Redstor and EMC hosting UK launch event for Cloud storage services

Following the recent launch of our suite of cloud storage services, EMC have joined forces with us here at Redstor in hosting a series of UK launch events in London and Birmingham next month.

Many organisations, including FTSE 100 enterprises and household names are looking to the cloud as a way to alleviate costs and mitigate risks, whilst matching their IT requirements to their business requirements.

Is now the right time for you to look to the cloud? Are you considering building your own private storage cloud or having aspects of your data stored in a public storage cloud? Do you have serious questions about the choice of technology, the best route to implementation or whether your internal processes are ready?

If you answered yes to any of those questions and/or are keen to find out more about our cloud services then why not attend one of our FREE UK launch events? Simply click here to register and you could also win an Apple iPad!

Redstor announces partnership with Nasuni

Redstor have announced our partnership with Nasuni, creator of the storage industry's leading cloud storage gateway. We developed our partnership with Nasuni through our EMC Atmos relationship and have been working with Nasuni since the final quarter of 2010.

Redstor are now able to offer our expanding customer base the Cloud NAS by Redstor service which utilises the Nasuni filer solution. This creates a secure, high performance NAS server with a connection to the Redstor Cloud Storage Platform. The Nasuni Filer simplifies access, storage and protection whilst eliminating any incremental expense and management issues inherent in hardware expansion.

Cloud NAS can be used as primary storage instead of, or in combination with traditional file servers as it provisions storage capacity automatically and delivers local-like performance. Features include synchronous snapshots, deduplication and encryption plus key management for security. Currently the Nasuni Filer manages tens of millions of files securely.

Cloud NAS by Redstor is one of three new online storage services powered by EMC Atmos. Redstor will utilise Atmos in our Cloud Storage Platform, hosted in geographically diverse data centres to provide secure cloud storage services to help customers of all sizes develop an overall cloud storage strategy.

Commenting on the partnership, Andres Rodriguez, CEO at Nasuni, said: "We are always looking to partner with leading cloud providers and are excited to be advancing our UK efforts with an established provider focused on delivering the best solution available to customers. We spent the last year building a loyal customer base and are now enabling partners to leverage our solution to provide customers the functionality of a traditional NAS while benefiting from the scalable, redundant and on demand features of the cloud. We are looking forward to working with Redstor and are pleased to be partnering with such a customer-centric organisation."

Tony Ruane, Business Development Director at Redstor, said "The Nasuni partnership has been developed as a result of the demand we have seen from our customers over the last five years for cloud offerings that move data to lower-cost storage locations. Nasuni allows us to deliver unlimited file storage via the cloud and complete protection from a single virtual file server, effectively opening the floodgates to our storage and driving increased recurring income to our partners. We are very pleased to be working with such an expert in the file storage sector."

For more information on Cloud NAS by Redstor, please call our Reading office on +44 118 951 5200.

Universities to share cloud services

According to an article on information-age.com, The Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) has allocated £12.5million to a new cloud computing shared services initiative for universities in order to ensure they're saving money and resources.

This move could see Universities using Online Backup by Redstor, Cloud Storage and CentraStage to reduce costs but retain enterprise class IT services in line with their business requirements.

City University of London's CIO, Andrew Abboud, said "We all have Data Centre requirements, so we've agreed to sit down to understand what those needs are and see if we can work together, whether it is to build our own facility or use our procurement power to get a cheaper price from someone else's facility".

Redstor displays it's cloud services at BETT 2011

The Redstor team are back to work after BETT 2011 and after 4 days of greetings and meetings, we've been able to take stock and reflect at another successful year at BETT.

One of the highlights has to be that CentraStage- distributed by Redstor - was selected by Computing Magazine in it's Top 5 "Best of BETT" as reported here.

"Hardware management and monitoring software provider CentraStage launched a new version of its cloud offering; an integrated application that allows users to download and deploy pre-packaged software to their managed IT estate, regardless of network or location. The software also allows schools to track and update a range of devices remotely, and CTO Ian Van Reenan told Computing that the firm will be releasing a version for Apple OS devices, such as MacBooks, but is still working on software for iOS devices such as the iPad and iPhone. "

There was also a significant amount of interest in our new cloud storage services, RBUSS mobile and Redstor e-safety. There was a consistent flow of demonstrations across all of these services taking place for large parts of the exhibition, with all being greatly received by BETT delegates.

