Disaster Recovery as a Service, often abbreviated "DRaaS,” is a designation for cloud-based network recovery options. Today, cloud computing has come to characterize many core aspects of businesses. It’s really no wonder, there are many savings to be had through cloud solutions:

Internal networks can be outsourced (so can the collateral expenses which silhouette them)
Backups can be solidified through the cloud without the need for an on-site backup solution
Businesses conserve expenses in terms of testing, troubleshooting, and repair

More Than a Last Resort

One of the reasons DRaaS is being emphasized in this writing is because many see it as a last resort. What they don’t realize is that within a three to five-year span, it is almost a certainty that they will need to do a full reboot and recovery. Perfect firewalls, total employee education on internet usage, and best practices when using mobile devices, antivirus software, continuous monitoring, and support can’t stop the forces of entropy. True, continuous monitoring can help identify where an issue may arise and deactivate a server or an array of them before the natural breakdown occurs, repair the issue, and then reactivate the affected machines. Even in this situation, the human element is apt to be impugned by natural disaster, natural human error, or steep political upset. In short, while it’s not like playing the lottery, the odds are definitely stacked against you getting through years of continuous operation without experiencing a real crash.

Delta Copies and Compression in Synchronisation

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 13:43:00 +0200

File transfers must be efficient when synchronising files over WAN links. This includes transferring files to cloud providers such as Azure or Amazon AWS. Data sets continue to grow and upload speeds of Internet connections have not always kept up. An efficient file synchronisation application like SureSync is a critical part of your network infrastructure when you have a need to share files between multiple office locations.

The Communications Agent (included in SureSync Pro & Collaboration) offers a number of performance enhancing features that can be used to perform critical file transfers as efficiently as possible. Important features include:

Change Journal Support
When synchronising via UNC path, a folder structure must be completely scanned each time a Job is run to detect change. When scanning over a connection with latency, this scan can significantly slow down processing. With the Communications Agent, the NTFS Change Journal is used to minimise scanning. With the Change Journal, a full scan is not needed each time a Job is run and subfolder scans are used only when optimal. This one feature alone will significantly increase the speed of your synchronisation and replication jobs.

Protecting Your SQL Databases Cost Effectively

Sun, 29 Oct 2017 08:52:00 +0200

SureSync SQL Protection from Software Pursuits provides the most cost-effective and easy-to-use solution for protecting mission critical SQL databases on MS SQL Server or SQL Express.

SureSync SQL Protection allows you to:

Automate SQL backups using SureSync's simple user interface.
You can schedule Full, Incremental & Differential backups of your SQL databases.
With SQL log backups running every few minutes you can have as many near real time copies of your SQL DBs as you like
SureSync SQL Protection can continuously & automatically restore your SQL backups into standby servers to validate backups and speed recovery.
There is no limit to the software to the number of size of databases to backed up.

SureSync SQL Protection is licensed per source server, no matter how many SQL Instances or SQL databases are on that server. There is no license requirement for the target server(s) making this possibly the least expensive near rea- time backup solution for your SQL databases.

Contact Software Pursuits for a free, no obligation 30 day trial.

Regardless of size or experience, all businesses should be conscious regarding cyber security. It has become too big of an issue to ignore as cybercriminals continue to learn new ways to breach even the most sophisticated security solutions. Luckily, there are actionable steps you can take to improve internet safety.

Prevent Cyber Attack

No business is completely shielded from a cyber attack regardless of how new or complex the security software is. Every business must take a proactive stance to defend their customers. Preventing cyber attacks should be a top priority because all it takes is one breach to ruin a company’s reputation.

Businesses that implement a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy must take extra precautions since it can involve multiple types of devices and operating systems. Remote employees must be careful about public WiFi hotspots at establishments such as restaurants, hotels, and airports since not all of them have sufficient security. At one time, businesses could get away with minimal security, but that era is becoming ancient internet history.

Raising Awareness

The solution to preventing attacks is a mix of software, training, and planning with well-envisioned company policies. Modern machine learning software...

High Speed Low Bandwidth File Synchronisation

Sun, 22 Oct 2017 09:12:00 +0200

The SureSync Communications Agent (included in SureSync Pro & Collaboration) offers a number of performance enhancing features that can be used to perform critical file transfers as efficiently as possible. Important features include:

Change Journal Support

When synchronising via UNC path, a folder structure must be completely scanned each time a Job is run to detect change. When scanning over a connection with latency, this scan can significantly slow down processing. With the Communications Agent, the NTFS Change Journal is used to minimize scanning. With the Change Journal, a full scan is not needed each time a Job is run and subfolder scans are used only when optimal. This one feature alone will significantly increase the speed of your synchronisation and replication jobs.

Delta Copies

The SureSync Communications Agent will utilise Microsoft’s Remote Differential Compression (RDC) functionality to copy only the changed portions of a file when replacing a file with...

On-prem & Cloud File Synchronisation for High Availability

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 10:14:00 +0200

Disaster recovery and maintaining availability used to require dedicated hardware that would largely sit idle waiting for network outages, or worse, disasters to occur. Idle infrastructure costs money that is largely wasted. The cloud has been a game changing development in this space for IT teams, enabling a company to rapidly bring up a virtual environment allowing employees access to files and vital information to stay productive. In a disaster scenario, the virtual environment can be connected via site-to-site VPN connections. This allows users in unaffected offices to quickly regain access to critical files and systems.

The cloud for disaster recovery and availability is not without challenges. One of the primary issues is ensuring that your company’s data is present and up-to-date in the cloud. A functional virtualised office without the most recent user data is useless. Transferring files can be a time consuming and an error prone process without an enterprise grade file synchronisation solution. SureSync can quickly and efficiently move your data into the cloud and keep it current in an automated manner.

