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Office 365, now what?

September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Narrative.

I’m finally up and running with Office 365 but before I get a little more technical and describe my process, I think I need to remind everyone why we are looking at cloud technologies. For small businesses there are only two real reasons for cloud technologies:

  1. Simplify and reduce reliance on the ever changing and constant burden of hardware configuration and maintenance.
  2. Accessible tools for presentations and collaboration.

I think it is easy to get caught up in the incessant technology wars between Google, Microsoft, Xfinity, software developers (including app makers), and the vast number of hosting companies, losing sight of primary goals. I constantly harp on defining what you need (make a list if you need to), compared against what is being offered to you as well as ease of use. I realize that cost is a factor but as far as I’m concerned it’s only as a tie breaker or an interim step (be cautious here). I live is a world of serious small businesses, i.e., business consultants, software developers (Apps), voice over IP (VoIP technicians), business intelligence specialists, database engineers, web developers, graphic designers, personal trainers and coaches, web hosts, marketing coaches, WordPress educators, etc. If there is ever an idea about the depleted job market, here in middle America are those individuals trying to carve out their niche in a market place glutted by corporate and government money that doesn’t reach them. (Either because they don’t qualify or refuse to sacrifice their independence for someone else’s goals.) It is to those business people I attempt to address. Further, it those that I encourage to collaborate with, learn from and support each other.

Although there are many different types of online collaboration tools, I think 37 Signals BaseCamp, Google Premier (Google Docs), and Microsoft Office 365 offer the minimum essentials for shared collaboration: integrated email, a shared calendar, and various shared documents. If I were to rate them they would go in ascending order from basic to most integrated. Having said that the remaining question is: What do you need?

In my last post I chose Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Plan P. The key in this plan is the minimum of technical support. The minimum system requirements are Windows XP Service Pack 3 (note: Office 365 also supports Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6 plus MAC Office 2011) and if you wish to integrate with an on premises edition of Office you must have Office 2007 or 2010 installed. Microsoft provides for the downloading of Office 2010 Professional Plus as part of their plan but for those who have problems with the MS licensing scheme this is a bone of contention which I won’t attempt to explore. If you are using Google Docs or 37 Signals Base Camp or Back Pack the whole idea is to be able to work from any location or computer as long as there is an Internet connection. I have Office 2010 installed on my workstations, therefore I’m able to integrate from desktop to cloud as I work with documents whether I’m connected to the Internet or not.

The Technical

The fundamental key for Office 365 Plan P is that for $6/month, a user will need little to no technical support and the support provided is from the Office 365 Community; this is not much different from Google Apps, except not as many videos. If you need technical assistance you need to learn to read carefully and be patient.

August 12-14.

Office 365 is easily functional from trial to setup but if you are a business that operates as an online entity you must make changes to keep using your online domain name (email and website). Given this, the basic setup instructions for Office 365 is to change to the Microsoft domain servers. If you’ve worked with your ISP to setup your website or hosted WordPress site then you are familiar with this process. Feeling comfortable, the setup screen offered explicit instructions on how to make this change in several major ISP’s (GoDaddy, Register.com. Network Solutions), I made my changes before we embarked on a weekend trip. Notwithstanding that these instructions also cautioned that the process could take 72 hours. I was indignant when the process wasn’t completed by Sunday morning; playtime was over and I needed my email functional by Monday morning. Daunted I changed the DNS (domain name servers) records back to my ISP before we left for home and restored email flow through my on premise mail server. Fortuitously, I received an email which pointed me to the following site, Office 365.com: http://www.office365answers.com/AllArticles/ID/2344/Office-365s-P1-Plan-What-you-must-know.aspx. This site gives a good outline of the Office 365 Plan P program which encouraged my scrutiny of the Community site. In short, the bottom line for my efforts was to be patient and review the Office 365 Community site more deliberately.

August 26-29 (Family wedding weekend)

Made the DNS changes Friday evening upon arriving to our destination (Hotel Internet $10/day) but online email (Outlook Web Access) began to flow by bedtime. It took a couple of days before I realized I could not get the Outlook auto configuration to work unless I created a new profile. The P plan has no system for moving former data into Outlook. Hint: Make a PST backup of email, contacts, and calendar and import them into Outlook.