Redstor launches e-safety service

Redstor are pleased to formally announce the launch of our new e-safety service. We are looking forward to discussing this in depth with our education channel partners at BETT show this week, where we have a record high number of appointments and meetings.

Redstor, a leading managed services, cloud storage and IT solutions provider, has today launched a new e-Safety service. Redstor e-Safety will be available to Local Authority and education IT service providers in the UK to help schools protect against the rising threat of cyber bullying.

Redstor will continue to work through its vast network of partners and build upon relationships with over 85 Local Authorities and education service providers to provide this new e-safety service to schools and educational establishments.

Redstor e-Safety, powered by Securus, will ensure a safe online working environment for pupils and teachers by capturing ICT issues and misuse. The service identifies and captures incidents such as cyberbullying, access to harmful web sites, the un-safe or inappropriate use of email, computer programs and online applications.

The launch of Redstor e-Safety comes at a time when Ofsted has highlighted Internet safety and the importance of safeguarding against online bullying and cyber abuse while providing pupils with increased access to Internet based technologies.

The new service captures child protection and behavioral issues such as the use of proxy bypass sites, contact with strangers, inappropriate content uploaded to a school’s network as well as key words indicating self-harm and drugs.

Paul Evans, Managing Director at Redstor, said: “Redstor e-Safety allows pupils and staff to feel more confident about using new technologies, safe in the knowledge the ICT network is monitored and protected.”

Evans continues, “Ofsted has stated that Headteachers must meet a legal duty of care to protect pupils and staff and provide a safe learning environment yet without monitoring technology many schools are unaware if a pupil is at risk on-line. Redstor e-Safety allows Schools and ICT service providers to safely manage any schools ICT network, providing a constant vigil for pupils and staff.”

Intrigued? Redstor will be at stand U23 at BETT, where we will be happy to answer your questions.

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.

US Government moves to the Cloud

At the tail end of last week, the US Government announced plans to reduce it's number of Data Centres by 38% over the next 5 years as they move to the cloud.

The key driver behind their adoption of the cloud is the ability to rapidly scale their IT requirements with increased flexibility in the face of quickly changing business needs. Just as key however, is being able to operate on a pay as you go model with no up front investment and further investment only required as the service scales. Additionally, the move will straighten out lengthy procurement cycles and certification processes meaning that further efficiencies can be made on a business level as well as a technology level.

Redstor have been providing cloud services for the past 5 years to help organisations achieve goals which are similar to those of the world's largest and most powerful Government. Through using our Online Backup, Redstor Protector and Online Backup Plus services; organisations have been able to scale their IT requirements to match those of the business and reduce capital expenditure as well as mitigating risks associated with managing internal solutions. We're just 22 days away from the next chapter of our Cloud Services story when we launch Cloud Storage in conjunction with EMC which will offer elastic capacity on demand.

If it's the right time for the US Government to look to the cloud, is it the right time for your organisation to look to the cloud with us? Call Redstor on 0118 9515 200 if you wish to find out more.

Cloud Computing "could boost EU Economy"

A recent news story on the BBC website has outlined that the growth of the cloud computing industry within the EU could give the economies within a much needed growth injection over the next five years. It's anticipated that 466,000 net new jobs would be created each year as well as providing an additional €177bn per year. Of the 5 major economies in the EU, only Germany is expected to see more dividends from this than the UK.

This will come off the back of organisations moving from a 'classic' environment of having local solutions and the necessity to maintain and support those to having business agile, cloud services on a pay as you use model.

Through moving to an environment compromising of cloud services, organisations can completely scale their IT to their business requirements rapidly. Instead of making purchases for large scale solutions out of capital expenditure, organisations can now treat IT as a utility much in the same way as they would consume Energy and Communications.

If you wish to increase the flexibility of your IT services and look to the cloud then Redstor are well placed to assist you as we have been offering cloud services since 2005; amassing 800TB+ of data and in excess of 15,000 end user customers of these services in that time. The next cloud service we'll be launching is Cloud Storage in 28 days time in conjuction with EMC which enable organisations to scale up their storage capacity in line with their business/project demands. Please feel free to call our Reading office on 0118 9515 200 for further details.

