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A list of news items pertaining to GBData

Free Online Backup

July 3, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment

Free Online Backup

Get your attention?

You never get something for nothing, right?  Wrong!

Here at GBData we offer every potential client a free 30 day trail account, during which you can backup up to 80G of data.  This trial uses the full working software, and is not cut back in any way.  The trial is absolutely free all we ask is your name and email address, not to much to ask, is it?!  To try it all you need to go is go here and enter these details, after which you will be redirected to the download page, and from here you can download the correct software for your operating system.  Install it with our famous no hassle 3 minute install, and you can then sit back, content that your business data is being protected by the professionals.

If at the end of the free trial you do not wish to continue on to a paid scheme, then that is fine, your data limit will be automatically reduced to 500M, and you may continue to use this service free of charge, for ever.  We mean this, we will never charge you for this service, it is free to use, to continue to protect your essential data, and this includes free software updates too!.  How and why do we offer this free online or remote backup software?   We believe in putting something back into the business community, and this is part of this.

Filed Under: About GBData

Have you tested your backup solution?

June 25, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment

It sounds obvious, but over 85% of businesses have not tested their backup solution by restoring and checking their backed up data, in the last 6 months.  There can be all sorts of reasons, from a new folder or data structure not being added to the list to be backed up, to administrator passwords being changed, and the backup software not also being updated.  These are common mistakes we see every day, but are not obvious unless you actually run a check by trying to restore the data, and checking it is complete and verified.

  • It is a fact that backup tapes fail when restoring, and if the media is over a year old, well!  If you have to use a backup tape, please do follow the guidelines listed here:  Gartner and Storage Magazine reported that 34% of companies, who backup their data to tape, never test their backups. They went on to say that 77% of those companies, who did test their backups, found backup failures.  If these figures transfer across then 77% of users that do check their data also get failures, but accept them?!!!
  • It is also a fact that DVD’s and CD’s that you burn yourself, have a much shorter life than you might believe.  If you have to use this media, do not use CD-RW or DVD-RW, use one only CD-R and DVD-R, it is proven that the re-writeable disks have a significantly shorter life.
  • It is a fact that if you simply copy your company data to an external hard drive, you are most probably breaking the data protection act!
  • 7 out of 10 firms that experience a significant data loss that cannot be restored, go out of business within a year.

In fact most forms of backup away from GBData, have very serious down sides.  GBData remote backup software on the other hand, is able to offer a Hybrid/combined on-site/off site solution that takes this problem away.  It checks your data both as it is transferred to our servers, and again every week on our servers.  However, do please try a restore on a regular basis, because of the problems listed at the start of this article, new folders, passwords etc can cause problems.

If you really believe that your backups are sound, would you be comforable erasing everything on your hard drive right now, and restoring it from backups?

Filed Under: About GBData, Computer Data

Hybrid Online Backup

June 22, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment


As a small to medium sized business (SMB) grows and its technology investment evolves one of the biggest challenges for that business is how to protect its growing IT infrastructure. While there is a wide array of options available, Hybrid Backup for the SMB is a solution that allows for a simple installation and allows the SMB to get back to focusing on the business while at the same time knowing that its data is safe, secure and available.

The SMB is a unique segment of the market for data protection and one that has been traditionally under-served. The SMB typically does not have a dedicated IT staff or if it does it is a very small one, often one person, wearing many hats. They often have a very close relationship with an IT consultant or reseller that is intimately involved in the technology decisions in the business. They have limited access to an off-site storage facility in the case of a disaster yet are often the most at risk if a disaster does occur. Another factor unique to the SMB market is that most, especially those started in the last five to six years, are almost 100% dependent on technology to operate. In many cases – unlike older businesses – there simply is no manual workaround to conduct business. The
technology must stay up and running, and downtime literally stops the business. As a result recovery of even a few hours or worse waiting a day for a new server to be brought in can be very costly. Ironically SMBs may be more time sensitive to recovery than even the largest enterprise data centre, and the costs incurred by not being able to do business are felt more directly because of its smaller size. Finally, the SMB must focus on the business, not on technology, so the solutions selected must be simple, reliable and cost effective.
Traditional On-Premise Backup
Traditional on-site backup solutions are lacking when trying to address the above challenges and requirements. Either these solutions for the SMB are typically enhanced consumer user backup applications or they are scaled down enterprise backup applications. In the first case, the backup application provides only  limited functionality and does not typically provide protection for applications that might be in use at the time of the backup. In the second case, scaled down enterprise applications are too complicated and require too much attention to be appropriate in the “business first” mentality of the SMB. In both cases, the on- premise applications do not address the need to move the SMB’s data to a secure offsite facility so it can be protected if a disaster occurs. Disk backup, for example, is a very common backup method for the SMB. Many SMB’s entire data set can fit on one or a few hard drives.