Lync 2010 still not working

As an on premises server administrator I’ve never been fond of “instant message” or “chat” programs because I always saw them as another avenue for introducing viruses into a network. I’ve matured, somewhat, as I’ve been introduced to visual chat in both Facebook and Google+ not to mention Skype on my laptop and mobile phone. Lync 2010 offers online chat and meeting capabilities with a simple setup. Thus, I was somewhat concerned from a functional point that Lync, for my ebonyknight.net domain was not working although all of the DNS configurations appeared to be correct. The Office 365 Community offered numerous options for manually configuring Lync 2010 clients, but after several reinstalls and manual setups my final solution was to unlicense Lync 2010 for my domain user and relicense that user and the Lync auto configuration setup.

In short, Office 365 Plan P is a good offering for professionals and small offices but Microsoft’s assumption that we are all starting from scratch is a bit naïve. Although I still support this option, it is imperative that you plan ahead, be patient, become familiar with the Office 365 Community pages, and be willing to talk to a Microsoft technology professional if you run into problems.

Filed Under: Blog, Office Tools

OK, Let’s move to Office 365!

August 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’m a traditionalist! My view of a networked office always focuses on a server for centralized management supporting a network of 3 or more workstations. The key for me is management centricity for the system, providing centralized shared file access, managed file security, network antivirus monitoring and control, file storage, housing for specialty lines of business software, and centralized scheduled backups. The challenge has always been the cost of centralization including: hardware, implementation, and maintenance. This is the cost of doing business and should be part of any technology plan. Businesses need to always be in control of their business data and that means always being in control of their technology. Control of technology means control of business image, message, and productivity.

 

Recently there has been a lot of push and hype about cloud computing services and a wide range of hosted (cloud based) offerings (Hosted Exchange, SharePoint, etc.).The salient point is to focus on the full time availability of networking/collaboration tools with increased security and productivity while deemphasizing hardware expenditures and maintenance costs. I recognize the practicality of such approaches but also am aware that this could be a threat to my livelihood.

 

My skepticism has always centered on “What if the Internet goes down?” “Where will user data be located?” “Who is in control and can I trust them?” While these questions are still valid, people have been using web based email for some time: AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc., but many business people have become familiar with Google’s Gmail because it initially offered users a more secure email. In addition, Google introduced a number of free web based utilities (Google Apps) which had immediate applied functionality.

 

With anywhere access and increased security in mind we adopted Google Premium Applications for Business. The Briscoe Network Solutions email is managed as a hosted Google business application (Gmail). Although, Gmail is always in conversation view (which I don’t always appreciate), I can access my business email from any location with Internet access; which was my primary requirement along with having email with my business domain name. I set up Google calendar to synchronize with my Outlook calendar but found that I always used my Outlook calendar and the Outlook synchronization with my phone more often. Therefore, I uninstalled my Google/Outlook synchronization tool.

 

My content manager and I also tried working with Google Docs and although she was not too concerned about Word formatting, this is essential for my writing comfort as I acquaint enterprise level productivity to mean professional quality. We both found the sharing option not satisfactory for us; although we were able to set up shared documents we found that we were not always able to edit those shared docs. This was also the experience when I tried to set up maintenance task lists with clients. In short paying $100/yr. for two accounts meets the minimum needs for Briscoe Network Solutions to have a domain name email account which is accessible from anywhere whether I have my laptop or not, but not much else.

 

I was introduced to Office Live and SkyDrive sometime ago and would periodically use it for \short term storage and for document sharing with other tech professionals. Then for months my Live Id would not work on the site; this past fall after Microsoft introduced Office Web Apps my logon problem was resolved. Since November I’ve been working with Office Web Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) and have been quite pleased that the online versions have most of the same functionality as the Office applications already installed on my laptop. More impressive is that I’m able to integrate the desktop applications with the online applications with a minimum of problems. (Don’t forget to manually save no matter which format you are working with.) Plus, sharing documents for review and editing has been easy with no major problems. With this feeling of comfort, should Ebony Knight, Inc. (our parent company) move its network utilities online to Office 365?

