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 Radicati Group recently released its “Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook Market Analysis, 2011-2015” report. According to this study, Microsoft Exchange Server will have a worldwide installed base of over 360 million on-premises and hosted mailboxes by year-end 2011. On-Premises Microsoft Exchange Server deployments currently account for the majority of Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes worldwide, representing 76% of the worldwide installed base.
Why is Microsoft Office Outlook so popular? As an email client, it easily organizes virtual folders and enables fast search. It also has seamless integration with to-do lists and scheduling.
Furthermore, Microsoft Outlook is a great tool for e-mail marketing. Outlook 2010 offers various marketing tools, such as fast integration with Microsoft Word. It also enables to quickly import contacts from Excel as well as mail-merge functions that automate the process of sending out several hundred e-mails.
It is therefore essential for enterprises to protect the valuable data stored in Outlook files and folders. A robust backup and restore solution is the optimal way to backup PST files and folders, and – in case of a calamity – to restore lost data.
DataMills’ EdgeSafePST2PST is the preferred choice for many organizations. To quote a customer: “EdgeSafe PST2PST solves a problem not readily solvable in any other way. With email having become the major element in the communications suites of most firms, the issue of how to effectively backup the personal mail store (pst) has become a vexing problem.”
EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup is the leading PST backup solution for organizations. It swiftly and incrementally backs up PST files even if Microsoft® Outlook® is open. Features include simple native PST recovery, and central management for the PST file backup / Outlook Backup process.
Want to learn more? Contact us at sales@datamills.com for a free trial or click here.
Especially large organizations such as banks often consider storing PST files (Outlook folders, including the Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts) on the network.
The main reasons for this are:
- To keep the Exchange database as small as possible
- To keep a backup copy of all users’ email (e.g., for compliance reasons, audit, legal procedures)
- To keep down the backup and storage costs
- To prevent heavy load on the Exchange server
To quote Microsoft, “personal folder files (.pst files) are not meant to be a long-term, continuous-use method of storing messages in an enterprise environment. Although it is possible to specify a network directory or a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path as a storage location for a .pst file, network usage is not meant to be a long-term, continuous-use method of storing messages in an enterprise environment”. Microsoft therefore recommends storing PST on desktops.
With so many valuable data stored in PST files and folders on desktops and notebooks, it has become critical for enterprises to opt for a top-notch backup solution. Many organizations (large and small) use EdgeSafe PST2PST for incremental backup to a central location.
EdgeSafe is more than a simple backup of PST files and folders; it also retains the history of deleted emails. In case of an audit, compliance issue or a legal action, these deleted emails can be restored by EdgeSafe.
It’s better to be EdgeSafe than sorry!
To learn more about EdgeSafe PST2PST or to request a free trial, contact us at sales@datamills.cm or click here
Microsoft Outlook dominiert den Markt der E-Mail Clients, besonders im geschäftlichen Bereich. Trotzdem überzeugt die Software nicht in allen Bereichen, so fehlt etwa die Möglichkeit, Outlook-Daten zentral zu sichern und somit dem Datenverlust vorzubeugen.
Genau diese fehlende Komponente bietet EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup. Die Software ermöglicht die Sicherung der Outlook-Daten von mehreren Rechnern. Dabei werden die Daten im nativen Dateiformat .pst (Personal STore) gesichert. Dies garantiert eine reibungslose Wiederherstellung. Obwohl keine Komprimierung in ein anderes Dateiformat angewendet wird, wird die Datendatei trotzdem komprimiert – dazu können vordefinierte Ordner aus der Sicherung ausgeschlossen werden (Beispielsweise der Papierkorb oder ein Junk/Spam Ordner).
Ein weiterer Vorteil wird vom Hersteller Datamills in der Funktion des inkrementellen Backups vorgestellt. Dadurch wird weniger Speicherplatz benötigt, gleichzeitig aber für eine möglichst enge Backupdichte gesorgt. Die Backups werden von zentraler Stelle verwaltet und gespeichert, eine Berichtsansicht ist möglich.
Allerdings soll nicht nur eine Oberfläche zur Verwaltung zur Verfügung stehen, sondern auch eine Bedienmöglichkeit für Endbenutzer zur Wiederherstellung im Falle eines Datenverlusts. Dabei bleibt EdgeSafe PST2PST Backup jedoch im normalen Betrieb für den Endbenutzer kaum spürbar. Eine Beeinträchtigung des täglichen Arbeitens finde laut Hersteller durch den Backup-Prozess nicht statt.
Die Software ist in Lizenzpaketen ab 5 Endbenutzern verfügbar und kann mit allen Versionen von Microsoft Outlook ab Version 2000 benutzt werden, ausgeschlossen sind 64-bit Versionen.
(Ref: Mailhilfe.de)
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
