Cloud Technology

[claud-t-blog]

The presenter demonstrates how to launch a free site, how to use templates, how to create categories, articles, menu items and modules, and how to create a backup of the Joomla website.

[mywordiness-blog1]

Best online cloud backup 

Backing up important data in your business has always been a priority - increasingly so in the light of threats such as ransomware. But other disasters could also easily threaten to derail your business. If your business is in an area prone to floods, servers can easily go offline and data on them gone for good.

That’s where the cloud comes into its own. Having a good backup in the cloud means that even if you cannot retrieve data from your own desktops, laptops and servers, it should be safely backed up on the cloud, ready to be retrieved at a moment’s notice.

When looking at cloud backup, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, where is the data stored. You want it far away enough so that it is not exposed to the same problems as your business could face, but near enough so that latency isn’t an issue when it comes to restoring data. Also, for certain types of data, or for some regulated industries, the location of the cloud backup is important. You may not be able to take the data out of the country or continent.

Lastly, security is important. Data backed up into the cloud has to be encrypted, not only where it is stored but also when the data is in transit.

We look at some of the best online cloud backup services available in the UK in 2016.

Best online cloud backup – Crashplan

URL: www.code42.com/crashplan Price: From $5 per month

Crashplan provides unlimited online storage for one computer and an unlimited number of external drives for $5 per month. There is also a plan that covers as many as 10 computers for $12.50 per month. Users can use the service on a monthly basis or take out yearly subscriptions.

Once set up, Crashplan allows the user to backup specific directories (such as ones containing user’s data) or the whole computer. Once started the service chugs along uploading files at around 2.5 – 3.5Mbps, barely taking up any computer resources. There is also deleted file protection, so if you have accidently deleted a file on your computer, you will be able to retrieve it from the service.

The service offers continuous backup as well as daily and weekly backups. Data is encryption using a 448-bit Blowfish key. As well as Windows and Mac version, apps are available for iOS, Android and Windows devices.

Best online cloud backup – Backblaze

URL: www.backblaze.com Price: $50 per year per computer (Backblaze for Business)

Slightly cheaper than Crashplan, Backblaze also offers unlimited online storage for one PC or Mac, including backups of external drives.

The service backs up all data files and then only backs up new or changed files as you work. Instead of selecting which files are stored, Backblaze backs up all data regardless of where it Is stored on file size. Files can be restored via the service’s web interface and backup is continuous.

The business service offers centralised administration for billing, reports, licencing and set up. It encrypts files using a 128-bit AES key and data is transferred via SSL to its datacentres. Companies can have additional security by choosing a passphrase that can be used to encrypt a private key.  It also promises that the datacentre is security and constantly monitored.

Best online cloud backup – iDrive

URL: www.idrive.com Price: Business 250GB backup plus 250GB Sync Space  - $74.62 for first year.

This service does not offer unlimited storage but does promise incremental and compressed backup of your files for high performance.

Backed up computers can be remotely managed and admins can carry out backups, restores, and more, via a web console.

The service also offers backup via physical storage shipments. Servers can be backed up to the cloud. These include  MS SQL Server, MS Exchange Server, VMware, Hyper-V, MS SharePoint Server, Oracle Server and Linux Servers.

There is also a hybrid solution called iDrive Vault that performs a local backup using the Vault appliance for faster backups and restores. Users can choose data from their Vault appliance to be backed up to the iDrive cloud, for access, in the event of a disaster.  

Data is encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption during transfer and storage. Users can choose a private encryption key for an additional layer of security.

Best online cloud backup – LiveDrive

URL: www.livedrive.com Price: from £22 per month (LiveDrive for Business)

LiveDrive is pretty cheap for a business online backup service and offers a host of other features that you may not find with other providers.

The Express service offers 2TB of cloud storage space and will back up all computers in an office. Backups can be monitored from the web and users can restore files from the cloud of using LiveDrive’s restore software.

Each user (three in the Express version, 10 plus in the Standard version) gets their own private storage space. Organisations can also set up team folders for group working and collaboration. This means that files can be synced between Macs and Windows PCs in an office.

