Debra
Since October 2010, Microsoft has allowed a limited number of people to use its Office 365 beta, a cloud-hosted set of Office servers, enabling full use of all Office tools. Office 365 offers multi-tenanted versions of the Office family servers including Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Lync 2010.
The idea is not new – organizations have been asking for anywhere, anytime access to applications and services for a long time. Office 365 combines Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync in a unified cloud.
Easy to start – When users log in for the first time, users get shortcuts to the key services they want (Outlook Web Access for email and calendar, SharePoint, download to Lync client). There is no need to permanently use these shortcuts; Office 365 van easily be used from desktop tools (e.g., Outlook).
Lync – When using Lync, the whitelist option allows users to lock down conversations with trusted partners. Microsoft is working on enhancing this feature enabling online collaboration in Office 365. Office 365 currently offers IM, VoIP and video chat in the Lync 2010 client, as well as the ability to deliver slides to online meetings.
SharePoint and Exchange – Office 365’s SharePoint and Exchange implementation is straightforward, providing Access, Excel, and InfoPath services. It can also be used for some basic computing and storage. This opens a whole new set of challenges, including migration of existing data to the cloud. As DataMills, we are looking into reducing risks for such transitions.
We would like to conclude by saying that we don’t see Office 365 as a threat to IT professionals at all. Instead, we strongly feel that it will give organizations the tools to expand and also to protect their skilled IT staff from basic administration tasks.
The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan are reminders to business owners anywhere that disaster can strike at any moment. While most operators of small businesses know that it’s critical to have a disaster-recovery procedure in place, industry experts say that fewer than 20% actually have a plan. However, the amount of data that small business owners create, process and need to backup nearly doubles each year.
People see disasters and other calamities as incidents that are limited in time. They think that it might impact others, but not their own business. But this is a huge mistake. Once disaster strikes data in files, folders, PST files and PST folders will be lost. These data are critical for the operations (and even survival) of a company.
SMB or SME are faced with a multifaceted challenge. First they need to realize that disaster can strike them too. As recent disasters showed, no enterprise is immune. The next step is selecting a reliable provider that can provide backup and restore services that fit a firm’s needs and budget. Many organizations prefer to avoid a full cloud-solution. For those firms, an incremental backup solution at a central location is ideal.
The reputation of the provider and its customer base are also important criteria for selection. The vendor must have a good track record and must also be around in the future. Furthermore, the service-level of the provider must be excellent. exceed what you can have at your own premises.
One of the most important features in a backup solution consists of incremental backup. A pure cloud-based solution sends each file-save request through the Internet connection. Needless to say, such solutions slow operations considerably down.
Many organizations opt for the backup solutions of DataMills. Its EdgeSafe File Backup provides an advanced, yet simply to implement, backup solution for laptops and desktops in organizations. EdgeSafe File Backup solution can swiftly backup files and folders incrementally, while maintaining historical backup versions without multiplying the required backup space, and at the same time saving network bandwidth.
Want to learn more? Contact us for a free demo!
DataMills Ltd. has added a new addition to its product suite. EdgeSafe File Backup software is an incremental file/folder backup solution to seamlessly and incrementally backup files. It provides enterprises with a managed backup solution for files that are located on their users’ laptops or desktops onto a central storage area, including local USB HDD. The solution backs up data files even when the Microsoft Office application is open.
EdgeSafe File Backup has the ability to backup data files that are located on the users’ workstations even if Office application is open. This ensures consistent and automatic backup. Since the backup is incremental, it can happen even while the user is working and since it is very light in resource usage, the user barely notices when the backup is running.
Other features include the ability to reduce the size of the backup. This is done by filtering out unwanted folders, and by allowing multiple one-pass recoverable versions without multiplying the backup space.
EdgeSafe File Backup is composed of EdgeSafe Control Station software and EdgeSafe File Backup Agent and is compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000; Windows XP; Windows Vista; Windows 7. Every predefined period, EdgeSafe FileBackup Agent simply checks if the backup destination is available. Then it copies any file that had been created or changed since the last backup run into a secure, per user backup folder, which is located on a central backup/archive location.
Even in very large deployments EdgeSafe File Backup is able to perform even over low bandwidth lines, by staging the first full backup run, thus overcoming the network overload. It is also able to restrict the backup process to run only when the user is logged into its “home base network”. This feature helps mobile users avoiding a backup process while logged into the airport network for example.
Want to know more? Visit our website at www.datamills.com or contact us at info@datamills.com
Security Tip #1 – Secure Your Employees’ Mobile Phones and Devices
Your employees SmartPhones or mobile devices help them to be more productive, but they also pose a security risk. Once they are set up with an email account, a Wi-Fi network, or used to store important data, they become vulnerable in case of loss or theft.