Cloud Storage from Redstor - the countdown is on...

With just 52 days left until the launch of Cloud Storage from Redstor in conjunction with EMC, the industry as a whole are looking at ways to "cloudify" their solutions to integrate with ATMOS.

The latest of these is Riverbed with the launch of Riverbed Whitewater which is a cloud storage accelerator that works with existing backup software to securely accelerate and de-duplicate data to the public cloud, and enable fast restore at any time.

You can read more about Riverbed's journey to the cloud here.

In January 2011, Redstor will be one of the first UK companies to offer cloud storage services powered by the EMC Atmos platform. It will offer its customers the opportunity to reduce costs, mitigate risks and migrate to a virtual data centre with confidence and ease whilst minimalising the up front capital expenditures previously associated. The partnership is part of Redstor’s growth plans to increase its cloud service portfolio and compliments existing services Online Backup and Protector.

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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.

Redstor partners with EMC to launch Cloud Storage in UK

Redstor, a managed services, cloud storage and IT solutions provider has today announced a partnership with EMC Atmos to offer customers access to the EMC Atmos cloud storage platform. The partnership will allow Redstor to offer four new cloud storage services that will utilise the EMC Atmos platform.

Redstor is one of the first UK companies to offer cloud storage services powered by the EMC Atmos platform. It will offer its customers the opportunity to reduce costs, mitigate risks and migrate to a virtual data centre with confidence and ease whilst minimalising the up front capital expenditures previously associated. The partnership is part of Redstor’s growth plans to increase its cloud service portfolio and compliments existing services Online Backup and Protector.

The partnership will allow software vendor partners to interface effectively with its data centres and deliver an easy virtual drive to manually migrate data to the cloud. Policy based, intelligent file information tiering, long tail information retention and clone backup copies will also be offered as part of the Redstor EMC Atmos solution.

Commenting on the partnership Tony Ruane, Business Development Director at Redstor said: “EMC Atmos will form a key part of our infrastructure. We see a huge demand from our customers and partners for cloud offerings that move data to lower-cost storage locations. Not all data is created equal and, thanks to some fantastic economies-of-scale, we can often store customer data in the cloud much more effectively than by storing it on site. The open EMC Atmos Application Programme Interface means that our independent software vendor partners can interface with our data centres to deliver compelling end-user services, effectively opening the floodgates to our storage and driving increased revenues for us and our partners.”

This has been reported on by many online publications including (but not limited to) CBR Online, IT News Online, IT Director, CIO and IT Analysis.

For further information on how you can ensure your business agility with Redstor's cloud services, please call 0118 9515 200

Redstor at IP Expo 2010

Redstor spent this Wednesday and Thursday at IP Expo in Earls Court, London with EMC. We were invited to talk to their customers as well as press and analysts about our cloud storage services.

In January we’ll be launching a range of additional cloud storage and online backup services based on EMC Atmos and it was a great opportunity to spread the message and gain some great feedback. We spent time talking about the practical applications for these new services- such as cloud archiving and online NAS. The show was an interesting mix of infrastructure suppliers selling the latest technology as well as a few true cloud suppliers.

Without doubt next year we’ll see more cloud providers and more emphasis from the traditional vendors on their cloud offerings. We left the show with some great new ideas and business opportunities. Watch this blog for updates on the new cloud services.

Cloud Storage

Redstor Managing Director, Paul Evans, looks at how ‘The Cloud’ can help address today’s Public Sector Challenges

