot HP LTO 5 fiber channel systems.

Iomega REV removable cartridge systems – Outdated, no longer sold or supported by Iomega. (You can still buy media)

Portable hard drives – While these seem attractive because they are cheap and available at every office supply house in town, the reliability of these devices is not idea for mission critical solutions. The constant plugging and unplugging of USB cables can wear connectors out prematurely and there is the slight possibility that a server can be damaged by static when plugging in a drive. Most IT people feel this is a better solution than no solution at all.

Remote Backup or In-The-Cloud backup – We offer Servosity Online Backup and feel it is a great addition to any existing hardware backup system you may have, and could serve as your primary backup if so desired. These are affordable solutions that require very little hands-on time.

Network based disk storage – These are awesome for speed, and convenience, but they generally remain on site and in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as fire, flood, or even theft, you could be left with no backup. This falls under the “much better than nothing” category.

Flash drives and other non-volatile storage media, including CD & DVD – Again, this better than nothing and surely works for small amounts of data, but longevity may be in question. CDs and DVDs have a lifespan after written to, usually of only a few years, making long term archival use impossible. Flash drives are great to make a quick backup, but there are occurrences of people losing data on one from high powered RF devices erasing them. Probably not a solution for most businesses.

A plethora of other technologies exist, but one that has been gaining momentum in the business and enterprise market is RDX.

RDX, or Removable Disk Technology is based around a docking station that accepts an RDX cartridge. The cartridge encases and protects a hard drive. RDX cartridges come in many sizes, whether you need 160GB or 1.5TB, there is bound to be one that fits your data needs.

What makes RDX different from a typical portable or removable drives? It is a “hardened” solution that encloses the hard drive and enables it to take a drop of up to 1 meter. These systems also offer protection from static discharge. A typical RDX can move upwards of a 100GB an hour. If you outgrow the the original size cartridge, you can begin replacing them with larger capacity as the dock is backwards and forwards compatible with any other RDX cartridge.

RDX is a standard that allows you to purchase cartridges from any manufacture to use in your system. It also offers a shelf life of up to 30 years, allowing you to archive your data and know that if the IRS audits you, you can access it.

No need to upgrade your current backup software in most cases when switching to RDX as the technology is already supported in most backup applications such as Symantec Backup Exec!

If you are looking for a backup solution, whether it is your first, or an upgrade of a current system, then you may wish to give RDX a close look. Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We offer RDX products from HP, Imation, Lenovo, and Quantum to name a few. We offer a free evaluation in Greenville and the Upstate of South Carolina.

Servosity - Now with continuous data protection goodness!

I’ve heard every excuse in the book for not backing up data. Too much trouble, too expensive, too time consuming, slows the computer down while the backup is running, etc.  Until today.

I actually had a discussion in which the individual told me that backups were useless because they were not real-time, and that using a backup program like Symantec’s Backup Exec or even an online backup solution like Servosity was a scheduled backup and data had potential to be lost between the time you saved it, and the time it was backed up to the media or remote server.

Then, I dropped the bombshell…  There is such a thing as “Continuous Backup Protection”. Symantec offers it of course, but this person was totally against a hardware solution that was on premise, so I told him about Servosity’s offering. Where you can have a regular backup taking place after hours, but for critical data, you could have that backup immediately when you save it! And, if you wanted, you could set it up to backup the entire system in near real-time! Kind of a mirror of your data, on a remote, secure server where each file that is saved or modified is synced with the remote system.

This is where cloud computing, or Software as a Service (SaaS) really shines! If you backup instantly, to a remote location, and a horrific incident occurs, say a tornado, fire, flood, or even theft of your equipment, you have access to it over the internet! A perfect solution for business continuity plans.

Servosity can protect a single workstation or a thousand, a fleet of mobile computers, your Mac OS X, Windows Servers, Exchange, SQL, Linux, and so much more!

If you would like more information about Servosity or other Continuous Backup solutions, please call us at 864-990-4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

ASK ABOUT OUR FREE TRIAL OF SERVOSITY!

Backup? I can't even find reverse!

Not a week goes by that I don’t have at least one conversation with a small or even medium sized business owner who has no backup strategy in place at all. Today’s conversation was courtesy of a rather intelligent individual from Greenville who I have known and respected for some time now. He shall remain anonymous in order to spare him shame and harassment by all who know him for eternity.

Mr. X is busy running his business, which is thriving in a poor economy, but at the same time, he is also responsible for all computer repair & maintenance which is centered around half a dozen workstations, a couple notebooks and an aging file server. He backs up his data using some free software and a couple removable USB hard drives because the tape backup they have was outgrown years ago. The drives are “sometimes” taken off-site, but for the most part, they are on location and sometimes get swapped around.

The list of problems here is long. Obviously in the even to fire, theft, flood, or other catastrophic disaster, the data is probably gone, along with the backups. Even if that is not the case, using software which has no audit trail may prove inadequate if even a file or folder is lost on the server due to a user deleting it, as there is no way to ensure the data on the external USB drives actually contains everything, and when it was put on there. Still, a  recovered file that is far out of date is better than no recovered file.

Other problems are that the server is old, and from what he told me, his RAID array is not optimal, if I understood him correctly, one file drive failed a couple years ago and everything is hosted on the remaining drive in the server.

I made several suggestions to him today… One was to get his RAID working and get a local backup going using a new drive and quality backup software like Backup Exec BEWS from Symantec and a new backup drive that uses reliable and economical media. This was shot down immediately due to the cost. Next I suggested fixing the RAID array, optimizing his USB drive backups and implementing an Online Backup Solution, such as the one we offer from Servosity. This was of more interest to him due to the fact that he does not have to invest in a tape backup drive and backup software as well as maintain it and remember to change out tapes. HOWEVER, the recurring costs have him concerned.

What we are doing currently is setting him up to try our Servosity Online Backup Solution absolutely free for a couple weeks to get a feel for how it works, and allow us to tell him exactly how much he will be paying per month. If this works out, he will at least be protected.  Imagine losing your company data and how much it could cost you. Is it worth it to risk that? If you do not have a fully functional backup solution, please contact us and let us do the same for you. No obligation, no cost!