The challenge with disk backup is removing the data from the facility; as a result, the backup is often left in the building sitting right next to the server. Not only is this data not secure from a disaster, it often does not provide much capability for a historical type of
recovery. For example: it’s tax time, you need to look at a spreadsheet or database as it appeared last year, and for some reason that version of the file is no longer available on your active hard disk. With many disk-to-disk-only solutions, your ability to go back more than a few weeks in time to recover data is limited. On-premise solutions often use agents, small software applications that send data to the backup server or device. These agents can be expensive and can cause stability issues with some servers. They can cause problems in any size business. The agile and often fast growing nature of an SMB means that servers are added or can change very quickly, and having to install and test agents for compatibility is something with which the business would rather not deal. Additionally a company has to be careful that it does not break the rules of the  data protection action by copying data to another media, that is then accessible without a password.

Off-Site Backup (Remote or online backup)
This style of backup encrypts your data, and compresses it before sending it to secure servers via the internet. Online backup was developed to address many of the issues that on-premise backup faces. This service has a high degree of safety built into it, by securely storing your data at a remote location. It is important to note that most online backup solutions that offer an SMB option are exactly that: an option. Most online backup solutions started with the home user or consumer as their primary customer and for the smallest of SMBs, the one-man show, this was initially fine. As the business grows, the SMB needs more. And while some of these consumer offerings have added a “pro” or business option, they for the most part have merely amounted to more storage space. When a server needs to be completely recovered, ALL of its data either needs to be slowly restored across the Internet, which could take days, or your data can be downloded to a DVD or mobile hard drive and couriered to you. When a server fails and the business grinds to a halt is when you need recovery to be simple and fast. It is not the time for having to go through special steps or procedures, or worse, waiting for the UPS delivery person so you can bring your business back online.
Hybrid Backup for SMB’s
This is a combination of the two previous methods, combining the best of both.  With this method your data is still encrypted and compressed, but as well as being transmitted to secure off site storage, a local copy is also created, normally on an external hard drive.  Because the data has been encrypted, the rules of the data protection act or followed. GBData software allows you to operate in Hybrid mode, by simply adding an external hard drive, and making a small change in the software configuration. In most cases when disaster strikes, what needs to be restored is the most recent copy of data and typically all or the large majority of that data needs to be restored. Restores that are months or even years old are not typically the result of a server rebuild need, they are in response to a specific request – an accidentally deleted file or audit for example, and as such are typically small in size nor do they have the time pressures associated with a server failure. As a result retrieving these from the GBData servers is more than fast enough. Using this method you get the security of your data being stored in a hardened off site location built for the job, as well as a local copy, that should the internet fail, will still allow you to retrieve your data. SMBs are focused on their business, and while many leverage and are dependent on technology they don’t have the time or desire to be technology experts. For them technology is a tool; they do not want it to become a hobby. As a result, many small businesses outsource their IT services or at least rely heavily on an IT reseller to help with supporting their technology investments. Interestingly, many small backup applications and almost all online backup applications exclude these valuable assets from the process. GBData Hybrid Backup for the SMB addresses the shortcomings in both on-premise backups as well as online backups. It provides a simple, fast, cost effective way to protect data locally while leveraging the off-site backup for long-term storage. It allows SMBs to focus on growing the business as opposed to growing their IT staff.
Filed Under: About GBData

What are the top threats to my data?

June 20, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment

Below is a list of those top threats that every company faces to its computer data and systems.