 

Why? As already mentioned my focus is on small businesses and I think I should drink the “Kool-Aide” I promote and support. The Ebony Knight, Inc. domain is managed by a four year old custom made server running MS Small Business Server 2008, which hosts Exchange 2007 for email and SharePoint 3.0. In addition, we host Sophos Antivirus with Pure Message for spam filtering. Further, we filer all mail through a “smart host”, Reflexion, which filters spam and virus infected emails. I don’t plan to remove our server because I’m still committed to an on premises storage, file security, and backup but my primary utilities are email and the office suite of productivity tools. How about you?

 

My questions at this point:

 

  1. How simple is the mailbox transfer from Exchange 2007 to hosted Exchange?
  2. Will hosted Exchange provide the spam and virus filtering that I’ve become accustomed to?
  3. Will document management and collaboration (sharing) remain as convenient as with SkyDrive?
  4. Will setting up hosted SharePoint easily allow for remote user access?

 

There are a number of steps for setting my Email to function with Office 365 but I’ll report more on our transference later…

Filed Under: Blog, Office Tools, Online Tools

Getting started with SharePoint: Creating a vacation calendar

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Imagine my surprise when I visited one of my clients this past week to discover that they had created a staff vacation calendar. They have been using Small Business Server 2003 and now 2008 for about five years and had resisted any suggestion that they look at SharePoint. I had envisioned them using SP as a document repository, or “library” to house a number of business related books and document in PDF format that are currently accessed via CDs. Needless to say this fell on deaf ears; but the calendar is a hit. Well maybe you don’t need a document library or business knowledge base but how about trying calendar? The following two videos demonstrate how to set up a calendar in SharePoint. Keep in mind that SharePoint items can be set to integrate with your desktop Outlook.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tools, Office Tools, Sharepoint Tagged With: , , ,

Now is the time for Windows 7

September 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been using Windows 7 for over a year at this point and after Vista have been quite pleased. Standard practice for many independent IT pros has been to recommend delaying installing new operating systems until many of the kinks had been worked out. In addition, Windows XP does not have a natural migration path to Windows 7, i.e. clean install. My recommendation was for businesses to wait and replace existing Windows XP computers with new Windows 7 machines; but that was last year. What are we doing now?

Recently, I received several requests inquiring about the cost associated with “upgrading” Windows XP workstations to Windows 7. Well, my hourly rates stay fairly standard depending on the tasks but more importantly: Who am I talking to, what kind of business are we talking about, and what is the condition of the workstations and network? I understand the reluctance to exchange information with a stranger but I don’t proceed unless we can meet and those questions are answered. Given my position I thought I’d take the time to outline several issues about installing Windows 7 Business edition.

First off, if you are a business please purchase Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate for your network. These versions allow for more network flexibility and improved network functionality, printing, and security. Yes, I know Costco, Best Buy, and Fry’s have good deals on various home versions on new computers but purchasing the appropriate version saves us all potential problems down the road when you decide to grow your network or install a server to your network. More specifically, let me highlight a few issues that need to be considered before you consider moving to Windows 7 (32 or 64 bit):

  1. There is no Windows 7 upgrade path for the following operating systems:
    1. Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP, Windows Vista® RTM, Windows Vista Starter, Windows 7 M3, Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 RC, or Windows 7 IDS.
    2. Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2.
  2. Supported upgrade paths:
From Windows Vista (SP1, SP2) Upgrade to Windows 7
Business Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate
Enterprise Enterprise
Home Basic Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate
Home Premium Home Premium, Ultimate
Ultimate Ultimate

