Simplify data management and control storage costs

Here at Redstor, we currently manage in excess of 1PB of data as part of delivering our suite of cloud services, from Exchange Backup to Laptop Encryption and Online Storage . Through our own experiences of managing and maintaining an environment of this scale, we are acutely aware of the specific challenges this can present around storage management and storage optimisation. We have also worked on upwards of 2,000 customer storage and backup projects throughout our 13 years of existence and so have width and depth of knowledge in this area which is unrivalled.

As part of our commitment to deliver solutions that address customers' challenges, we are working with F5 around their ARX solution. This enables organisations to take charge of data growth and implement smarter storage optimisation. F5 ARX file virtualisation gives businesses new flexibility in how they manage their file storage. ARX solutions reduce the complexity of file storage environments and eliminate the operational disruption caused by moving data, enabling companies to boost efficiency and reduce storage costs.

The headline figures are that you can:

- Lower spending on disk capacity by 50-80%

- Reduce backup infrastructure costs and achieve 50-80% faster backup times

- Gain better use of your most expensive storage tier

- Receive more flexibility to deal with massive storage growth

Redstor are equipped with a series of solutions from Storage Management to Online server backup and device management , please call our Reading office on +44 118 951 5200.

Education Investor Awards 2010 - 1 week to go

This time next week a number of the Redstor team will be donning their gladrags for the 2010 Education Investor Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel on London's Park Lane.

The Education Investor Awards celebrate innovation and excellence in the UK's education industry and Redstor have been nominated in the category of "Best Supplier to the Education sector".

Redstor's Managing Director, Paul Evans said "We are very proud to have been nominated for this award following our continued hard work in the Education sector over the past 5 years. We are now working with over 85 Local Authority partners who address 14,000 schools to deliver relevant services that simplify their lives and enable them to focus on high value tasks and efforts. As part of our work with those partners we have introduced new services such as CentraStage, our device management tool and RBUSS Mobile which is our laptop encryption and backup service. We are also looking at other new technologies to launch in the new year to address the challenges of 21st century ICT service delivery. Now, we are all looking forward to enjoying the awards!"

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.

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's New General Manager

I am delighted to announce that Chris Sigley has been appointed as the General Manager of Redstor with full profit and loss responsibilities.

Chris has been successfully heading up the Redstor Education Business Unit which has grown significantly in the last 4 years. This unit now has over 70 Local Authority and Service Partners as customers built initially around Redstor’s Backup Service for Schools (RBUSS) which backs up over 12,000 schools in the UK. Chris was also behind the introduction of Centrastage a device management software which enables Local Authorities to do Asset Management, Power Management, Software Distribution and Remote Support from one web console to their schools.

Chris originally joined the company in September 2004 and has progressed rapidly from being a new business executive, to Education Head to General Manager.

Since Redstor was founded in 1998 by Tony Ruane and myself it has been focused in the area of Data Management and Protection and over the years we have built up a solid and loyal customer base with many recurring relationships and today over 60% of Redstor's income is repeatable which gives us a springboard for continued growth.

Chris's challenge is to continue to renew and grow our customer relationships which we value through excellent customer service and delivering innovative solutions in line with Redstor's heritage.

Paul Evans, MD

‘Working with the Public Sector to Save Time, Money and Enhance Service with Backup and Device Management Solutions’

Paul Evans - Founder and MD of Redstor

During the last 3 party conferences we have heard much talk about how each political party is proposing to deliver cost reductions in the public sector whilst still seeming to want to preserve and enhance front line services.

This has always been the dilemma at the heart of all decision making in government and one which will be more acute in these new austere times.

There have been various government initiatives looking to achieve efficiencies in the delivery of services, notably the Gershon Review of Public Sector Efficiency which was published in July 2004. The Objective of the Review was focused on the government objective of ‘releasing major resources out of activities which could be undertaken more efficiently into front line services that meet the public’s highest priorities’. In short, how can government drive efficiency savings across public sector expenditure?

The main ways Local Authorities seem to be addressing Gershon targets are through budget savings, streamlining business processes, reducing headcount and a combination of IT and shared services.

At Redstor, over the last 4 and half years we have been successfully partnering with Local Authorities to address these very issues by helping them deliver enhanced cost effective services through innovative solutions delivering real value to the UK tax payer.