  1. Hardware failure/loss – Computers fail, whether it be a failed hard drive, corrupt memory, or simply a dropped laptop.
  2. File deletion – With the ease of use of modern windows networks, it is all too easy for users to delete files, or even whole directories.  Also added to this is simply saving a file as a wrong name, over writing a file that the user wanted to keep.
  3. Viruses, Trojan horses, malware etc. Businesses as well as inexperienced home users can scum to these unpleasant programs.  It is impossible for anti-virus writers to keep completely up to date with their virus definitions, and most users only update these definitions only once a day.
  4. Failed backups – most backup tapes last at most little over a year.  They can be damaged even by transport in a car, DVD’s and CD’s often fail during writing.  Most users that do backup, do not check their backups, typically because of the extra time that this takes.
  5. Lack of access – Take the recent Buncefield disaster as an example.  The surrounding businesses may have had a backup tape, but many could not use it as they had no access to their property to remove it.
  6. Theft – Laptops are so often stolen it id frightening.  Yet amazingly few laptop users backup as often as desk top PC users.
  7. Deliberate/malicious damage – employees that have been dismissed, or simply unhappy computers have been known to delete essential files.
  8. Size of data out grows the backup system - DVD’s hold typically 4.7 Gig, and at most 7.5 Gig.  Tapes may go to 20 Gig with reaching the expensive systems.  Most users have data requirements in excess of this.  This is caused by many factors from users increasing dependence on PC’s, to such things as digital camera’s increasing in mega-pixels.
  9. Existing backup systems cannot backup all files – Whether it be open files, or complex file systems such as SQL and exchange, most backup regimes cannot backup anything other than simple closed files.
  10. Failing to remove backups safely off site - Most users that backup at most remove backups infrequently, and not using shielded containers.  These backups are often useless, but this is not discovered until too late.
Filed Under: About GBData

GBData increases its bandwidth – again!

June 19, 2010 By Editor 1 Comment

GBData are proud to announce that for a second time in 12 months they have increased the available bandwidth.

The amount of bandwidth directly effects the speed of backups and especially restores.  As the number of clients increases this bandwidth should be increased to void congestion at peak periods, and for clients to be able to restore at a resonable speed.

One of the best ways to see how professional a backup service provider is, is to ask how fast the “pipe” is, both in and out of their facility.

GBData are committed to continuously improving their service, and this includes upgrading their bandwidth before congestion becomes an issue.

Existing clients will notice an improvement, particularly in the speed of restores, which should now be several orders of speed faster

Carl.

Filed Under: About GBData, Featured

ISO9001

June 19, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment

GBData are proud to announce that they have achieved the prestigious ISO9001 quality award.

ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. The rules are updated, as the requirements motivate changes over time. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001:2008 (which is one of the standards in the ISO 9000 family) include

  • a set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;
  • monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
  • keeping adequate records;
  • checking output for defects, with appropriate and corrective action where necessary;
  • regularly reviewing individual processes and the quality system itself for effectiveness; and
  • facilitating continual improvement

A company or organization that has been independently audited and certified to be in conformance with ISO 9001 may publicly state that it is “ISO 9001 certified” or “ISO 9001 registered”. Certification to an ISO 9001 standard does not guarantee any quality of end products and services; rather, it certifies that formalized business processes are being applied.

Although the standards originated in manufacturing, they are now employed across several types of organizations. A “product”, in ISO vocabulary, can mean a physical object, services, or software.

Filed Under: About GBData, Featured

Increased Insurance

June 19, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment

GBData are now proud to announce that they have increased their level of insurance to an incredible £1million.

This provides you with the reassurance that should the worst happen, your company will be supported through financial redress.

We have never actually had to resort to this in order to provide our clients with recompence, but it provides that final level of comfort should the worst happen, and we lose your data completely.

Filed Under: About GBData, Featured

Video’s now on the GBData website

June 19, 2010 By Editor Leave a Comment

Whilst designing our new website, we allowed the inclusion of videos.

We have now started to add these, and the first two can now be found in the video section.

One of them is the introduction video, that can also be found on the front page of our new website, and explains in simple terms, how our online backup service works.

We will be adding further videos over the comming weeks and months, however if there is a particular subject that you would like to see explained, do drop a line to let us know.

Carl.

Filed Under: About GBData

Continuous Data Protection has arrived!

June 20, 2009 By Editor Leave a Comment

GBData are proud to announce that they can now offer Continuous Data Protection.

Continuous data protection (CDP), also called continuous backup or real-time backup, refers to backup of computer data by automatically saving a copy of every change made to that data, essentially capturing every version of the data that the user saves. It allows the user or administrator to restore data to any point in time.

This feature means that you can now instantly backup those files that are most important to you, the moment that they are changed or saved, without having to wait for the normal scheduled backup.

This feature comes as standard with our software, we do not charge a premium for this.

Filed Under: About GBData

Brand New software Arrives

June 19, 2009 By Editor Leave a Comment

Our Brand New software now has a clean easy to use interface.

We have listened to ours users, who said that whilst the software was very powerful, it was not the easiest to use.

The new version not only has lots of new features, including Continuous Data Protection, but also an entirely new user interface.

This interface is more intuitive, less busy and much simpler to use. Non of this comes at the expensive of its feature set, or the price of the service, that remains the same as last year.

Filed Under: About GBData