Established in 1998 Redstor’s has been an EMC partner since its inception and today its focus is data management and protection and cloud based services and solutions. The company’s commercial heritage spans the financial, technology, oil and gas markets. In 2005 Redstor turned its attention to the public sector in particular the education market.
The public sector is about to enter the greatest period of change since the end of the Second World War. Uncertainty is certain! The cupboards are bare. The age of austerity is among us. Whatever metaphor one chooses to use, the facts are daunting.
The UK is facing public sector debt north of £800 billion and this excludes the massive future pension liabilities. Budget cuts are expected to be at least 25% between 2010 and 2013. Becta is being shut down and merged with the ‘new’ Department for Education. The ‘Building Schools for the Future’ programme has been stopped and the Autumn 2010 spending review is awaited with trepidation.
Add to this the immediate freeze in headcount, strict travel restrictions and imminent redundancies and it is clear that the next few years for the public sector will be tough.
Public Sector Repercussions:
Public sector technologies, and the teams that manage the technology infrastructure for the public sector, are predicted to be especially hard hit.
The situation public sector technology decision makers find themselves in is daunting. As cuts become increasingly widespread there are four central conclusions that can be drawn:
- Departments will delay hardware/software refreshes & upgrades
- Ageing IT kit will increase support overheads
- There will be greater stress on central IT teams
- Departments accustomed to existing levels of service will expect more for less
Going Green
As IT decision makers contemplate and plan for the next few years, the green agenda will continue to change the behaviours of these decision makers. The Carbon Reduction Efficiency Scheme (CRC) which started operating in April will put further pressure on technology decision makers. This is essential to reduce UK carbon emission gases by 80% before 2050 against a 1990 baseline and the public sector will have to comply.
Planning an ICT Strategy
Planning an effective ICT strategy has never been harder. The status quo is no longer an option and it is time to take a fresh approach towards ICT. The central issue technology decision makers must address is efficiency whilst maintaining and improving service to their internal and external customers.
Decision makers must specifically look at common infrastructures, standards and encourage the automation of mundane and repetitive tasks to focus attention on the customer experience. A single public sector network and the creation of the Government G-Cloud are seen as solutions that are gaining momentum within the public sector. The advantages of each are already well made arguments and address the central issue of efficiency within a cost effective framework based on pay-as-you-go, rather than upfront capital expenditure and benefiting from economies of scale.
Other issues gaining increased momentum include shared services, data centre rationalisation and common designs for desktop services.
As technology changes in the public sector take hold Redstor has been in the ,vanguard introducing cloud storage based technologies such as its online backup service which address key public sector challenges. For example its schools online backup service, which is underpinned by EMC SAN and VMware technology and sold through partners such as Local Authorities, addresses the fundamental issues faced by the public sector of cost and utilisation. By offering a cloud backup service to schools, Redstor through its economies of scale is able to offer a cheaper, greener service than the schools or Local Authority doing it themselves. They are able to get a predicatable price and do not need to incur upfront capital expenditure making the proposition compelling in these new lean times. Essentially Redstor’s Schools Backup Service is a Shared Service which also addresses the need for the public sector to standardise on common platforms as opposed to each Authority creating new bespoke backup and storage solutions and encourages data centre rationalisation thus saving space and power.
Whilst Redstor’s Cloud Backup Service cut its teeth in the public sector, Redstor also addresses the commercial space through partners (130 in total) and also works directly with corporate end users with its online backup plus offering.

Redstor became synonymous with RBUSS - Redstor Backup Service for Schools which is underpinned by EMC SAN technology. Today, over 85 Local Authorities and service providers use this service to backup data addressing 14,000 schools in England & Wales. Right now we are focusing on delivering Storage as a Service underpinned by EMC ATMOS technology and to learn more about this then please follow this blog!

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 exhibiting at Socitm Conference, Brighton 10th-12th October

Redstor are exhibiting at the Socitm conference 2010 to be held at The Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel in Brighton from Sunday 10th October to Tuesday 12th October.

The Socitm conference is a chance for public sector organisations to discuss how to address the challenges presented by the looming spending review and general economic backdrop of financial uncertainty.

A number of Local Authorities are already re-designing their service delivery models using CentraStage and we believe that other public sector organisations will follow suit over the coming months and years.

If you would like to meet with us to discuss any of our services around Cloud Storage, Online Backup or Data Protection and doing more, for less then please call us on 0118 951 5200 or e-mail sales@redstor.com

Redstor Online Backup Specialists, Grow and Move

Redstor synonymous with cloud storage and online backups have now moved into their new home on the Kings Road, Reading.

Following 12 years of growth and renting offices within Reading, Redstor decided it was time to buy their own premises and wanted a location which was close to the town centre and to Reading Train Station.