The service uses 256-bit military-grade encryption and data is stored only in UK datacentres.

Best online cloud backup – Acronis True Image Online Unlimited

URL: http://www.acronis.com/en-gb/cloud/ Price: On Application

This service offers a full system image backup rather than selected files and folders. While Acronis offers normal backup software that you can use to backup data to an external drive, the Cloud Storage offering for business offers backups for not only desktop and laptop computers, but also VMware vSphere virtual machines as well as other physical and virtual servers (physical Windows / Linux or virtual VMware, Hyper-V, Xen, KVM, RHEV or Oracle VM Server hosts).

For the backing up of an entire infrastructure, the service also offers seeding where full system backups are made to an external hard drive and posted to the vendor where it seeds this in the Acronis cloud. Smaller incremental backups are made via the cloud. Large scale restorations can also be made via a physical hard drive shipped back to your organisation to avoid network bottlenecks.

The service uses AES-256 encryption to protect data and the data within the cloud is secured by around the clock security personnel and video surveillance. The data centres are SSAE-16 certified. For UK customers, data is stored in a datacentre in France.

Best online cloud backup – SugarSync

URL: https://www.sugarsync.com/business Price: $550 per year for three users

SugarSync allows users to backup any folder they have on their computer with the basic business account giving each account 1TB of capacity to be shared between users. Customer plans are available for organisations with more the ten staff.

The service offers a main administration account but other users can also have admin rights if needs be. The admin options allow the management of devices. Selected computers can be removed from the account with removing data from synced folders. These can also be wiped for security purposes.

Files synced to the cloud can be accessed via SugarSync’s web and mobile apps for easy access. Apps are available for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Windows Phone. File backup is continuous and offers file version control and recovery.

http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/it-infrastructure/cloud-storage/5819/best-online-cloud-backup

[swifttech-blog]

EMC World Opens With New Flash Arrays and Other Data Center Tech

Kicking off its EMC World user conference in Las Vegas today, EMC Corp. unveiled several new hardware and software services and products, including a assortment of offerings intended for data center operators planning to modernize their operations. In addition to EMC Unity, a brand new family of all-flash storage arrays (with one pictured above), the business also unveiled its Virtustream Storage Cloud platform; the EMC MyService360 cloud-based service dashboard; an expansion of its Copy Data Management portfolio; as well as the new ViPR Controller 3.0 software for storage automation.

During his appearance in the conference, Dell CEO Michael Dell also says the new company created when his firm completes its buying EMC will likely be called Dell Technologies. The acquisition, currently worth around $60 billion, requires Dell to pay EMC shareholders for taking the business private.

IT Industry Faces ‘Massive Transformation’

The offerings announced today are directed at organizations looking to transform their IT operations with new cloud-based applications and digital services. Such transitions are requiring enterprises to figure out ways to maintain existing legacy systems effectively as well as introducing new, next-generation applications in the cost-efficient manner.

“The IT industry is inside a state of massive transformation, causing both disruption and great opportunity,” EMC Information Infrastructure CEO David Goulden said in the statement. “Every business leader, across every industry, is facing the dilemma of how to back up and grow traditional IT infrastructure while modernizing your data center in order to back up the growth of new applications and advance their digital agendas. Some are performing all of this simultaneously.”

The new product or service unveiled at EMC World are made to help customers build modern data centers for them to thrive as digital businesses, he added.

New Offerings Help Users Become More Proactive

EMC’s new Unity class of flash storage systems are intended to provide “cloud-like proactive management and monitoring” via an HTML5, task-oriented interface, this company said. Designed for smaller than average medium-size IT departments, EMC Unity offers all-flash configurations starting at under $18,000, and hybrid configurations with prices starting well below a $10,000.

For larger enterprises, providers and public sector organizations, EMC is introducing a whole new cloud storage platform called Virtustream Storage Cloud. A hyper-scale platform, it includes users with efficient tiering, long-term backup retention and cold storage inside cloud, in addition to single-source support from EMC.

