All posts by Rob Mackle

VMware for Cloud Computing

January 23, 2015 Rob Mackle

Continuous availability is the promise of the cloud. Tech refreshes sans downtime is a part of this promise. One of the factors that enable cloud services to deliver this promise is the use of VMware as part of their service offering.

VMware comes with a number of computing kits. VMware vSphere enables scalable server consolidation and functions as a high performance virtualisation layer.

vSphere abstracts server hardware resources and makes servers sharable across virtual machines . It consolidates workloads, automates business continuity, and facilitates centralised management of all applications.

VMware vCenter Site Recovery manager is a disaster recovery solution for multi-site environments. The Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) aligns computing resources to business needs and orchestrates load balancing across host machines, and optimises power consumption during peaks and troughs in the business.

vMotion eliminates the need for planned downtime by allowing live virtual migrations between machines.

Hadoop workloads can be run with vSphere to enhance utilisation, reliability and agility of the data center.

VMware delivers greater control over the network to the end user. It allows users define priority access to network resources in synchronisation with business policies. Network provisioning can be centralised and administration / monitoring of the data centre can be achieved by a process of network aggregation.

High availability is the foundation on which VMware promises are made. But, VMware does not confront the IT Administrator with the complexities of traditional clustering and builds in a fault tolerance that promises zero data loss in the event of server failures. It automatically detects and recovers systems even when the operating system fails. The agentless disk backup (with data de-duplication) reduces the amount of disk space consumed and eliminates any third party costs that may be incurred by users for replication of data.

VMware was designed to automate common tasks. The technology allows users deploy and patch vSphere hosts in minutes or create / configure profiles instantly. The update manager performs most tasks in the background non-intrusively.

Interestingly, security is never compromised even when performance is enhanced by eliminating anti-virus footprints. Security is offloaded to a virtual appliance called vShield Endpoint provided by partner organisations. vShield Endpoint is designed to eliminate anti-virus storms, implement end user access policies, and manage custom access configurations while facilitating compliance with existing legal mandates.

Integrate your Systems if you are Moving to the Cloud

January 7, 2015 Rob Mackle

Moving to the cloud is not a simple three-step process that it is made out to be. If you have very little data, you may follow the steps and get on to the cloud. But, most organisations have voluminous data and there is a lot of work to be done with the data before you can take the first step towards the cloud. Your systems must be integrated if you are moving to the cloud.

What does integration mean? Integrated systems are pre-configurations of data, storage, networks, applications and their management, to deliver optimal performance in the cloud. The process involves understanding the different system components and how they work together before configuring them. Workloads may be identified, optimised for each application, and a broad range of infrastructures may be requisitioned for obtaining a specific pre-defined, level of performance. Capabilities for managing the application and the workload will have to be clearly set out. Thereafter, different application requirements may be fine tuned, balanced, until realistic performance measures are obtainable and available.

The pre-configured data centre exported to the cloud then creates the environment for speedy delivery of applications and resources. Flexibility and scalability are automatic, allowing the business to expand infinitely, bringing in more customers, and adding more information to their digital repositories. Multiple operating systems can be hosted and applications can be shared among a large number of users, wherever they are located, and these applications can be deployed on a variety of devices that may be used to connect to the enterprise account.

Service portfolios can be expanded to include a wide range of business services that induce confidence in the company. These benefits alone are enough to validate the need for pre-integration and fine-tuning of enterprise applications and systems before cloud migrations. Add to this the cost savings that occur and all arguments against pre-integration activities must cease to be voiced. Of course, the success of integration will be in direct proportion to the willingness of the organisation to spend the time and effort required for the process and the level of standardisation that they are eager to implement. A healthy services centric view and a felt need for effective Service Level Agreement (SLA) management will act as catalysts that help transform legacy data centres into efficient cloud data centre, humming with activity and delivering performance.

Streamlining Workflows for Healthcare with Cloud Computing

December 10, 2014 Rob Mackle

The cloud is an enabler. All kinds of workflows can be streamlined, and productivity can be enhanced. Let us look at an example of how cloud computing can help hospitals improve information flows and speed up health care operations.