SureSync’s TCP based Communications Agent provides a number of performance enhancing features for performing high volume file synchronization. To get started, simply install the Communications Agent in a virtual machine in the cloud with adequate storage attached. You have the option to use features such as Remote Differential Compression (RDC) deltas, compression, encryption and Change Journal support to efficiently keep a cloud copy of your critical data available. Data can be moved continuously as files change with a Real-Time Monitor,...

SureSync - Version 8 : Consultancy and Upgrade Offer

Tue, 12 Sep 2017 12:12:00 +0200

Open Seas are offering those customers who are too busy , the opportunity for us to upgrade your SureSync Software on your behalf .

Should this be of interest to you , please contact us on sales@openseas.co.uk for a quotation or if you would like to find out more , please call 01235 537391 .

The benefits of version 8 are listed below .

Ready for More Power?
SureSync Data Protection & Availability Suite version 8 enhances synchronisation performance, simplifies product management and protect important files. Some of the top new features include:

1. TCP Performance Enhancements: The Communications Agent has been enhanced to significantly increase copy performance in environments with higher levels of latency (60+ ms). If you need to move large amounts of data over WAN connections, you will want this performance enhancement right away. In some test situations with 120ms of latency, improvements of copy performance in excess of 150% have been noted.

2. Backup Root Paths: It's a Recycle Bin for a SureSync Job! With a Backup Root Path defined, any time a delete or replace occurs the old version of the file is temporarily stored in the backup root. This includes situations where you choose to resolve multiple updates in a multi-directional Rule automatically by copying the latest.

3. Enhanced E-mail Alerts: Take further control of your e-mail alerts with new filters. Want to receive an e-mail alert only if a path has been offline for 15 minutes or more? Want to send different alerts to different users? All of this (and more) can easily be accomplished with SureSync's new enhanced e-mail alerts.

SureSync Version 8 New Features

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 11:12:00 +0200

New Features in SureSync 8

Take a look at the new features in SureSync and when you are ready to test them out, contact us for a trial for the new v8.

If you do not have time to upgrade your licenses , then we are able to offer on site consultancy to upgrade your licenses , please contact us for further details .

Enhanced TCP Performance: Get better TCP replication & synchronization performance when using v8’s enhanced Communications Agents. Our benchmarks show especially good results across high latency WAN connections.
Alert Enhancements: New alert options allow great flexibility to keep you updated on the information you want to know.
Backup Root Path: The new backup root path feature will allow you to create a "recycle bin” type functionality for SureSync v8. Turning this option on will allow an administrator to recover files deleted or replaced by a SureSync Job. This option can also be used when encountering the "resolve multiple updates” feature in multi-directional Rules. In this case, when the more recent file is selected to replace the other changed file, the file being replaced is retained to be recovered later if necessary. Files are stored for x number of days and then purged.
New Communications Agent Configuration: The Communications Agent Configuration panel has been retired in v8. Users can now view, modify and test agent connections...

10 Ways to Boost Your Service Department Efficiency

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 11:38:00 +0200

10 Ways to Boost Your Service Department Effiency

1. DON’T LET HIGH FUEL COSTS BURN UP YOUR PROFITS.

Driving paperwork back and forth to the customer site can send profits up in smoke. Instead, have your technicians complete work orders in the field, entering data instantly through their laptops or handheld computers. This starts the seamless process of generating invoices right away. You save on technician time and fuel costs while speeding up the billing cycle.

2. SHARE INFORMATION TO WORK SMARTER.

Enter information once into a central database and instantly share it with your sales, service and parts departments and contract administrators. Thereby, you significantly reduce – or even eliminate – repetitive functions to increase productivity.

3. BOOST WORKER PRODUCTIVITY.

Even small efficiency gains from improved dispatch and technician productivity add up to big savings. When dispatchers have up-to-date customer, contract and service information at their fingertips, this allows them both to process calls faster and to ensure more efficient scheduling of technicians.

4. DON’T LET BILLING SLIP.

Invoice every job promptly. The most reliable way to do this is through automated billing. Old-fashioned manual approaches are error-prone, leading to payment delays or even failure to invoice at all. It’s easy to overlook an invoice, especially when the...

Cyber Criminals and Ransomeware

Mon, 12 Jun 2017 10:45:00 +0200

An interesting blog from our colleagues at Idealstor highlighting the challenge we all face re

combating cyber-criminals involved in ransomware attacks . Particulary relevant to us in the UK following the recent attacks on our National Health Service :

Picture the following scenario; you have just embarked on a well-deserved holiday to Austria with your significant other, and are about to check into the luxurious 4 star hotel- Romantik Seehotel Jägerwirt. Minutes after checking in, you learn that you are unable to enter your hotel room. The two of you would like to refresh yourselves before enjoying the beautiful lakeside setting along the Alpine Turracher Hohe Pass. It is winter and is therefore absolutely gorgeous! Regardless, you still cannot enter your room to freshen up and get changed. The hotel management informs you that the key card system isn’t working and that you have been locked out of your hotel room. What’s worse is that there’s nothing they can do about it!

With your frustrations building up and your holiday experience just being ruined, you later find out that the hotel’s modern IT system has been hacked by cyber-criminals and that they were holding it ransom. They had agreed to restore the hotel’s systems if just 1,500 EUR (1,272 GBP) in Bitcoin was paid to them.

What you may have realized by now, is that the scenario being described really did occur. It was all the more real for the furious managing director, Christoph Brandstaetter, who told the press "The hotel was totally booked with 180 guests, we had no other choice. Neither police nor insurance...

Blog

Blockchain, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin for businessess - sage.com

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Disaster Recovery as a Service