Online Backup by Redstor overview - YouTube video

The video below gives an overview of some of the functionality of our cloud based, Online Backup service. Areas covered include how to perform the initial setup of the backup client, an overview of the storage platform and how the client connects to the storage platform. Also featured is the backup process, data restoration and the difference between server backups and Desktop/Laptop backups.

Online Backup by Redstor has been delivered to a variety of industries since 2005 by our community of channel partners. During this time, we have amassed in excess of 1PB of data under protection across our resilient Data Centres and through our 85 Education service providers, we have an addressable 14,000 schools in the UK backing up to our Data Centres each night.

If you'd like to find out more about Redstor's cloud services including Online Backup then please call our Reading office on +44 118 951 5200.

Access to the cloud, whatever the weather

Redstor Cloud Storage is an easy to use online storage solution providing business-grade storage over the internet or a secure dedicated link that scales up and down to any capacity and allows you to pay only for the storage you use. It offers elastic capacity on demand and allows access to your stored data at any time and from anywhere.

Typically suited to data that doesn't requite high performance access such as user data, file based archives, infrequently accessed files or backup data. You no longer need to purchase, implement and manage physical storage systems in your own data centre thus you can avoid capital outlays, purchasing delays and reduce your IT costs. Instead, you pay as a monthly operating expense much in the same way you would any other utilities.

Redstor Cloud Storage is always available and so it only takes minutes to setup and expands as you use it. Storage maintenance tasks such as backup, data replication and expansion become Redstor's responsibility allowing you to mitigate risks and focus on your core business.

ICO serves first fines for data losses

Today, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have fined 2 organisations a combined total of £160,000 for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. Full press release here.

One of these is an employment services company who had issued an employee with an unencrypted laptop so that they could work from home - a very familiar story for organisations across the country. However, this is where the story takes a turn for the bad, with the laptop stolen meaning that personal information relating to over 20,000 people had fallen into rogue hands.

2 of Redstor's leading cloud services include full end to end encryption. Redstor Protector combines laptop encryption, device trace, remote data deletion, automatic backup and port access control. This enables organisations to fully manage their risks in the event of having laptops stolen. You can find out more about how Redstor Protector can help you protect your data by downloading our whitepaper here.

Redstor Online Backup is an automated backup service, your data is sent over your existing internet connection to one of our secure Data Centres before mirroring to our secondary Data Centre for Disaster Recovery purposes. From the moment the data leaves your site, whilst in transit and right the way through until it resides in our Data Centres; it's fully encrypted to give you that peace of mind you've got off-site data protection.

ICO takes action against Google

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have written to the world's leading search engine Google to advise them their recent Google Street View project significantly breached the Data Protection Act.

Since April 2010, The ICO have had the power to impose fines of up to £500,000 on organisations who breach the Data Protection Act. Within this legislation includes specific reference to the encryption of data.

"Organisations can minimise the risks of security breaches involving personal information by ensuring that all portable media devices containing personal information are encrypted. Staff must be adequately trained and organisations should give proper consideration to restricting staff from downloading large volumes of data onto memory sticks and other portable devices. All personal information held within buildings and offices should be protected by adequate security arrangements to prevent theft or the loss of the data."

The full legislation is available on the ICO website.

Google's breach is so far the highest profile case and has resulted in Christopher Graham, who is appointed as Information Commissioner by HM The Queen writing directly to Google, who will now have to sign an indemnity to appear on the ICO's website as well as be subject to a full ICO audit. Christopher Graham said, "It is my view that the collection of this information was not fair or lawful and constitutes a significant breach of the first principle of the Data Protection Act."

"The most appropriate and proportionate regulatory action in these circumstances is to get written legal assurance from Google that this will not happen again - and to follow this up with an ICO audit."

2 of Redstor's leading cloud services include full end to end encryption. Redstor Protector combines laptop encryption, device trace, remote data deletion, automatic backup and port access control. This enables organisations to fully lockdown their laptops in the event of them being lost or stolen. You can find out more about how Redstor Protector can help you protect your data by downloading our whitepaper here.

Redstor Online Backup is an automated backup service, your data is sent over your existing internet connection to one of our secure Data Centres before mirroring to our secondary Data Centre for Disaster Recovery purposes. From the moment the data leaves your site, whilst in transit and right the way through until it resides in our Data Centres; it's fully encrypted to give you that peace of mind your data is secure and protected off-site.

If you're unsure of the current level of protection for your data then you should call the Data Protection specialists Redstor on 0118 9515 200.

Are you struggling to protect your data?

Redstor have today made available a best practice guide for organisations to download simply by clicking here.

The guide gives useful tips and advice on data protection and device management within the modern Digital age, with the rise of mobile devices in the corporate space seemingly endless.

One of our cloud services which does enable organisations to further protect data is Redstor Protector which is policy driven and combines Backup, Data Deletion, Device Trace, Port Access Control and Encryption.

