Online Data Backup & Storage Blog

What is the Cloud?

John Neibel — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:33:11 +0000

I have been asked so many times lately, “What is the Cloud”, that I decided to create a page dedicated to the question. Please visit the page Cloud page.

After fighting the word Cloud, I am adopted it as what I have been doing for almost 3 years, do today and moving forward. That was “Off-Site Managed Online Data Backup” is now “Managed Cloud Backup”. I have changed the home page and will work on the rest of the site to represent the new name for the same offering. The technical offering is the same with feature such as:
- Compression & Encryption of information
- Stored in a remote location
- Redundant copies of Data on my side
- Local Copy of data at no cost
- Incremental File, Database Email & Bitbackup Transmitted over the Internet or “Cloud”
- Daily Monitoring of the backups, Managed

I am also per-announcing here that I am finishing up the last couple of technology pieces of a cloud storage solution offering for my customers and prospects. This new offering will have all the security, privacy, redundancy and flexibility that my backup services is known for.

This new offering will be branded as My Mirrored Storage Cloud aka MyMSCloud

Customers will be able to have local, cloud or both location for their data. A very handy synchronization option if data stored in both locations or used off-line. There are many options and flexibility available and it will ALL be managed, administered and of course backed up.

Stay Tuned!

Cloud Technology Myths

John Neibel — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:46:29 +0000

There has been a lot of BUZZ about “Cloud” the last couple of years, but it is heating up this summer. There has been tons of press releases about the Cloud, but I wanted to put my 2 cents in on the subject. I have heard several talks lately and over the coming months I have been asked to speak on topic. So here are some bullets for thought and your response.

Myths about the Cloud; things that may be implied but are NOT true:
- Information Secure
- Data Redundancy
- Stored in a location outside your local area
- Monitored

Events of note:
- Amazon EC3 Failure
- DropBox Security Breach
- Gmail Mailbox Loss
- Carbonite Lost Data
- My Backup Loss

What is the answers to these issues with who you are talking to or considering?

Either way you get your Data Back!

John Neibel — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 04:10:42 +0000

I saw a story about a set of stores with the sign that said the following, “either Way you get you pet back.” The stores were a veterinary clinic and taxidermist side-by-side.

That got me thinking about what I do. I have partners that I do work with that do data recovery either as part of their core service offerings or do that for their customers. Since I do their backup off-site and optionally on-site that saying would apply to what I do.

The caveat is if “they” were a customer of mine before the data loss.
#1 If they were than no question, I recover their data.
#2 If not, then the question is weather their hardware was damaged and to what extent.

So the answer:
#1 NO COST
#2 Service cost or REALLY big costs for hardware recovery.

Want to know who is both happier and up and running the quickest?

Call Me to find out.

John
214-550-0550

Is Gmail your backup system?

John Neibel — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:57:49 +0000

February 28th Google discovered that tens of thousands of Google Gmail users e-mail, chat histories and contacts had disappeared from their accounts. The problem still is not fixed. Google announced Monday night that the Gmail issue, which struck some users on Sunday, was caused by a bug in a storage software update. While Google had said Monday afternoon that the issue would be resolved for all users within 12 hours, the company now says that the problem has not been fixed but hopes it will be “soon.”

The good news is that Google reported that users’ e-mails, contacts, folders and settings have not been lost. They are retrievable and should be back in users’ accounts once the problem is resolved. Keep an eye on the dashboard.

“Imagine the sinking feeling of logging in to your Gmail account and finding it empty,” wrote Ben Treynor, a Google vice president engineering and Site Reliability Czar, in a blog post . “That’s what happened to 0.02% of Gmail users yesterday, and we’re very sorry. The good news is that email was never lost and we’ve restored access for many of those affected. Though it may take longer than we originally expected, we’re making good progress and things should be back to normal for everyone soon.”

The number of users affected has varied. At first, the company estimated that 0.08%, or 150,000 users had been affected. Later Monday, Google reduced that estimate to 0.02%, or 35,000.

On Monday afternoon, a Google spokesman told Computerworld that engineers had restored service to about a third of those affected.

In his blog Monday night, Treynor addressed the question of how this could happen if Google has multiple copies of users’ data in multiple data centers.