Hospitals have unique issues. The number of beds available for patients is limited. The waiting lists are long. Most of the patients are cared for as outpatients and this results in huge daily inflows and the emergency departments and behavioural health departments are flooded with patients requiring assistance. In short, there is a high volume of activity that must be handled efficiently and effectively, with least amount of inconvenience to patients. The staffs encounter a number of challenges. The hurdles that impact workflow will have to be addressed. How can cloud computing help?

Traditional computing systems force the staff to rely on a number of applications that run on PCs. These applications may be hosted on site or offsite. Interoperability challenges would be many. There will be productivity issues that demand a number of log on and log off operations that slow down access. Computing and information access would cause infinite delays and medical staff would be grappling with technical issues rather than working with the patients and their treatments.

Cloud computing systems offer sophisticated software applications that ease the work of hospitals and health care units. Cloud based systems, separate the underlying hardware infrastructure layer from the application layer and facilitate the creation of a single user login for all kinds of applications that may be deployed from the cloud server.

The desktop is separated from the operating system and management of technology is abstracted to the cloud. This creates a dynamic composition of user workspaces sans technical problems. Interoperability of applications becomes a possibility and this, improves overall clinical productivity. The anywhere, anytime accessibility of the cloud synchronises well with the fast-paced environment of hospitals, and has a direct impact on the way staffs can work with patients. Many of the challenges faced by the staff can be eliminated and patient care can be the focus of all health care workers.

The felt advantages of the cloud are:

High speed access to information;
Abstraction of underlying infrastructure from the application layer;
Centralisation of technology management;
Greater interoperability;
Personalised user spaces sans;
Smooth workflows;
Improved patient care.

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service Procures Cloud Backup Via G-Cloud

November 10, 2014 Rob Mackle

Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) is using Backup Technology (BTL) to safeguard the data it generates as it protects local people and property.

ECFRS is one of the largest county fire services in the UK, protecting a population of more than 1.74 million. Its firefighters attend over 24,000 emergency incidents every year. After its existing backup solution became too difficult to manage, ECFRS chose BTL via the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace for G-Cloud services, to provide an improved managed service.

Jan Swanwick, Head of ICT for Essex County Fire & Rescue Service, explained: “Traditionally procurement has been a long, protracted process. With G-Cloud it is very straightforward because all the supplier and product information has already been collated and validated.”

BTL, which is part of cloud company iomart, protects more than 22TB of data for the fire service using a Public Cloud Backup solution from Asigra.

Paul Hill, Assistant Chief Fire Officer for Safer Communities said: “Saving lives isn’t just about putting out fires and attending emergencies, it is about using the data we collect during our work to protect the people and property of our county. We spend a huge amount of time analysing the data we collect so that we can target our services in the correct and most efficient way. Knowing that this data is protected by Backup Technology is vital to the success of everything we do.”

Rob Mackle, Sales & Service Manager for BTL, said: “The fully managed solution encompasses every aspect of the backup contract from configuration and installation through to the daily monitoring and restoration support of the backups.”

Asigra is the world’s leading online backup software developer and BTL its largest global partner.

Eran Farajun, Executive Vice President of Asigra, said: “Essex County Fire & Rescue’s mission critical operation is a perfect example where data availability can have a real impact on an organisation’s quality of service. BTL understands this and relies on our award-winning data recovery software to provide customers with best-of-breed backup services. This recent deployment highlights the continued momentum of cloud-based data recovery throughout the region.”

To read the full case study click here

L.K. Bennett Selects Backup Technology to provide their Asigra Cloud Backup and Recovery Solution

August 28, 2013 Rob Mackle

Company Ends Maintenance, Performance, and Security

Concerns of Tape-Based Backup Solutions

London – August 27, 2013 – Backup Technology, the leading Enterprise Level Cloud Backup and Recovery Specialist provider since 2005, today announce the extension of their five year partnership with L.K. Bennett. The company made the changes in 2008 after it began suffering from backup cycles that exceeded available backup windows as well as failed backups and restores.

Click to Tweet: L.K. Bennett Selects Backup Technology to provide their Asigra Cloud Backup Solution #backup #cloud

Headquartered in London, UK, L.K. Bennett (http://us.lkbennett.com/) is a luxury fashion brand defined by its British heritage. After using a tape-based backup solution for years, the company realised a change was necessary when its backup environment began suffering from increasing backup windows and failed data recoveries. The company sought to modernise its backup environment by transitioning to a cloud-based data recovery solution, which included the Asigra Cloud Backup Connector provided by Backup Technology Limited (BTL). As a result, L.K. Bennett has eliminated the inefficiencies of tape backup and recovery to improve overall business uptime.