In November 2009, Redstor finally acquired what were the premises of the RAOB club in Kings Road, Reading, comprising some 5000 square feet. After obtaining a change of use permission from Reading Borough Council, Redstor had the task of turning what were club premises, including 3 bars and a skittle alley into a flexible, modern open plan working environment which the Redstor team would be proud of.

“We created a design brief to reflect the evolving nature of our Data Storage and Online Backup Business. In particular, we wanted a place we could demonstrate and showcase our Cloud Storage Solutions and Storage Expertise to our customers and Partners and a place where our team would enjoy working........” said Dominic Anschutz, Redstor’s Operations Manager....“As a result we needed a client facing data centre suite, training and meeting rooms and a flexible working area which would attract natural light, encourage open communication and be conducive to work”

Following the design brief a competitive beauty parade of interested companies to carry out the office transformation project was conducted and Morgan Lovell was selected.

“They fully understood our brief and came up with some innovative ideas and from our first engagement, they were extremely professional and meticulous” commented Tony Ruane, Redstor’s Co-Founder who was heavily involved in formulating the design.

“We engaged a local company to strip out the building and many of the old fixtures and fittings, including bar taps, dance floors, skittle alley were recycled and distributed to local charities, friends and family and local businesses who were happy to take it off our hands.....Following a 3 week strip out, Morgan Lovell took over the site and within 3 weeks had transformed what was a fully operational club site into a modern office which is now our home” said Paul Evans, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Redstor............ “We have been mightily impressed with Morgan Lovell’s professionalism throughout, from design all the way through to execution and handover of the building and now have an office which better meets the demands of our growing business”.
END

Do you want to quickly generate a new revenue stream?

The Redstor Protector ‘Cloud’ Service allows you to quickly generate a new revenue stream. Redstor provides all the technology infrastructure and marketing support you need to rapidly take to market the most comprehensive and secure data protection and recovery solution available. Redstor Protector is a unique service designed to be offered by Service Providers and includes:

• Policy-driven desktop and laptop backup and recovery
• At rest AES encryption
• Remote data delete
• Port access control
• Device trace

If you are a Service Provider, Redstor Protector represents a unique service proposition for your customers and will give your organisation a competitive edge by offering differentiated functionality - Redstor Protector combines 5 best-of-breed components into one powerful solution.

Grow your organisation during these challenging times as a Redstor Services Partner. Redstor provides its ‘cloud’ experience and everything you need to take the service to your customers and quickly generate a new recurring income stream with minimal cost of entry:

• No infrastructure costs and low operating overheads
• Built on solid, proven award winning technology
• Designed to generate recurring revenues
• Simple sign up process for you and your customers
• Keeps support calls to a minimum
• Extend your brand and create customer loyalty with re-branding options
• Extensive sales tools and customer facing collateral that can be re-branded
• Built on Redstor's Storage Platform

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.

Contact Redstor now to find out how you can quickly generate a new revenue stream and GROW YOUR BUSINESS.

+44 (0)118 951 5200
sales@redstor.com

For more information on Redstor Protector click here

SUN works with UK’s leading private Online Backup Provider

Since 1998 Redstor has been providing innovative backup and storage solutions to wide ranging organisations from large oil and gas and financial companies to hi-tech and public sector organisations such as local authorities.

4 ½ years ago based on this experience we created our own online backup service and ever since we have been at the forefront of cloud storage and backups and we are now supporting many thousands of organisations including over 12,000 schools.

In our quest to keep improving our service, and driving operational efficiencies in our storage platform we are always evaluating new technologies to see if they would benefit our customers and recently we have started working with SUN Open Storage and have been impressed with what we have seen. Below is an excerpt from the Sun Story.


U.K. Provider of Private Cloud Backups Cuts TCO for Storage Platform by 50% with Sun Open Storage. Founded in the United Kingdom in 1998, Redstor is a managed services and IT solutions company focused on storage, data management, and protection. In 2005, it launched the private cloud Redstor Online Backup service, which today has more than 200 TB of customer data under its protection............ For more on this story please click on the link:

http://www.sun.com/customers/servers/redstor.xml