“Well, in some rare instances software bugs can affect several copies of the data,” Treynor wrote. “That’s what happened here. Some copies of mail were deleted, and we’ve been hard at work over the last 30 hours getting it back for the people affected by this issue.”

He added that engineers have also archived to tape in order to save the data.

“To protect your information from these unusual bugs, we also back it up to tape,” he said. “Since the tapes are offline, they’re protected from such software bugs. But restoring data from them also takes longer than transferring your requests to another data center , which is why it’s taken us hours to get the email back instead of milliseconds.”

Treynor said a detailed incident report will be posted to Google’s Apps Status Dashboard .

Our TAKE:

We believe that this highlights the importance of backup for businesses. I was having lunch with a friend on Monday that told me has last company used Gmail so that they would not have to worry about backups — Oops!

Not all backup solutions are the same. Check out our Ten Questions page for questions you should ask and get GOOD answers to from your backup person or provider.

John Neibel
Mirrored Storage, Inc.
www.mirroredstorage.com

Cisco and Iomega to Integrate Mozy’s Hybrid Backup Solution

John Neibel — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:03:49 +0000

WOW, what a novel idea, have a local backup for recovery.

Mirrored Storage has been offering that STANDARD for over 2 years and don’t require any special certification or product to do it. Our clients that want this feature only need extra hard drive space on ANY computer, storage device or shared drive. If a dedicated machine is desired for running the backup OR storage of the local backup we offer an appliance.

Here is a summary of what they are coming out with:

Mozy announced a strategic partnership with Cisco and Iomega. This marks the first collaboration where these two companies are going to include MozyPro in their respective storage offerings.

According to its maker, MozyPro solution can simplify the disaster recovery and business continuity plans of small businesses cost-effectively.

In a press release, Mozy explained that the need for simplified business disaster preparedness is continuously rising—leading small businesses to increasingly adopt safe, cost-effective backup and storage solutions. Mozy’s fully integrated backup service has a hybrid approach which combines local and online backup.

According to the company, this hybrid approach is fast gaining in popularity as this approach significantly helps in reducing the complex overhead and excessive administrative costs traditionally required by tape-based backup.

This hybrid solution is provided through the integration of MozyPro with one of several NAS vendors to simplify a company’s data protection stack. With two layers of redundant data protection, both local and online, SMBs can focus more on their business and worry less about data backup, the company explained.

MozyConnect integrated with Cisco NSS300 Series Smart Storage, as well as with Iomega StorCenter desktop and rackmount network storage devices, which are expected to give customers a fully integrated solution for backing up their critical business data locally on the device and online in Mozy’s secure datacenters.

“As we continue to protect more and more businesses with MozyPro, we have heard the growing need to offer this hybrid approach. We’re excited that Cisco and Iomega are the first two network-attached storage providers to work with us to fill this need, and we look forward to adding more vendors to our MozyConnect service in the future,” VP of product management for Mozy Russ Stockdale commented in a statement.

Mozy also announced that MozyConnect for Cisco Smart Storage is available now via Mozy direct sales and through Mozy resellers, as well as all Cisco partners.

MozyConnect for Iomega StorCenter Network Storage products is scheduled for availability in the spring of 2011.

Again, we have been doing this for 2 year AND not charging for it.

For more information please visit our website

Written by
John Neibel
President
Mirrored Storage, Inc
www.mirroredstorage.com

Power Failures CAN Take Your Business DOWN!

John Neibel — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:31:11 +0000

A Mirrored Storage customer just last week, had an issue as part of the “rolling power outages” experienced by them when the power came back on. He was believed that he had a good local backup solution using Symantec’s Backup Exec (formerly Veritas Backup Exec). When we did the assessment we learned that many businesses we meet with their backup tape cartridges were next to the tape drive and server. He saw the need for a Managed Backup Service as his second line if defense in case either of the following happened:

The entire building was destroyed
Symantec’s Backup Exec was “giving him fits”

Then the great “Superbowl Winter Storm” hit Dallas. His building lost power several times during the rolling blackouts. While his server’s had battery devices (UPS) his user’s desktops that were accessing files on the server did not. Another issue was that the blackouts kept happening and his UPS’s didn’t have time to recharge where there was power. After two complete server power failures he was “worried”.