Virtustream Storage Cloud is predicted to be generally available starting May 10, with nodes both in the U.S. and Europe. The new offering is EMC’s latest expansion of capabilities for Virtustream, an infrastructure-as-a-service company that had been acquired by EMC not too long ago.

EMC also introduced its EMC MyService360 dashboard, which can be designed to offer “near-real-time visibility to the status and health of the customer’s EMC data center environment.” Available immediately to users through EMC Online Support, the dashboard helps users simplify operations with an increase of personalized, proactive and predictive information, in line with EMC Global Services president Kevin Roche.

[content-marketer]

IBM Expands Bluemix Garage to France

IBM Expands Bluemix Garage to France

IBM is opening its fourth Bluemix Garage in Nice in the south of France. Big Blue defines the its Bluemix Garage as “a consultancy with a startup DNA empowering companies, large and small, to design and build engaging applications using IBM Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile DevOps.

Continue reading…

View On WordPress

[claud-t-blog]

Top Reasons Why Should You Think of Employing a WordPress Developer

With the option of development resources and tools demonstrating the procedure to develop a website, it isn't surprising to see people calling web development a fairly easy job. Yet, the truth is, designing a website is a craft that will need a great deal of skills, programming expertise and knowledge. Certainly, an expert can still find developing a site a hassle-free task. However, new programmers or individuals are very likely to encounter various issues in the process. Furthermore, as more and more people are making initiatives to get winning solutions, it has become necessary to make websites that give something unique to target viewers. In brief, to make an edge more than the competitors, you will need to produce a website that offers exceptional and specific user experience. Thus, it is well-advised that you must hire WordPress developer to have the job done with proficiency.

These are some of the biggest purposes that should decide as to why you should think of employing the products and services of a professional:

1. Make a Theme Tailored for you personally Your site theme is important for enhancing the look and feel of your site. Also, it helps figure out how your web site layout will look and function. Of course, a well-designed and fully functional theme helps improve a user experience. Thankfully, there are many pre-built WordPress themes on the internet to use to create a web site within a few minutes. Actually, many newbies generally opt for cost-free themes to develop sites at low development cost. But, applying ready-to-use themes might limit your business if several other site is using the same theme as yours. Interestingly, a professional Wordpress developer can help generate changes to your theme or will assist you to develop a new theme from scratch based on your needs. 2. Wordpress extension Management Would like to add some functionality on your site? Probably, you are likely to install a plugin to meet up with your need. But, all of your time and efforts is going to be wasted if the plugin does not work exactly as you have expected. Many people (if not all) end up installing so many plugins to increase our website features and functions, although unwanted plugins can make your web site slow. But, a service provider will help you install exactly the necessary plugins or can certainly create custom plugin to meet your particular needs. 3. Enhance Website Performance Speed is important for the success of your webpage. Especially, with raising number of consumers getting more eager than ever before, and abandons a site which takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Therefore, no matter how useful or well-designed your site/blog could possibly be, customers will not prefer making use of it if it requires time to load. Of course, there are caching plugins which will help improve your site performance and speed. But, your appointed creator can help write code to create your web site a lot more performant.

4. Help Clean your Database Rapidly You possibly would have tried using many plugins to get rid of the extra bloat from your website database - that is making the site slow. Even so, in search of the right plugin generally is a time consuming process. But, a designer can help to save your time and effort by writing code for cleaning up the database. 5. Modification Flexibility Whether you wish to customize your whole website theme or maybe a part of it, a professional designer can help meet your needs in the well organized method possible. The fact is, they might help modify your theme in accordance with the latest web trends. Thus, you won't have to necessarily find a modern WordPress theme often to establish a solid standing in the market. Rather, you could ask your appointed pro to make changes and tweaks to your existing theme instead. Bottom line If you can execute all of the tasks yourself, you would not need to generate the services of an expert. But, just in case you do not have the required expertise or lack time required for developing a WordPress site, it is advised that you have to hire a developer for finishing the project.