Tag Archives: Backup Technology (BTL)

Finding the Balance Between Value and Cost of Data Protection

September 4, 2016 Callum Huddlestone

The need to align value to cost of data protection is not new. What is new is the pressure for data protection in cost effective ways. The emergence of cloud computing is largely responsible for increasing pressures and redefining ways in which data can be protected.

IT administrators in charge of Information governance strategies in the cloud must:

Streamline processes;
Reduce costs and risks;
Leverage information effectively, and;
Evolve effective information delivery protocols.

IT Administrators migrating data to cloud storage servers, begin by assessing the available backup and archiving infrastructures in use and match it with policies and processes to arrive at an understanding of what needs to be done. They prepare a recovery service catalogue that aligns business needs to backup and archive solutions. This leads to the creation of high level architectures for the environment and development of business cases for illustrating current and projected costs, estimated savings and firm recommendations to the management for investing in cloud based backup infrastructures.

Therefore, cloud solution architectures that align value to cost of data protection, are considered to be critical to business processes and decisions that impact organisation growth, risk and profitability. Information optimised cloud backup and storage solutions are built around concepts of appropriate infrastructure, data management and data delivery. Tiered storage and information centric data storage solutions and services that pan across heterogeneous environments are desired for driving down costs and aligning value of data to protection of data. In short, the cloud platform is viewed as a means for storage managers to logically transmit data to secure storage tiers for matching information attributes, establishing enterprise wide business continuity and managing data stores from a central location with user-friendly application interfaces.

Businesses need to take care of their information assets in cost effective ways. Forward-looking organisations take this stewardship seriously and ensure quality, compliance and information protection in the cloud. The cost of data protection is rightly aligned with data protection as they appreciate that data breaches are expensive in terms of reputation, brand image, customer satisfaction and litigation under the different regulations that govern the enterprise. They leverage the best practises of the cloud to meet industry standards and data security objectives. They create value based information governance objectives that clarifies individual roles and responsibilities and provides necessary guidelines for effective management of information in the cloud across the enterprise.

Backup Technology Limited is proud to provide a value-cost balanced cloud backup services to small and large enterprises globally. Why not give our services a try? Contact BTL for more details — www.Backup-Technology.com

Increasing Backup and Storage Capacity of Mobility Drives

December 18, 2015 Callum Huddlestone

The production and development of variety of mobile devices has given many benefits to businesses. From multinational companies having offices in different regions to local entrepreneurs, who visit clients on individual basis — mobility has become trendy; and has contributed to drastic changes in the way we do business.

Smartphone, tablets and laptops are the most compact devices that are designed to work regardless of time and location. These devices have full-time connectivity feature that is why the consumers remain always in contact just by pressing a single button. It is true, the mobility of these devices is highly beneficial, but it requires an effective storage solution for data protection and backup.

Mobile devices offer limited storage. This can be problematic when users need to keep bulk of data. While working through multiple devices, users need to get access to required documentation and information from all devices with synchronised and consolidated content. Similarly, the consumers have preference to have access and share content irrespective of location. Contrarily, the mobile devices are fragile and susceptible to theft, which means you must have a reliable system for data backup and protection.

One of the easiest ways to overcome such issue is to use Direct Attached Storage (DAS) which is also known as external hard drive. It is considered reasonably priced option when customers need to increase storage capacity and an effective way out for backup. Portable solutions are mostly used for desktops. There are other solutions that need automatic software for backup. Instead of saving data manually, the process is carried out by automatic software.

Today’s world is interconnected, therefore, cannot rely on basic DAS solutions for data backup and data storage. Most of the users demand centralised system so that they get access to files and share instantly from remote places. It is the reason why people have selected cloud solutions. As compared to DAS drive, data can be easily accessed through tablets, Smartphone and laptops. Having data in a central location is very convenient and allows sorting out the contents by required folders to use or share the information.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) is an alternative that is perfect for small and medium sized businesses. In the past, NAS solutions were only suitable for large enterprises, however, as storage costs dropped, NAS have been rolled out to small and medium businesses and consumers at reasonable rates. NAS systems come with many hard drive bays that fulfil the storage needs of any business. Bays can be customised to accept up to 24 TB or more. Furthermore, it is possible to configure NAS solutions in various formats such as RAID that gives more redundancy and data protection. File access and sharing level is also enabled by functionality of file server.

As the need to use storage solutions is growing significantly, resellers are in favourable position to offer their services. For instance, NAS solution is provided to customers who need consolidated and centralised storage. Moreover, this solution gives data sharing and data redundancy. NAS solution is best for customers who need bulk of storage like, photographers. On the other hand, DAS solutions can be selected by laptop users.

Whichever option you decide to use to backup your data, it is important to note that while on premises backup is better than no backup at all, it is best to backup your data using a cloud backup solution. Backup Technology is here.

iomart and BTL accredited for UK Government G-Cloud 6

February 3, 2015 Press Release

3 February 2015.

Protect more than 100TB of data for public sector organisations.

Backup Technology (BTL) and parent company iomart (AIM:IOM), one of the UK and Europe’s leading cloud companies, have been awarded places on G-Cloud 6, the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace.

BTL has been accredited as a provider of Specialist Cloud Services which covers a wide range of services including: cloud strategy and implementation; the set up and management of service structures and data transfer between providers. BTL has been on G Cloud since it was first created by the UK Government to make buying cloud services easier for the public sector and to open up competition for contracts to SMEs.

iomart has been accredited to supply Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS); Platform as a Service (PaaS); Software as a Service (SaaS); and Specialist Cloud Services. Among the services it offers are: vCloud and vCloud IaaS – self-managed and hosted virtual infrastructure services based on a VMware vCloud environment; Desktop as a Service; Hosted Exchange and Storage; Business Mail plus Mail and Web Filtering; File Sync and Share; and Advanced DDoS Protection using Arbor Network’s Peakflow solution.

In total iomart and BTL now protect more than 100TBs of data for public sector organisations including the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, two councils in Northern Ireland, and Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS), one of the largest county fire services in the UK.

Jan Swanwick, Head of ICT for Essex County Fire & Rescue Service, explains, “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.”

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart, says, “For public sector organisations the benefits of procuring services through G Cloud are manifest because they don’t have to go through costly and time-intensive due diligence on potential service providers. Cloud services can be bought off-the-shelf quickly and easily because the background checks have already been done.”