The Importance of Support Levels in Partnership

November 30, 2015 Callum Huddlestone

Lack of support in any project can easily result in failure even with simplest project or activity. It is important for you to know that sending or moving your mission-critical data to a third party service provider online is never an easy attempt. Doing such thing without employing proper support can lead to very serious issues that can cripple the entire activity and/or the organisation.

Therefore, you need to examine your service provider, whose mission is to bring to the table a particular skill set to your organisation. More so, exploring the skill sets of the service provider should provide you with the freedom you need to develop the particular talent you have. If your service provider can say that they can bring talents to complement your business, then you are in good hands. Otherwise, it is time for you to search for the partner that will provide you with the freedom you need.

Cloud based services can abstract software and software infrastructure maintenance from your company at the same time optimising on the current hardware you already have. The service provider should be responsible for upgrading hardware and software, without any kind of downtime. Also, there should be availability of data system for your enterprise at all times. The data should be considerably scalable as well as activity that involve trouble shooting at the service provider’s end should flawlessly transfer you to the “hot site” or even to the “disaster recovery site” so as to provide your business with enough convenience option. Disaster recovery procedures must also be an integral part of the offerings. Data mirroring features should be automatic. Compliance to legal mandates must be incorporated into the backup process and archiving.

On a daily operation, there must be support services available for you to carry on your activities; and you should be allowed to refer or contact your technical support team members, assigned by your service provider, for any kind of problems. Customers that are using their services should be sure that they can get not less than 99.99% uptime. Ideally, 24/7 help desk should be provided by the service provider in order to make it easy for customers to get the help they need for their service. That can also make the customers to be sure of getting response from the service provider within 24 or at most 48 hours.

Another thing expected of the service provider is to regularly monitor the health of all customer accounts. If any suspicious activity is detected in the account, such activities must be logged in to the system and reported. In order to automatically trigger off warnings when there is any form of spur-of-the-moment activities, the software alerts must be configured right.

The cloud based support services must help to improve your return on investment (ROI). It must give evidence about the data storage model being marketed by your service provider to assist you in your exclusive business prospect.

Backup Technology is proud to be a 3D Hybrid partner of Asigra, which gives us the best support to reach our business goals.

UK’s ICO Data Protection Act

November 27, 2015 Damien Garvey

The UK Data Protection Act, put into action by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), regulates the use of personal data that is within the reach of commercial and non-commercial companies, as well as individuals. Such data might have been acquired for various kinds of reasons and, therefore, adherence to compliance is expected. The ICO is a self regulating authority created to support information rights for protecting personal privacy.

Basic Interpretative Provisions

The Data Protection Act defines “Data” as “information which—

(a) is being processed by means of equipment operating automatically in response to instructions given for that purpose,

(b) is recorded with the intention that it should be processed by means of such equipment,

(c) is recorded as part of a relevant filing system or with the intention that it should form part of a relevant filing system,

(d) does not fall within paragraph (a), (b) or (c) but forms part of an accessible record as defined by section 68,

(e) is recorded information held by a public authority and does not fall within any of paragraphs (a) to (d)”.

The Data Protection Act further defines “Personal Data” as “data which relate to a living individual who can be identified—

(a) from those data, or

(b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller, and includes any expression of opinion about the individual and any indication of the intentions of the data controller or any other person in respect of the individual”.

“Sensitive Personal Data” is further explained here:

According to The Data Protection Act, “Sensitive Personal Data” means personal data consisting of information as to—

(a) the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject,

(b) his political opinions,

(d) whether he is a member of a trade union (within the meaning of the M1Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992),

(e) his physical or mental health or condition,

(f) his sexual life,

(g) the commission or alleged commission by him of any offence, or

(h) any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by him, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.

ICO has already levied penalties under the Data Protection Act for data breaches. The fine amount shows that the ICO office is very serious to reinforce the act. It continues to monitor violations and regulate the provisions of the act in the entire UK. For that reason, if are a UK based organisation that is engaged in a service that warrants collection of information or data of various sorts, you need to pay a special attention to compliance under the act; so as to avoid penalties and legal suits. It must be noted that compliance to the data protection act is not an option, but mandatory.

Do Solar Storms Cause Data Disasters?

November 25, 2015 Stewart Parkin

There have been scientific predictions on the geomagnetic storms for a while now. Scientists have estimated various unpleasant impacts of the solar storms to be about $2 trillion. The damages caused by electricity charged gas travelling at 5 million miles per hour is anticipated to disrupt both the communication technology infrastructure, as well as, communication networks for many years to come.

A renowned Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics expert, Daniel N. Baker, PhD from University of Colorado, commented, “I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did. If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, the earth would have been in the line of fire.” This is particularly worrying as the sun has been in its dormant state for more than a century. The comment, made by Dr. Baker to the press, noted that solar flares that took place for a few years in this decade have disrupted ground communication.

