There are systems and users who need to upgrade to 2010 but also need to keep their older accounts intact. There are resource, finance and operation limitation which simply do not give IT managers the ability to upgrade. This limits the use of new Outlook and Exchange features for some users. It also places more demands on system admins and IT managers.
Installations are becoming more complex with mixed versions and different features for some users. One big problem is how to handle backup and restores in such installations. System admins may need to support different Exchange Server versions at the same time. What will happen to old PST files? There is a large amount of data in older PST files which still needs to be accessed!
PST2PST Backup Agent gives users
The number 1 reason users like EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is the ability of Outlook user to backup on their own. This “self service” backup feature is used by clicking a system tray button. This starts the local “agent” with a simple interface showing all the backed up PST databases. This gives users the location, date and status of the last backup. This “self service” backup feature is installed automatically on the user’s workstation.
For system administrators and IT managers it gives an easy way for users to:
- Backup their own Outlook data anytime.
- Restore their own Outlook data any time they need it.
- Show users their backed-up data (reduce stress in users.)
- Enable more complex functions like deleted message recovery by user.
The Settings section of the Control Station consists of an option called EdgeSafe services.
Selecting it brings up the following window where EdgeSafe user credentials are asked:
Once correct credentials are entered, the following confirmation windows are displayed:
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EdgeSafe PST2PST comes with a built-in comprehensive alerts service that makes management and monitoring of the EdgeSafe infrastructure easier.
It can be found in the main window of control station with the following columns :
User name,Machine name,Value,Unit,Alert type,Alert received on,Confirm alert
User name : The user name for which alert is triggered.
Machine name : The corresponding machine name for which alert is triggered.
Value : Value for alert
Unit : Unit type for the triggered alert
Alert type : Type of alert generated like a failed back up or successive failed backups etc
Alert received on : The date and time stamp of when the alert was generated.
Confirm alert : This is to keep a track of alerts that are acknowledged by EdgeSafe admins.
The main advantage of alert service is that it reduces the monitoring workload of EdgeSafe admin staff and hence they no longer need to read and analyze backup log fails and check if the backups are being successfully done or not.
Further streamlining the monitoring is possible in EdgeSafe by defining set thresholds (like no backups done for x number of days) etc so that when such pre defined criteria are met,the alerts are triggered which can be investigated by EdgeSafe admin staff.
Other advantage of setting alert thresholds is that temporary conditions like an employee on the go causing the backups to fail(as he/she is not on the company network) can be safely ignored as per set thresholds thereby focusing only on real issues behind failed backups and other alerts criteria.
The alerts service is not a part of trial version and is available only to paid customers of EdgeSafe.
The biggest advantage of an alert service like this is that real time monitoring and triggering of alerts take place thereby speeding up the resolution time of issues.Other feature is that the defined thresholds can be divided among staff with a specialist for each one making the ownership of issues streamlined and easy to track.
This is important in a large scale corporate environment when recovery is to be done within the service level agreements especially when the environment is supported by external vendors.
This covers the alerts service in detail for EdgeSafe PST2PST.
How will the corporate world integrate social media into traditional business communication? Linked-In inside Outlook will be the first test case. / © 2010
Outlook may be the single most useful business applications we use. We use it for e-mail messages, contacts, appointments, notes… basically, all the communication we do at work. Now that social media sites are becoming business tools, they are starting to get integrated into Outlook. With Linked-In for Outlook plug-in the first seamless integration, there is a peek of things to come. Add to that SMS integration into Microsoft Exchange and Outlook 2010. Twitter and Facebook are not far behind. Surely even more innovative social media services will follow. How is this going to be used in a context of traditional workflows? How are we going to handle old style e-mail with tweets and Linked-In connections [WikiPedia]? How are IT managers going to regulate backups, archives, reporting and even policy management? Will the use of social media in the corporate world trickle slowly into some organizations who do not see it’s place yet? If you remember, every new “opening” innovation in Internet communication was not welcomed across the corporate world.