  1. Is your current computer hardware adequate to run Windows 7? I know that your computer is labeled Vista compatible but will all Windows 7 features work? Take time to explore the Windows 7 system requirements. Better yet Microsoft has supplied a tool, Windows 7 Upgrade Advisory tool, this can save you research time and point out hardware limitations and possible hardware upgrades if necessary.
  2. Included in the hardware requirements is driver support for network adapters and video cards. The advisory tool should inform you of this factor but if there is any doubt, check with the hardware vendor and download the appropriate driver before you begin you upgrade or installation. Believe me this will save you quite a lot of time and hassle.
  3. Whether you upgrade or perform a clean install, check to make sure that your favorite line of business software and other applications will work with Windows 7. This is particularly important if you move from 32 to 64 bit hardware. In addition to going to the vendor support website, use your favorite search engine, explore the experiences of other users, and call the vendor if there is any doubt. There is nothing more sad than listening to a client who has their major database in dos, Excel 2000, or FoxPro but doesn’t realize this until they upgraded their entire network and all of their business is dependent on this software. Do you buy the upgrade version of your software; migrate the database to new software; have new software built or start from scratch and manually re-input a lifetime of customer and inventory information?
  4. Whether you are doing a clean install or an upgrade it is essential that you backup your data before you begin. Note: backup will include all of your documents and data but not applications (programs). Also note, that Windows XP backup is not compatible with Windows 7. If you use third party backup tools make sure they are compatible with Windows 7. To facilitate the backup of data prior to moving to Windows 7, Microsoft provides the “Easy Transfer Tool”.
  5. For more complete information about “Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7“, see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7.

I’ll talk about early adoption later but from here on out as businesses purchase new computers or look to upgrade their networks, Windows 7 is going to be the operating system of choice. Fear of change should not be a guideline as you move forward but advance planning should be your mantra.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tools, Microsoft, Network Assessment, Operating Systems, Windows 7 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Has your antivirus subscription expired?

June 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Security for computer networks comes in many forms.Often the most troublesome and frequently encountered are malware infections (viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, etc.). Unfortunately, during my initial meetings with prospective clients I still find workstations with expired antivirus software or no protection at all. Malware, like hard drive failures, can make workstations inoperable but all data can also be lost. Many techs will only work so long on resolving infections before they suggest reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system. Maybe they are just giving up but if you are being paid by the hour, it is the better part of valor to start from scratch rather than keep charging your customer for a server when you don’t have or know the solution. On the other hand, there are technology firms that focus solely on virus eradication (at all costs) and data recovery, but be prepared to pay the price if you absolutely need your workstation and data intact. This might be a time to lecture about hard drive backups or imaging but that is not a good method for establishing a good working relationship.

In this day and age of growing security needs, the list of old and new malware removal companies is never ending so there is never a reason for a person to be without virus protection. Professionally, I don’t recommend free antivirus solutions (I don’t scold my mother-in-law for using AVG Free Edition) because most free versions of software offer no support or are only limited (restricted) versions. The most popular free antivirus programs are AVG Free Edition, Comodo Internet Security, and Avast Free AntiVirus. One exception to the premise, that free software provides no support or is a restricted version of the paid client, is Microsoft’s Security Essentials, http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/. Microsoft offers this antivirus client for standalone computers with support and the promise of offering a good stable product; if you are looking for an antivirus client this might be worth a try. If you are looking for these and other free or trial antivirus and other downloadable utilities, I suggest becoming familiar with CNET’s Download.com which offers a vast array of spyware free/trial utilities to try. In addition, CNET offers several good spyware removal tools including: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware Free Anti-Malware, and SuperAntispyware Free Edition.

Last note: Often, I’m asked to define the difference from viruses, spyware, Trojans, and other malware. I don’t always make a true distinction between the various types of malware other than, “Do I have a tool to remove it quickly to minimize client down time?” Sophos has published a paper, “A to Z of Computer Security Threats”, which gives a good definition of the various malware types which you may find interesting. For your convenience, we have posted the PDF file on our SkyDrive site for you to download. In addition, I’ve also included Trend Micro’s white paper on understanding and protecting against Fake (hoax) Antivirus infections.