For further information, please call our Reading office on 0118 9515 200.

Accelerate your journey to the Cloud

Information makes the world go round.
That’s why it’s vital to be able to offer your
customers a range of secure cloud services.
But if developing your own cloud offering
isn’t feasible, why not use ours. We can
give you all of the benefits, under your own
brand—without the capital investment. By
partnering with us, you’ll get the advantages
of world-class solutions, a broader product
portfolio, and recurring revenues. You’ll also
get full sales and technical training, marketing
collateral, ROI tools, and more.

Join us in the cloud.

Accelerate Journey To The Cloud

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Tape is dead, long live the cloud

Sony announced yesterday that after 30 glorious years, they will no longer be producing their iconic Walkman which plays cassette tapes.

This is further vindication that "The Digital age" is setting in and transforming the way in which data and media is consumed and used. Long gone are the days when people would listen to their cassette tapes and watch their Betamax when they got home from work. Now, people want their Beatles album or their television in crystal clear quality.

The same is becoming increasingly apparent for the majority of organisations when it comes to their IT requirements. Fed up with the manual processes, poor quality and local hardware associated with tape backups, it's now more about having the business agility to backup data cheaply, easily and with the least risk possible.

Sony stopping production of the Cassette opens the door for the cloud to transform the music industry. People will now expect to be able to access and consume their music whether they're at home, at work, travelling, at the gym or generally on the move - but without being restricted to just the music available on their local device.

Redstor have helped organisations make the switch over the past 5 years with our successful Online Backup service and will continue to do so in 2011 and beyond with the launch of cloud storage with EMC. We are well versed in aiding organisations on their journey from heritage backup methods such as tape, to cutting edge cloud services.

We are conducting a survey on LinkedIn asking when we will see the end of tape backups in the corporate Data Centre - to have your say click here
If you require advice from the experts on how to change the record, then please call Redstor on 0118 9515 200.

Mark Treweeke's Top Five Tips for Cloud Services and Networking

Mark Treweeke, Redstor's Product Manager gives us his top 5 tips for those looking for an insight into how to overcome network challenges that may be encountered when considering Online Cloud Backup and Cloud Storage Services.

1. The first backup or upload of data to the cloud is likely to take a long time, typically due to large data quantities needed to be shifted over low bandwidth connections. This can be alleviated by using an online backup or cloud storage provider who has a ‘seeding’ option where they ship you a storage device to collect the data before it is shipped back to the service provider and uploaded to the cloud platform.

2. Make sure that the technology that you are using to backup or move data into the cloud is designed for that purpose and has been designed to minimise data transfer over the network through data reduction technologies like compression, block or binary level incremental backups or client-side data de-duplication technology which eliminates blocks of data already stored in the cloud, all of which greatly reduces the amount of data that needs to be transported over the network. This type of enabling technology will allow only unique data to be sent after the initial seed backup has been performed.

3. The daily change rate should be something that's appropriate for online backups or cloud storage. If you're creating many tens or hundreds of gigabytes of unique data per day, and you need to back up that data or move it into the cloud every day, you may require greater bandwidth in order for the process to complete in a timely fashion. You’ll have to consider the cost of the additional network bandwidth required.

4. Security over public networks should be of concern, make sure that the enabling software encrypts the data before it is sent over the network and offers ‘end-to-end’ encryption.

5. Networks today are more reliable than ever but enabling technology should still include a strong re-connection mechanism. You don’t want your backup or data transfer to fail and have to re-start all over again because a connection to the internet or service provider was lost, even if it was momentarily. This is especially true for laptop backup, where they regularly lose their connection or move between networks or access points due to the portability of the device, power saving and hibernation options.

Redstor's cloud services include our ever-growing Online Backup service which currently protects upwards of 500TB of data and Redstor Protector, our Laptop Encryption and Backup service. If you require any further information around Cloud services and how these can help you adapt your business please call our office on 0118 9515 200.

Redstor at the Reading Expo - Madejski Stadium

Redstor exhibited at the Reading Expo hosted at Reading Football Club's Madejski Stadium earlier this week which was attended by a number of delegates from various local businesses and organisations. We showcased our knowledge around solving organisation’s storage and backup challenges and key cloud services as well as protecting sensitive data and remotely managing devices. The event was a good opportunity for us to interact with local businesses from big to small and further established our name and increased our awareness within the local area.

We are keen to continue with attending and supporting local exhibitions and will look to speak at such local events in the future.

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Redstor have been focused on data management and protection since 1998 and have created one of the largest service provider enabled storage infrastructures (storage clouds) in the UK. Redstor Online Backup is re-branded by numerous well known service organisations and is the engine behind the Redstor Backup Service for Schools (RBUSS). Over 80 Local Authorities and education service providers use Redstor's online service to backup and restore the data of over 12,000 addressable schools in the UK.