During the outages several “VERY IMPORTANT” files were corrupted and his users were VERY concerned. He gave us a call and asked if we had power and could help him. He shared that his Symantec BE was indeed not working at all and had not for several weeks. He was not to concerned about it because he was using Mirrored Storage’s Managed Backup Service. He told us “Now is your chance to prove your value.”

While we were recovering his files he was pleasantly surprised that:

His files were available through his user interface
He got to choose were version if the files needed
Recovered his files in second!

His closing comment was, “Wow that was really easy to use. Thanks so much for your help; stay warm.”

For more information about the “managed backup services,” check out Mirrored Storage, Inc.

I told you so: Mozy scraps unlimited backups

John Neibel — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:00:04 +0000

Mozy, the online backup service provider and EMC subsidiary, plans to announce today that it’s dumping its subscription permitting customers to store unlimited data.

The reason is not hard to guess: with ever-growing quantities of photos and videos, the unlimited plan is financially unsustainable, the company said. In other words, it’s my fault.

You see, I’m a Mozy customer. I spent $82 for a two-year subscription and started inflicting my hundreds of gigabytes of photos and increasingly videos as well. I’m a photo nerd, so each 21-megapixel photo in raw format sucks up something like 20MB or 25MB, and each video is shot in 1080p so even shortish clips can occupy a half a gigabyte.

I’m somewhere in the top 0.3 percent in terms of my data use, but I’m also a leading indicator, and that’s why Mozy is altering course.

“There has been a change in consumer behavior,” said Russ Stockdale, Mozy’s vice president of product management. “What we have seen since we launched an unlimited service five years ago is there has been an explosion in digital content, specifically digital photos and video.”

In my case, with just under 600GB of data, the $3.40 per month I pay now will explode to just about $60 per month when my subscription runs its course in a few months.

That’s because Mozy will begin charging $5.99 per month for up to 50GB of data, with more costing $2 per month per 20GB after that. And, recognizing that more and more people have multiple computers to back up, it’s added a new multi-machine option costing $9.99 a month for up to 125GB and three computers. More computers or further 20GB increments add another $2 per month each.

Good-bye unlimited
Needless to say, I’m now looking at Mozy alternatives. But I don’t feel resentful–just sad at the disappearance of yet another uncapped part of the Net.

I’m grandfathered into an unlimited-data plan with T-Mobile UK, but if I leave to try to find a carrier with better service, they don’t have an unlimited plan for me, and I can’t go back to the T-Mobile plan. Likewise, my unlimited home broadband account actually has fair-use limits, as is customary in the U.K. My $25 a year at Flickr gets me unlimited photo storage, but it’s something of a holdout in an increasingly pay-as-you-go world.

And Mozy isn’t alone. Google Docs costs $1,400 a year for 400GB, for example, and Google’s Picasa Web Albums costs $100 per year for 400GB. Jungle Disk, which provides a front end to storage using Amazon’s S3 service, charges $3.15 per gigabyte per month. Carbonite, perhaps Mozy’s best-known competitor, throttles down bandwidth for big-data users. And up-and-comer Dropbox charges $20 per month for 100GB.

Here’s Mozy’s rationale for the change: the average storage per user increased more than 50 percent last year. More than half of the growth, though, was with the top 10 percent of the users, as measured by how much data that they have.

“The great majority of customers are growing at manageable levels, while the heaviest users bring up the average for the entire group,” Stockdale said.

Mozy braces itself
The company knows it’s in for some ill will.

“We do not take this on lightly…I don’t expect everybody to be happy about it. But if they take a look at what we’re doing and why, it’ll at least be understandable,” he said. Mozy is trying to make the change so it can provide sustainable high-quality backup in the long term” and not resort to fine-print shenanigans hoping few will notice.

The unlimited plans come to an end starting March 1, but last through the end of each customer’s paid subscription.

Not all of Mozy’s costs are going up. Hard drives can hold ever more data for a given price (2-terabyte drives can be had for $100 these days). But that’s not enough to deal with Mozy’s financial plight, Stockdale said.