Filed Under: Anti Virus, Maintenance, Network Maintenance Tagged With: , , , , ,

Robert Crane: Basics of SharePoint Video

June 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Collaboration is the key to effective business use of the Internet. There are numerous tools both general and specific for business; Microsoft SharePoint is one such business tool.  We believe that SharePoint is a good tool for small business owners but recognize that before it is widely accepted more business owners need to understand how to use this tool.  Thus we present Robert Crane, a noted SharePoint expert who focuses on the Small Business market; recently he released a full version on his presentation on the basics of using SharePoint.  We are adding it to our library of SharePoint presentations. This video and other videos in our library will give you a good orientation on how to use SharePoint.

Basics of using SharePoint

View more videos from Robert Crane.
Filed Under: Business Tools, Office Tools, Sharepoint Tagged With: , , , , ,

Online Backup Vendors: Major Players Lists

March 25, 2010 By 1 Comment

In preparation for my last article on online backup, I asked some of my peers what online backup tools they preferred; my intent was to compile a list of most favored by local small business IT support professionals. In true tech fashion I got two suggestions: a reference to other lists and a question regarding capabilities. As I reviewed the lists I was well aware that I was looking for options other than iBackup, which I directly resell, and BackupRX, which I like but thought was priced higher than I thought reasonable for my client base. For you, the consumer, it’s more than likely relevant that I note why IT pros support/partner/resell for a particular vendor(s):

  1. Establishing a secondary source of income is self-evident: It’s simply a good business practice to offer additional value above and beyond IT support.
  2. Familiarity with utilities that a service provider deploys from site to site simplifies and standardizes the support process: using familiar tools eases installation and support maintenance, thus saving time and costs to the client. Further, this standardization makes troubleshooting more efficient site to site over time.
  3. The more familiar a vendor becomes with a reseller the better the vendor technical support when needed.

With that in mind, here is the current online backup matrix I give to clients: (Please note entries marked in red are noted to be most popular for home use.)

Company Service Link Cost: $/Gb/Mo Contact Comment
Ibackup* Online Backup and Storage https://www.ibackup.com/p=briscoe_network_solutions $9.95/10GB 1-800-949-355/Reseller Includes server, PC’s, Linux, Exchange, SQL and Mac’s
Carbonite* Online Backup for Your Small Business http://www.carbonitepro.com/ $10/20GB 1-866-596-7988 SQL and Exchange? No Mac or Linux support
Mozy Pro* Mozy Home and Business backup http://mozy.com/pro
 •Desktop Licenses: $3.95 + $0.50/GB
•Server Licenses: $6.95 + $0.50/GB		 877.669.9776/Reseller Includes server, PC’s, Exchange, SQL and Mac’s
BackupRx* Online Backup Manager http://www.backuprx.com/ $98/20 GB/Annual Reseller Total backup and storage solutions for business offices
Intronis* Online Backup and Recovery http://www.intronis.com/download/index.php Reseller Online/reseller I’m currently testing
Most popular for home computer use
* Offer free trial.

I don’t mean to imply that my list is the best or most exclusive, but merely that these are the products that I will install or set up trials for my customers. There are other lists which you may find more to your liking:

My take is online backup is a good resource for easy backups, quick file recovery, and disaster recovery. That said, I still like to have physical backups for full or bare metal restores. Take your time, do a little research, and you’ll be sure to find a backup that fits both your needs and your budget.

Filed Under: Backup and Security, Backup Software, Maintenance Plans, Online Tools Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Are Cyber Criminals Stealing from You?

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

How redundant can we be regarding safe Internet communicating and web browsing? As much as we preach maintenance, I’ve noticed that in the current year all of our clients have had at least one malware infected computer; granted, most of those infected machines have been laptops which are used out of the office but no one environment has been safe from infection. Quite often I’m asked what spammers, hackers, and other malcontents hope to gain. In the old days, the purpose was a tech arrogance and a sense of dominance and destruction, you know, striking out against Microsoft and the corporate world. At some level we seemed to put up with cyber vandals and their ilk but so much for computer bad boys and girls. That complacency has opened the doors for cyber criminals who seek to steal your personal information: i.e., social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account information, and passwords. This criminal assault has increased not only with spam and infected websites but also with instant message programs and social network sites, not to mention file sharing sites.