System administrators in organizations must make sure that employees use all the security features of the mobile operating system (OS) of their company phone or device. The three main features are: PIN or password protection, data encryption, and remote wiping of all data.
The current iPhone 4 and BlackBerry 5 provide entire device encryption.
Security Tip#2 – Encrypt Your Employees’ Laptops and Flash Drives
Every employee, regardless of their job or the sort of data they store on their laptops, should encrypt them. This prevents that once lost or stolen, the employee’s documents, system files, passwords and Internet history can be accessed.
Almost all employees use Flash drives for storing and transferring data. Since most corporate data is sensitive, the Flash drive must be encrypted to prevent others having access to the stored information.
Security Tip #3 – Properly Secure and Use Wi-Fi Networks
Many organizations use Wi-Wi networks as do remote workers. Especially employees working from home and small offices need to make sure that their wireless router is WPA or WPA2 encrypted.
System administrators should pay attention that the WPA or WPA2 encryption should always be in the Enterprise mode, and not in the simple Personal (PSK) mode. The Enterprise mode allows for setting up unique usernames and passwords for employees to login.
Mobile employees often need to access a public Wi-Fi Hotspots, mainly for checking email. For email clients like Outlook, it is advised to use SSL encryption to the mail server.
Security Tip #4 – Backup Your Organization’s PST Files and Folders
Enterprises want 2011 to be a year without data loss. But a drive or computer can die, be stolen or lost, or destroyed in a fire. Data can be stolen, lost or destroyed. To prevent loss of valuable information, it should be backed up.
Most corporate data are Outlook data files stored in Outlook folders. These PST files and folders need to be backed up, including those that are connected to hosted email servers over POP3 connection. System administrators opt for a backup solution that runs transparently without any user intervention. They save significant time if backup solution can be centrally deployed and configured. They also need easy access to detailed backup reports.
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is patented state-of-the-art PST database backup for Outlook installations regardless of topology, product and interface variations. EdgeSafe File Backup Agent complements EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup solution to provide the most advanced backup solution for notebooks and desktops in organizations.
System administrators of SME as well as large corporations opt for EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup solution to backup their corporate files and folders incrementally, including PST files on item level.
For more information, please contact DataMills Ltd at: http://www.datamills.com/form/contact-us
Reason#1:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup software is a unique incremental PST backup solution that seamlessly and 
incrementally backs up Outlook’s PST files. It provides a managed backup solution for PST files that are located at the user’s’ notebook or desktop onto a central storage area.
Reason #2:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup has the ability to backup PST files that are located on users’ workstations even if Outlook is open. This ensures consistent and automatic backup, thus avoiding the need for the user to close its Outlook and wait for the backup to finish. Since the backup is incremental, it backs up even while the user is working and since it is very light in resource usage, the user barely notices when the backup is running.
Reason #3:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is composed of EdgeSafe Control Station software and EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup Agent. It is perfectly suited for organizations that have Outlook email information stored on desktops and/or notebooks (in Outlook’s local PST file), and want to protect that mail information efficiently at a central location. It is also possible to backup to a portable USB disk if required.
Reason #4:
Every predefined period, EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup Agent simply checks if the backup destination is available. It then continues with copying any email item that has been created and/or modified after the last backup run into a secure, per user backup folder. This folder is located on a central backup/archive location.
Reason #5:
Since only new and/or changed email items are copied, the Outlook backup is incremental and therefore is very fast. It consumes minimal storage space and resources. This also allows the backup to work even over VPN lines.
Reason #6:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup also reduces the size of the backup PST file in various ways:
A. It filters unwanted folders such as junk mail out.
B. Backup is done for email items rather than copying bits and bytes of the PST file which often contains nothing more than large chunks of empty spaces.
C. It incrementally synchronizing the backup PST file with DataMills’ a patent-pending method that allows to simply recovering the latest backup image as well as items from previous backup runs.
Reason #7:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is network friendly. Even in very large deployments that use low bandwidth lines, it is able to handle these large deployments. It stages the first full backup run, thus overcoming the network overload. EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is also able to diffuse the backup over a period of time rather than starting with all stations at the same time.
Reason #8:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is able to restrict the backup process so it only runs when the user is logged into his/her “home base network”. This feature helps mobile users to avoid a backup process when logged into e.g., an airport network.
Reason #9:
As EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup creates standard backup archive files; they can be searched by Outlook as well as by most search engines such as Google Desktop Search.
Reason #10:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is also able to incrementally synchronize the backup PST file with the source PST. This makes it ready for immediate “image like” recovery in case of a disaster situation. This can even be done by the end user if the organization allows it (“self service restore”).
Reason #11:
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup retains, for a pre-configured period of time, historically backed up items over months or even several years without the need to multiply the backup space.
For more informarion, contact DataMills
