Transisioning Legacy Systems to the Cloud

October 17, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

Transitioning legacy systems to the cloud and creating integrated backup scenarios has become simple. Backup Technology Limited (BTL) Cloud Backup and Recovery, powered by Asigra Software, offers a fast alternative, and highly reliable replacement for legacy tape based, remote site backup and recovery system.

BTL’s agentless software with built-in superior security and WAN optimisation protocols realises every data administrator’s dream. Agentless software reduces administrative costs; offers pay-as-you-go scalability; minimises business risks focusing on Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs), and ensures a reliable local and off-site, cloud backup.

BTL supports a wide range of operating systems and databases, such as Windows, UNIX, Netware, Linux, and Oracle. Users acquiring a one-time license have the freedom to backup application specific files from Exchange Servers, Oracle databases, Groupwise or SQL Servers.

Experts

BTL is staffed with experts and professionals, who have many years of experience in backup and recovery industry. The experts deal with all the issues surrounding backup and recovery, including de-duplication, compression, differential or incremental backups, and RPO and RTO.

Seeding

Seeding the initial backup from legacy systems is a long and complicated process. To make the seeding process faster, BTL offers disk drive shipping to the customer or if preferred, seeding can be initiated using the Internet. BTL engineers work with the data owner to ensure that their initial seed process is completed successfully; the data is backed up into the vault with minimal issues. Going forward, future backups are incremental.

Data Centre and Security

All customer data is stored in state of art data centres, with UPS systems, redundant storage networks, and fire suppression systems. BTL’s latest technology sends alerts when any unauthorized person attempts to access the data centre. As an additional layer of security, data is encrypted during flight and rest. Further, data transmission is disk-to-disk, and it is never archived to tape in order to avoid the risk of any data recovery failures or degradation.

Technical Support

Technical personnel are available 24x7x365. BTL’s support team can be contacted via phone for emergency support during holidays and off-office hours. BTL promises to deliver support services as per the pre-defined SLA.

Cost

BTL calculates storage costs based on compressed file sizes, but not on the amount of raw data. Compression can reduce file size by more than 50%, giving you a huge advantage, especially if you have large volumes of data. In addition, BTL offers further discounts for volume and multi-year commitments.

BTL’s cloud backup software is user-friendly, and can be set up easily. To learn more about BTL, please visit www.backup-technology.com

Should you Trust your Data to the Cloud?

October 6, 2016 Damien Garvey

For those who are extremely nervous about entrusting their valuable mission-critical data to strangers over the Internet, Backup Technology Limited (BTL) Cloud Backup is a very reliable option! You can trust your data to BTL professionals without a qualm. BTL has years of experience and a proven track record in data security. The client testimonials and partner stories say it all. If you are still not convinced, here is how BTL works on data security for you.

Your data is secured against access in three ways:

Data is encrypted once at the point of transmission and again at the point of storage. This double encryption makes unauthorised access difficult and even fruitless.
BTL uses superior technology to ensure that your data is backed up quickly and efficiently, and optimally.
Your data is made highly available by replication/mirroring for disaster recovery.

Encryption:

BTL protects data by deploying a 256 bit cryptographic, powered by Asigra, an industry leading cloud backup technology.

The 256 bit cryptographic feature is installed when the BTL software agent is installed on server or computer you want to backup. The installation process prompts the user to input several character strings. The string is then, converted into a 256 bit encryption key and is made available only to the user. It is never transmitted over the Internet and is not stored on the servers of the company. Users are expected to secure this key against deletion and access by unauthorised personnel. Since the data is stored in an encrypted format on the server, the availability of the key is an imperative. Loss of the key implies loss of access to data stored on the servers.

BTL software kick starts when you begin to transmit information over the Internet for secure, encrypted storage on BTL servers. The agent software installed on your computer communicates with the BTL server, using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology that deploys its own encryption protocol. This results in a double encryption of the data you finally store. This technology is similar to the technology that is used by banking companies to secure bank accounts of their customers.

High Availability

BTL ensures that customer data is stored securely for high availability and disaster recovery. They monitor the data centres 24/7 with advanced bio-metrically controlled access. Backup generators and redundant Internet connections are used to ensure that customers are never locked out of the server storage if the encryption key, user name and password are available with them. Files in storage are constantly reviewed for ease of restoration, maintenance of user logs, and optimisation of versioning controls.

Software Features

BTL’s technology backs up data, differentially or incrementally at the block level after the first full backup. Users can configure the software to apply to specific data sets as per company policy or on the basis of the importance of the data. This enables users to backup more files during an available backup window and optimise on storage space. Users can also set BTL Cloud Backup and Recovery solution to backup a number of versions of files for compliance and archiving regulations.

Whether you run a big corporation or a small business or you are an IT service providers, BTL offers a secure cloud based data backup solution, combined with a robust partner program, the efficiencies of full web-based account management, and an industry leading technical support team. Visit: www.backup-technology.com

Accessing your Data from Anywhere, Anytime

October 5, 2016 Sam Broadbent

Due to relatively recent advancements in cloud computing technologies, the age of the truly mobile desktop has finally arrived! Indeed, gone are the days when you would have to remember to store every file you were going to need for a business trip on your laptop in order to know that you were fully prepared, or had to access cumbersome, expensive virtual private networks in order to retrieve your data when you were on the go. Nowadays, your PC can sit safely protected at home or at your place of work while you travel, and be fully accessed, including the browsing of applications like Outlook and QuickBooks, from your smart phone or other mobile digital device!

So, how does one take advantage of this amazing new technology? Well, once you find a cloud storage provider that offers this type of service, all it takes is the quick installation of client application software on both your computer and mobile devices and that’s it; all the files from your desktop computer are now available for access and download to and from your portable digital device using nothing more than a simple web-based interface. In fact, once you are linked up, you will be able to use all your PC’s programs and utilities just as if you were back home sitting in front of your computer!

Mobile desktop access includes the ability to send items from your mobile device to your printer back home, or from your PC’s hard drives to a remote printer located wherever you happen to be. Of course, in addition to being able to modify and see PC’s files from your mobile device, you will also be able to cut, copy and paste items to and from your mobile device and your desktop, effectively doing away with the barrier between your desktop and your mobile digital devices! In addition to this, with any quality mobile desktop application, all potential security concerns are null and void, with all transfers to and from your computer and portable devices using bank grade encryption and remote data only becoming accessible after passing high levels of user authentication procedures.

Unfortunately, however, there are still a few snags that one must potentially overcome to get all of this going, the first of which is the requirement of having a desktop that is Windows based and supports Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol, which can be found on most Windows 7 versions. Secondly, for now at least, one’s mobile device must be either an iPhone or iPad, with plans for extending this service to other sorts of devices coming soon. Finally, not all cloud computing or online data backup companies are providing this high-tech service yet, so finding one that does can sometimes prove to be a bit of a challenge.

This is just one of the reasons that we here at Backup Technology Limited (BTL) are proud to offer our cloud backup services. BTL, powered by Asigra, specialises in being one of the few cloud backup and storage providers globally. It offers clients an easy software that installs quickly and uses application that truly carries with it powerful features for the modern day. Businesses, on the go, take advantage of such solutions as data mobilisation has become very important; keeping you connected to all of your digital assets wherever your business might take you. To find out more about BTL, visit www.backup-technology.com