According to Wikipedia, solar storms are classified as A, B, C, M or X. Class A being the lowest and class X being the highest (as in Richer scale for earthquakes). Each letter has its own scale. For instance, X1 is less powerful than X9.

The earth has experienced class X sun storm several times. Class X sun flare is so powerful that it did radiate billions of electrically charged particles to the earth. Such discharge is known as Coronal Mass Ejections that light up geomagnetic storms in the magnetic field of the earth. Dr. Baker went on to state that “while technology we use every day will be susceptible to the impact of space weather conditions, it will help us evaluate the robustness of the systems we have built”.

Is there any relation between data backup / data storage and solar storms? The vigorous particles that are discharged from the solar storm and the sun will certainly interact with the surrounding magnetic field of the earth. This will help increase the ionisation in the ionosphere for 100 km to 1,000 km above the earth. The discharged flares could cause equipment damages and increase the chance of strong electric current in long conductors, including power lines and the pipelines, which could eventually result in system outages. As a result, technological systems could fail and data could be lost; and colossal amount of data could be at risk, including cloud backed up data. This is a new kind of risk that we have not encountered so far (unlike Tornadoes, Floods, Earthquakes) and the risk level can not be determined at the moment, as it has not happened yet, and unfortunately, the impact can only be known after the sun storm actually hits the earth.

Given such circumstances, companies around the world have been paying extra attention regarding their digital data and disaster recovery. Cloud backup and disaster recovery service providers around the globe are working harder than ever before to secure and protect organization’s data redundantly at multiple levels to make sure that data is recovered in an event a disaster strikes and there is a massive data deletion of the entire system. Therefore, it is the most intelligent and adaptable company that will be able to survive a disaster. In addition, it is more beneficial to be safe than to be sorry.

If you have not prepared for disaster — whether for sun flare related disasters or otherwise — you need to start right now.

“Asigra Partner” Engagement Levels

November 23, 2015 Kris Price

Asigra is recognised in the cloud backup and data storage industry as one of the most reliable software to protect data. It is impressive that Asigra gives respect to its resellers and declares them “Partners” of Asigra. Asigra understands well that fact that business environment demands effective partnerships that can support and expand its wings. It is the reason why partners of Asigra are given responsibility to understand business needs of clients and provide them the relevant services. It provides support its partners without discrimination and help them in providing managed services to customers. Partners are given the opportunity to sell Asigra software along with its supportive tools.

Partners of Asigra have made it easy to provide data backup and recovery services across all platforms. Channel partners are fascinated by the Asigra Assurance Partner Program and are fully engaged to sell the Asigra software. All partners, who have signed up to this assurance program are able to sell services to customers without any competition from Asigra, as it only leases the software on a seat basis. Partners can get the support they need from Asigra and offer data backup and storage service with recurring revenue based on amount of data calculated on a per GB.

Partner program developed by Asigra has covered the gap that was noticed in the market. Partners are able to avoid huge expenses of software development and maintenance by simply signing up as a partner. Such partners are given the opportunity to use or add Asigra’s centralised online backup and recovery system to entertain their customers. With the help of Asigra, partners are able to gain confidence of clients without investing great amount of resources.

Asigra offers friendly environment to partners. It does not interfere in dealings of partners. This means, Asigra does not compete with its partners and never sells actual backup services and does not have a data centre. Asigra makes certain that its partners are given the possibility to market their services in the market. Asigra gives favour to partners and assists them from start to finish. It gives training, guideline, advise, and required material so that they know the product before marketing.

Luckily, Asigra partners have all the tools to provide high tech services. Customers interested in cloud backup and recovery services develop internal local cloud, multi-tenant public cloud or a hybrid cloud that offers both public and private clouds. Asigra’s partners have competence to fulfil requirements of customers accordingly. Customers develop trust when they are given options to select involvement level according to their business demands.

It is true that partners of Asigra get high payouts and profits. There are various partner levels and intensive commission programs. Asigra gives authority to Named Partners. Partner levels include:
• VAR Hybrid Partners – partners can resell software;
• MSP Hybrid Partners – these are able to resell software and manage their own vaults;
• 3D Hybrid Partners – these are given the authority to resell platform, supervise wholesale vault, and improve cloud infrastructure.
Partners can select one or more program to enlist their business plan in.

Asigra software is agentless and is responsible to provide all inclusive cloud backup and storage services for databases, desktops, servers, mobile devices and email. Asigra handles all mobile devices such as Android, iPad, tablets and iPhone. Partners of Asigra can resell data protection services that customers demand for hot databases, virtual servers, email and more.

Managed Service Providers for Cloud Data Backup & Recovery

November 20, 2015 Rob Mackle

In the cloud backup and storage market, Asigra is considered cost effective, resourceful, compliant, secure, and reliable solution. Asigra software was launched in the year 1986 as data backup solution. Service providers, who are interested to provide data backup and storage services to organisations, consider partnering with Asigra to offer a reliable and secure service. Asigra software can be configured to scale up or down; makes data management easy, and offers high tech solutions, with excellent features.