For instance Redstor’s Remote Backup Service For Schools (RBUSS) is a ‘shared service’ which is now used by over 70 Local Authorities and approximately 12,000 schools in England and Wales.

This service has raised service levels to the schools by increasing the security and availability of schools data. Lost files and information can now be recovered by the schools or Local Authority instantly at a click of a button without having to find the correct tape. School administrators no longer have to manage inefficient tape backup regimes and worry about having to take tapes offsite for disaster recovery purposes.

From the local authority point of view with RBUSS, ICT teams are fielding in some instances up to 30% less support calls in relation to backups with the consequent saving of time and money.

In one authority, one administrator is able to spend just 30 minutes a day managing the backups of 600 schools. This means that team members can be freed up from mundane tasks to focus on other priorities.

Local Authorities are saving money by leveraging the economies of scale delivered by the Redstor backup platform without losing actual control of the delivery of the backup service.

Using the Redstor Backup Platform, Local Authorities can offer a backup service to schools which is cheaper than the cost of a traditional tape based solution and which is cheaper than the cost of trying to build, manage and maintain their own platform.

Finally, the pooling of knowledge and best practice through Local Authority participation in the Redstor forums acts as a catalyst to challenge the participants to offer new services in an efficient and simple way.

Centrastage is another solution Redstor has brought to the public sector market which very much facilitates and underpins cost effective service delivery.

Centrastage is a software platform which provides device management enabling senior managers from the CEO and FD to the ICT service delivery arm to have visibility and control of the ICT estate thereby enabling efficient management.

• It facilitates the streamlining of Business and IT processes through the automation of mundane IT tasks such as patch management
• One person can manage thousands of PC's and servers by exception thereby freeing up front line headcount to concentrate on core activities
• It ensures improved availability and longevity of IT assets through consistent monitoring and proactive housekeeping
• Through its asset management capability, money can be saved by better software licence management
• It puts the public sector back in control with software vendors as software can be uninstalled and new vendor software deployed across thousands of devices at the touch of a button
• It can be run as a 'shared service' and hosted either within Government or in the 'cloud'
• Through the CentraStage user forum, Authorities are collaborating and sharing their ideas and ways of working to ensure they offer more efficient as well as new and better ICT services
• Being a customer driven shared service and benefiting from feedback in the forums, CentraStage can apply this pooled knowledge to drive down the cost of the solution and make managing every device affordable to the public sector

A demonstration of how Centrastage can save time and money can be seen in the forthcoming SQL2005 to SQL2008 upgrade which Local Authorities must carry out in many schools.

Using Centrastage, authorities have shown they can save 2-2.5 hours per primary school of administrator’s time in the upgrade process.

Assuming 90% of the 22,000 UK Primary Schools need to do the upgrade this would equate to a massive potential 49,500 hours of time saved equivalent to 27 administrators working full time for a year at a total cost of £648,000.*

This is just one tiny example of how using Centrastage can achieve Gershon objectives quickly at little cost and can help the public sector achieve on Business Transformation projects.

I will be talking more in my next blog about how Centrastage and the RBUSS service can help the public sector achieve the ‘Greening of Government ICT’ and its SOGE Targets (current Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate).

*This has assumed a 35 hour week and an average salary of £20,000 per annum plus an additional 20% levy in relation to national insurance contributions and other employment costs such as space, expenses and IT etc.

CentraStage and Redstor kick off the first of 3 webinars focusing on helping Local Authorities automate the upcoming SIMS-SQL 2008 upgrade

This morning saw the first of 3 online webinars hosted by Redstor and CentraStage talking about automation of the upcoming SIMS-SQL 2008 upgrade. This upgrade poses challenges to SIMS Authorities who have to carry out this upgrade to each and every SIMS server within their school estate by October 2010.
The next 2 webinars are being held on:

• Tuesday 29th September at 10am - https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/259666299
• Wednesday 7th October at 10am - https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/876792266

Please contact Redstor on 01189 515 200 for further details or click on the registration links above to register your place.

About CentraStage
CentraStage is a web-based device management platform to improve the management of remote servers, PCs and laptops.
Enabling IT support organisations to monitor and manage multiple remote computers over any network, bringing visibility and control to the service provider and allowing remote takeovers, asset and licence management.
http://www.centrastage.com/