L.K. Bennett currently backs up over 14 TB of production data in a very complex environment that involves a mixture of physical and virtual systems (Dell workstations and HP servers), and multiple connections from the company’s multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) across sites in London and the United States. As such, the company’s tape-based backup system required extensive management time. In addition to tape management and data recovery headaches, storing data onsite was an additional security concern which required IT management to move data offsite and out of Greater London.

Having been a customer of cloud backup and disaster recovery provider Backup Technology Limited (BTL) for over five years, L.K. Bennett turned to BTL for an enhanced solution to its data protection challenges. With limited bandwidth, L.K. Bennett needed a WAN-optimized solution in order to meet its requirements. “We did our research to find a provider with market experience and a customer base to match,” said David Van Eck, Head of IT at L.K. Bennett. “That provider was BTL.”

L.K. Bennett modernized its backup environment with services from BTL to protect data that included SQL databases, iSeries data, application data from Microsoft Exchange, as well as a large volume of unstructured data. BTL was able to provide its Asigra-based solution to automatically and regularly back-up and protect data, according to policies set by L.K. Bennett. The solution also provided the ability to connect to local network storage to further increase the local recovery capabilities.

Van Eck from L.K. Bennett reported that the switch to the Cloud Backup Connector Appliance helped the company to achieve several business benefits. “Through a centralized online monitoring portal, we receive guaranteed backup and recovery for all of our data systems as a professional and fully managed service,” said Van Eck. “The backup forms the basis for our enterprise-wide data recovery solution, which is essential to L.K. Bennett.”

“The most common recovery is of emails or contact items,” added Van Eck. “BTL provides high-performance local recovery as well as online backup and virtual disaster recovery, which is key to our organization as downtime can be very costly. The Service has been reliable and when data needs to be restored it is always available on demand. The ability to restore emails at a granular level back to the same or a different location is invaluable.”

“Cloud-based data recovery allows L.K. Bennett to overcome the limitations of traditional backup software and legacy tape solutions,” said Rob Mackle, Direct and Channel Sales Manager EMEA at BTL. “Asigra’s Cloud Backup Connector Appliance is a tool that allows companies like L.K. Bennett to securely protect their business data and meet regulatory requirements. Should they lose one or multiple servers or sites, BTL’s Virtual Disaster Recovery also allows their systems to be restored and operational with minimal impact to the business.”

About Backup Technology

In 2005 Backup Technology was formed specialising in business and enterprise level Online Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions. By utilising a market leading technology, BTL has quickly established itself as one of the World’s leading Backup and Disaster Recovery providers.

Backup Technology has a strong global presence, from their head office in Leeds in the UK; they have expanded to offices and data centres in the US, as well as establishing partnerships in Europe and Australia. BTL’s core business has been built around their partnership with the world’s leading software provider for Online Backup, Asigra. Backup Technology became Asigra’s first ever Global Partner of the Year in 2008 and then became Asigra’s first European 3D Hybrid Partner later that year. Other awards include Best Competitive Takeout (2010), Best Hybrid Cloud Implementation (2011) and Best Vertical Enterprise Cloud Marketing (2011). The company has also received many industry awards and had articles featured in publications such as the Financial Times, the Independent and Computing Magazine.

BTL are fully ISO 9001 (April 2010) and ISO 27001 (May 2010) certified, ensuring consistent quality management procedures are in place and all security processes are followed and documented. The ISO 22301 certification has also been achieved (January 2011), meaning BTL has an independently audited Business Continuity Management system in place to offer additional peace of mind for its customers.

BTL currently employ 35 full time staff all of which are fully trained and certified by Asigra in Toronto. This ensures that BTL offer consistently high service levels to all customers and have an unrivaled knowledge of the Asigra product. With individual customer data sizes ranging from 1TB to over 2PB, BTL currently protect and manage in excess of 14 Petabytes.

For more information visit www.backup-technology.com.

Backup Technology UK Backup Technology USA

4220 Park Approach 4801 Wooday Drive

Thorpe Park Suite 300 East

Leeds Houston, Texas

LS15 8GB 77056

0800 999 3600 800-220-7013

sales@backup-technology.co.uk sales@backup-technology.com