In fact, Asigra cloud backup and recovery software can access the network to prepare backup for applications, operating systems, and file systems by utilising high tech industry recognised standards. Asigra architecture saves time, offers support, and requires a few resources to work. Managed service providers are able to encrypt important data of clients. Asigra is reliable to transmit encrypted data from desktop, repositories, laptop or remote offices without any security threats.

Since Asigra launched its software back in 1986, no hacks has been reported. As a result, there has not been any data loss or breaches. The software allows all kinds of data to be backed up with the help of a digital signature. All important data on disk is based on self-describing format. Asigra software activates certificate of destruction automatically for particular data that is wiped out from the repository. Security procedures are improved through password rotation and password management features. There are options to create new effective passwords that can be changed randomly on regular basis to improve security.

The Continuous Data Protection (CDP) feature of Asigra offers unrestricted granularity. Customers are given advantage to recover data through RPO (Recovery Point Objective). When CDP files are saved by users at computers, backup is made to avoid data loss. Moreover, this software pays attention on any change in target file and brings same changes in backup file as soon as these changes are noticed. In other words, Asigra is dependable backup option, effective for email backup, as well as file system to enhance recovery procedures of critical data.

Benefits of Asigra CDP:
• CDP gives surety that updated data on hard drive is backed up;
• Traditional backups were able to recover data that was backed up only. However, CDP is automatic and it is backed up to the cloud happens as soon as data is saved on the drive;
• CDP offers latest type of data protection system, where record of previous data is also maintained;
• Asigra can optionally make local backups and encrypt the data and backup to a centralised repository. As a result, recovery time objectives and backup window are decreased to a minimum.
Service providers understand the significance of legally compliant Asigra. Automatic disk based solutions are capable to work without human interference. In order to recover important information, backed up data is collected from offsite repositories through private or public cloud.

Asigra’s on-boarding features minimise time needed to go to market as well as operational costs for backup and data recovery. It allows service providers to develop a variety of services along with numerous service level agreements. Through self service option, end users are given chance to create new accounts and integrated vaults. Clients are able to do these tasks without interference of service provider. In short, MSPs that are using Asigra software are able to meet the demands of customers.

How Do You Protect Company Data Found in Laptops?

November 18, 2015 Callum Huddlestone

Portability feature of laptops have given convenience to its users. It is a fact that portability nature of mobile devices has made it easy for bandits to target laptops to make some money or get access to restricted data. It is necessary for laptop users to take some additional precautionary measures to protect their laptop data from loss or theft. Today, most enterprises allow employees to work using laptops and the mobile workforce is growing steadily. These enterprises have an overriding concern to keep their sensitive information safe. Here are some guidelines that will enhance security of your laptop data:

First of all, there must be primary security protocols for laptop to protect data. Use of password, anti-virus software to work against malware, and hard drive encryption are some of the ways to improve security. In addition to malware threats or theft, data loss is possible due to human error. In order to cope with such situations, it is necessary to activate on-going continuous data protection on to a secondary portable drive. To improve security of data, the laptop drive can be partitioned. The removable drive should be stored away from the laptop to prevent simultaneous loss.

Companies should clearly communicate with all of its mobile workers that laptop data must be backed up on a regular basis in to their online repository vaults. Whenever a laptop has made an online connection, an automated alert should be generated reminding the user to backup the data. Easy to use, client based software should be installed. The owner of the laptop should be given access to upload important data online to the remote servers using the client interface. It is important to disclose that user ID and password to access and upload or download data online should not be saved in the laptop itself. It needs to be kept in a secure location, away from the laptop or its case.

To reinforce a secure environment, the company should have a policy to allow data downloads in an emergency situations only. Laptop must only contain data that is related to ongoing tasks. It should not have access to data that is not currently in use. Users of laptop must be given training on how to download data, and they should only keep relevant data on the drive. Unnecessary data must be deleted or removed from the laptop disk. It is necessary to perform laptop data cleaning whenever the laptop is returned back to the company after completing a field trip.

To protect data, laptop users should use private networks only. Usually, open networks are in access at hotel rooms, airports, stations and conference centres. Open networks are not safe for laptop users. It is easy for hackers to connect hacking programs with open network and compromise your data, including emails, password, and all data stored in the laptop.

Laptop users are required to encrypt data before transferring from laptop to office network. Encryption data requires specific key, password or PIN number. In other words, only authorised users, who have the right key have the right to use encrypted data. Moreover, only Virtual Private Network should be used to prevent data loss. If you cannot get access to Virtual Private Network of your company, it is good to use network from reliable service providers. It gives guarantee that all data is fully protected and not in range of other users.