More specifically, recently I was discussing this matter with John Joynt, Manager of Data Network Services for NPower, a non-profit organization which provides technology support to non-profits in this area. He related a story of one of their long time clients, Evergreen Children’s Association, which had $30,000 removed from their checking account. Please read the full story in the NPower Blog, http://community.npowerseattle.org/npowering/cyber-theft-p1/. Better yet please review the NPower blog periodically about security and tech tips. In addition to the story, John turned me on to a couple of security sites that you might find helpful:

On the other hand, you know that there is danger out there and you work at being careful. Yet you still get infected, so what do you do? At this point your existing antivirus didn’t catch the culprit in time and you need to run a removal tool. I’ve found the following utilities helpful most of the time:

Free removal utilities

Free Antivirus Utilities

Online Scanners

No system is immune to pirates and scalawags but I think these tools can help. Download a tool of your choice and run a scan on your system. If you are infected, restart your computer in “Safe Mode with Networking”, disable “system restore”, update the tool of your choice, and run a scan. If your system is clean, restart in normal mode and run a second scan or two; if you are still clean, enable “system restore”. If you can’t restart in “safe mode” or install or update the removal definitions on your removal utility, either find a tech who will spend the time to find a way to remove the infection or, best yet, reformat your hard drive and reinstall. Find your re-installation media now and backup or image your computer tonight.

Filed Under: Anti Virus, CyberCrime, Malware Software, Network Security, Online Tools Tagged With: , , , , ,

Word 2007 Blogging Tip!

March 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When we started this blog our intent was to provide a resource for small business owners, managers, and staff that would simplify their use of technology from a layperson’s perspective. Meaning, we look to define useful small business technology, provide examples or demonstrations, and “How to’s…”

Currently, I’m in the process of creating a demonstration SharePoint site to not only demonstrate SharePoint but also to aid people wanting to explore the online tools of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Services: “Microsoft Online Services gives your business the powerful productivity capabilities of Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting —all hosted online and all up and running quickly and easily without the upfront costs of an on-premises deployment”.

In the process I discovered that the Word 2007 blogging tool can directly upload your blog by posting into your blogging client. I hate struggling with formatting in blogging software when I copy and paste notes from Word. Admittedly, most open source software include a tool for inserting Word formatted text, but this is not always a smooth transition; often, this can require editing the html code to correct spacing, insert bullets, bold text, etc.

Well, some of us don’t write html (me) and have to either publish as is, quit the project, or find someone who can edit the html for you (both Chris and Corey write html while I whine). To make a long story short, this blog posting was directly uploaded from Word 2007 to my Word Press site. If this is something that you are interested in doing take a look at these two sites:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101640211033.aspx?pid=CH100626141033

http://blogs.msdn.com/joe_friend/archive/2006/05/12/595963.aspx.

Filed Under: Blog, Office Tools Tagged With: , , , ,

Are online backups a maintenance solution?

February 20, 2010 By 1 Comment

Recently, I had a new client inquire about using online backup as an additional level of redundancy to protect their data.  My quick response was I’d compile a list for them to review and make an informed decision. Later, I thought about what considerations go into an informed decision: Storage space? Ease of configuration? Cost per MB/GB? Level of tech support?  Below is a list of criteria that I use when reviewing not just backup providers but all software purchases and deployment.

Why online backups?

  1. Hardware and media fail: (external drives, tape, CD’s, flash drives, etc.). If not now, they will sometime in the future. Or you will outgrow the capacity of your media.
  2. Set it and forget it!: No matter what people tell me, as I talk to “solo-preneurs” and small business owners about backup, remembering to schedule backups or change backup media can be a problem.  Online backup resolves both of those issues.  With online backups scheduled and no media (tapes, CD’s, external hard drives, etc.), the computer needs only to be turned on.  Let me repeat that, “With online backups scheduled and no media, the computer needs only to be turned on”!  If this is still a problem, some online backup programs will do real-time backups.
  3. Disaster recovery: One of the primary business concerns after hurricane Katrina was how fast a business could get back in action after so much devastation and loss.  We know that with a total loss of all business data, customer lists, inventories, etc., many businesses are unable to recover and rebuild.  They don’t fail; they die. Data stored in the “cloud”, i.e. online, ensures that business records are not lost, giving businesses a running start to resume.  A disaster plan combining either cloud-based applications or backup images for bare metal restore, can mean the difference for a business in a crisis situation being back in operation within days or in some cases hours.
  4. Redundancy: I like using both physical backups, images, and online backups to provide continuous updating of business data because business disasters can come quickly and in many forms, ranging from server failures, fires, floods, or theft.  With imaging, a server now can be physically rebuilt in a matter of hours as opposed to days with online restores providing additional data as needed.

