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.
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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
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
