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ABOUT OPEN SEAS
EFFICACITY We're Open Seas. A technology consulting firm founded on years of industry experience, strategic vision, and an obsessive commitment to customer service.

Open Seas are specialists in business systems from around the world. As a bridge between customers and suppliers, we aim to find the best technical solutions to meet your business needs. We have the ability to offer software that meets your exact requirements, we offer solutions to best fit your needs.
SIMPLICITY No call centres or telephone mazes. Just simple direct access to people who can actually help you. Our network of suppliers and resellers, backed up by our own team of experts and experience, will help to keep your systems up and running.

With 25 years experience, we ensure your software is valuable to your business
- helping improve performance, efficiency, quality, and of course profitability.
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Blog

Blockchain, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin for businessess - sage.com






What is Blockchain and How Does it Work?

 

Blockchain may have an essential role in validating cryptocurrency payments, but it’s potential is far greater. Essentially a digital ledger, blockchain records transactions and stores data in "blocks" which is then linked to previous records using the encryption technique of cryptography.

 

To further improve security, this digital ledger is stored on thousands of computers across the globe simultaneously. As multiple copies exist, it’s impossible to change or alter data once it is entered into the block.

 



Sage guide to blockchain

 

 

Applications of Blockchain

 

The high-level of security provided by blockchain makes it perfect for supporting a whole range of digital platforms - not just cryptocurrency. Today, it’s used to bypass third-parties to create smart contracts, to quickly and cheaply send money internationally and process payments, and even to improve online security by using cryptography rather than passwords to allow individuals’ access.

 

Blockchain also has the potential to improve security for voting, private medical records, and significantly disrupt industries. Over the next few years, it’s expected that blockchain will become mainstream as it’s integrated into more of our digital technology and used by more businesses.

 

Learn more about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin with Sage’s in-depth guide.

Based on a blog article by Stacey McIntosh for Sage looking into the use of cryptocurrencies for 'normal' businesses



Created On  24 Sep 2018 12:15  -  Permalink
7 Comments  

Ease Data Management Flow to Remote Users

Ease Data Management Flow to Remote Users

As network users become more dispersed and mobile, information technology departments face new data management challenges. Many employees have company data on laptops that leave the office with them. These employees have a need to protect data on the laptops and retrieve files from the office easily. Employees work from home or other remote locations and face similar data availability challenges. SureSync Endpoint is a flexible, powerful tool for solving these kinds of challenges.

With Endpoint, a client application is installed on each laptop or remote workstation. These client machines are responsible for downloading relevant tasks ("Jobs”) from the Endpoint server, establishing the connections and performing the necessary synchronization work. This architecture means that firewalls in the remote locations are no longer a concern, but the control of data flow remains on the server side.

If you have the SureSync Desktop installed in your environment, you already have the server piece of Endpoint installed! All you need to get started is a license from our sales team. In the SureSync Desktop, click on the "SureSync Endpoint” tab will load the Endpoint interface.

A single Job and Real-Time Monitor combination in SureSync can process many laptops or workstations. If you wanted to copy current sales price sheets and presentation materials from a server to 50 mobile salesperson laptops, this could be accomplished with a single Job/Monitor. Any configuration changes you make such as modifying file masks automatically apply to all Endpoint machines in the Monitor. This makes managing the environment extremely simple.

With access to the full SureSync rule set, you can accomplish any synchronization task. You could:

  • Configure a one-way Rule to publish data from the server to the Endpoints.
  • Configure a one-way Rule with the Endpoints as the source to backup data to the server. Endpoint provides convenient path variables to separate data on the destination.
  • Configure a multi-way Rule to allow a user to synchronize files back and forth between their server path and their laptop. In this instance, a single Endpoint should have a Job/Monitor combination.

For the administrator, status panels can be used to monitor the current state of Endpoint tasks. The log viewer provides a list of all actions performed by Endpoint, just like with SureSync. Combined with the ability to apply configuration changes to machines in bulk, Endpoint is an ease for the administrator.

Endpoint revolutionizes the process of file synchronization & replication with on-site servers to and from remote laptops and desktop computers. Contact our team today to learn more about how to start utilizing Endpoint in your network environment today!

Created On  24 Apr 2018 10:55 in File SynchronisationSecurity Software  -  Permalink
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Sage Advice for Staying Safe in the Cloud

Some Sage Advice, in every sense, about Cloud Safety, be it Storage and File sharing services or SaaS or IaaS.


Sage Guide to staying safe in the cloud
Reproduced with permission of Sage. Original work credited to Keir Thomas-Bryant.
Created On  10 Apr 2018 15:38 in Backup and StorageSecurity Software  -  Permalink
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Disaster Recovery as a Service

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.

Disaster recovery as a service only needs to totally save your operation one time to pay for itself several times over. Since it’s hosted through the cloud, you do see the likelihood of a diminishing breakdown. Compact Discs, or CDs, have a shelf life of five to 10 years, most of them maxing out around 20. Bumping a hard disk can totally dismantle it. This is one reason solid state drives are increasing in popularity. If you can cut the risks of transportation and entropy through the cloud, why wouldn’t you? Proprietary data. Yet, there are options here, too. Private clouds are available and you could hybridize between a private and public option. If you’re operating a private cloud, you’re the only client on that server array. It’s more expensive but you get the data protection, utility, and speed of the public cloud. You also get the security of an internal solution wrapped in tech support from professionals, whose core directive is to maintain whatever cloud option they’re selling.

Conversely, you could maintain the absolutely delicate data on your own desktop computer, internally housed. The likelihood is, most of your operations are infrastructural to computer involvement. That information isn’t always as sensitive, as many would say. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t.


Idealstor February 2018

Created On  23 Feb 2018 13:28 in Backup and StorageFile Synchronisation  -  Permalink
1 Comments  

Delta Copies and Compression in Synchronisation

Delta Copies and Compression in Synchronisation    

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.

 

Delta Copies
The Communications Agent will utilize Microsoft’s Remote Differential Compression (RDC) functionality to copy only the changed portions of a file when replacing a file with an updated version. Copying only the changes can greatly reduce the amount of bandwidth needed for that file transfer.


Compression 
The Communications Agent can compress the data stream during transmission to further optimise file transmissions. The compression routines will cause the Communications Agent to use some CPU time to process the compression while reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred across slower connections.


SureSync
is a feature rich enterprise grade application designed to make file synchronisation and replication tasks efficient and as easy as possible. The Communications Agent unlocks powerful benefits when transferring files over WAN connections. If you have any questions, please contact the Open Seas team for further details.

Information supplied by Software Pursuits

Created On  29 Nov 2017 13:43 in File SynchronisationSoftware PursuitsBackup and Storage  -  Permalink
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Protecting Your SQL Databases Cost Effectively

Protecting Your SQL Databases Cost Effectively

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.


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Created On  29 Oct 2017 8:52 in File SynchronisationBackup and StorageSoftware Pursuits  -  Permalink
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