Considerations

  1. Internet Failure: In my most paranoid moments I fear that the Internet will be inaccessible, in which case all Internet-based computing solutions will be unavailable.  Many assure me that in this day and age the Internet back bone is most stable and secure.  Most disaster preparation plans call for three days self-sufficiency while local and governmental disaster response teams evaluate the overall situation.  I suggest that telephone, electrical, water, waste, and Internet services could be affected during that time period as well.
  2. Availability and Security: There are two issues concerning database storage: What level of redundancy has the vendor built into their system and where are the data stored? Online backup requires data storage centers that house servers; there must be a system for duplicating the same data between centers and facilitate seamless user access from one or more centers at the same time.Consideration needs to be given as to where those data centers are located and whose data is stored next to yours.  On an international scale, various countries have grave concerns if their data are stored in or near an enemy nation and there has been some concern about the physical security of storage facilities located at sea.  You might be concerned if your competitor’s data is stored next to yours or whether the storage facility’s level of encryption complies with HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, or other security requirements.
  3. Latency: The time needed to upload large amounts of data can actually take days for a complete backup.  This latency is adequate for disaster recovery to ensure no data is lost but the time delay is not suitable for the complete rebuilding of a physical server.  To compensate some vendors will allow users to send physical copies of data to resolve the time needed for a complete backup or some vendors will send (next day express) a physical copy of backup data if a complete rebuild of a server is needed.

BNS Online backup criteria:

  1. Simplicity/User interface: My primary concerns are
    • How easy is the backup agent (program) to install?
    • How much space does it takes up on the hard drive?
    • How easy is it to configure and schedule a backup?
    • What is the performance impact on computer (Does it slow down your computer?); this is particularly true for real time backups?
    • Many online backup services have a risk free trial period which I recommend as a way to answer these initial questions.
  2. Storage capacity and cost: Online backup/storage services operate on a subscription basis with a monthly charge based on the amount of storage, usually with a base minimum of 5 -10 GB.  The introductory minimum is always quite inviting from a cost point of view but be clear about how much data needs to be backed up. The more data you store, the more expensive; not to mention the amount of time to complete the initial backup.
  3. What needs to be backed up?: SQL? Exchange? Laptop? For businesses that need to back up database files, the mail server, specialty business applications, Linux files, or Mac computers: make sure that the vendor’s software for backup and data restore is adequate for your use.
  4. Vendor reliability: comes in two forms:  Does the company have a good reputation? Find out not only how long they have been in business, but also look at their list awards and articles related to their success.  Read those articles not just for accolades! Quite often those articles will also provide a comparison with other service providers as well as “pros” and “cons”.The second level of provider reliability is availability or up time:  Do they make a statement or offer a “service level” guarantee of availability, i.e. 99.5% up time?  Do they have a plan for up time following a natural disaster?
  5. Technical support: There are many players in the online backup/storage business. Besides the mentioned criteria, I make a pre-sales call to technical support to see how responsive, friendly, and helpful the company is.  As Americans we make jokes about talking to tech support from India or the Philippines.  Putting our prejudices aside, if you can’t understand the person, the response time is slow, or the tech support person doesn’t have a clue about the product (reading from a script); what is your first impression?  The bottom line is: no matter what the price, can you depend on this company to protect the storage of your data?
Filed Under: Backup and Security, Backup Software, Maintenance Plans Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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