I warned y’all last year “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is“. Now Mozy confirms my statement/prediction:

“Mozy scraps unlimited backups”

The cost of storage is an element, but it is not even the majority of cost of providing the service,” Stockdale said. “The bandwidth, the data centers, the people who manage that–those costs are a larger part of the cost of providing this.”

Mozy, though a subsidiary of storage powerhouse EMC, uses its own software running on commodity storage systems. Later this year, though, to it’ll start moving users to EMC hardware and eventually migrate everyone, Stockdale said.

CA Offers FREE Online Backup

John Neibel — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:15:53 +0000

I can’t tell all of you how much I LOVE this offer!!!

http://www.deals2buy.com/deals/jqwzkfhk49nbuta28ssrtch4t3hc4adxfaaft7wu7atyb9n7cd3q-ca-online-backup-10gb-unlimited-pcs1-year-subscript?utm_medium=rssalldeals&source=rssalldeals

It highlights what is WRONG with Bogus FREE Online Backup offerings. With this offer you get software free, storage cheep & storage limited? What doesn’t “compute” for you? Summary of this offer is 44.99 Tax Software (really free if you check ANY H&R Block sites), Online Backup Software w/ unlimited storage and 10gb of backup storage. Anyone see and issue?

I have to admit that I run up against the FREE/Unlimited issue every week. I reply with a simple questions “If it sounds to good to be true do you believe it?” For us folks in our 40′s we relate to the old Columbia Record & Tape offer of “12 albums and tapes for a PENNY”. The reality was that we had to buy the next 18 records for $24 each when the retail prices were $12 each.

Online Backup’s 4 Key Features That You Should Understand

John Neibel — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:34:54 +0000

In order to protect crucial documents or files, it is important to utilize extra security measures including creating an online backup. When unfortunate events come in the near future, having an online backup for your data will surely save you from the trouble. You need to understand some key features about this process to better appreciate it.

1) It entails backing up data via offsite storage.

Remote backup is another term for online backup. It is named so because it backs up files, folders or an entire hard drive to a remote server or to a separate computer connected to a network. Unlike the usual backup method of saving data on external hard drives or CDs, the user need not worry about constantly producing copies because remote backup iss usually automatic. Moreover, compact disks or external hard drives can be lost, stolen and worse, destroyed.

2) It is provided by an online company.

Interested subscribers can find online backup services offered by several companies through the Internet. While some companies maintain their data indefinitely in their archives and allow users permanent access, others limit their backup services to a period of time only. Interested subscribers may pay to avail the backup storage services and will only use the Internet whenever they want to select the files to automatically copy to the service provider’s storage. This method is also known as web-based backup. When a user has a high-speed Internet connection, the backup process is more convenient and similar to storing data on an external local drive.

3)It decreases the upsetting costs of data loss.

Data loss can have many debilitating effects especially for personal files or important data used in a business that can no longer be recovered. The tragic consequences brought about by accidents such as fire, file corruption, sudden power surges, burglary and many others may be removed or perhaps reduced by remote backup. You can easily retrieve or access the backup copies of your data, as well as eliminate or reduce the risk of permanent loss when you constantly backup your files.

4) Users may use a password or encryption to protect their backup data.

Some people may be more hesitant about sharing data over the Internet than they are about storing it in an external storage location. In these instances, password protection and encryption come in handy. In using passwords, hackers are prevented from stealing your confidential data while encrypting them will translate your files into codes which will make no sense to hackers. These two features help ensure privacy and secure data transfers and storage.

Users are guaranteed to have peace of mind and security with online backup. But, customers must know how much backup service they need and what other preventive measures they should take to maximize the online backup service.

Article Source: http://business.ezinemark.com/online-backup-s-4-key-features-that-you-should-understand-31de118cd75.html

New Year’s Email

John Neibel — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:58:44 +0000

Greetings from Mirrored Storage, Inc. Wishing you a Happy & Prosperous New Year!
If you are reading this email you and I met at a networking group this past year. I wanted to reach out to you and give you an update on what we have been up to and share some interesting industry and capability information.
We offer MORE than anyone at NO extra cost to You! As a pioneer in the backup business we were the first to offer Appliances in February 2009. Now we have several more exciting offerings available. Some have been around for awhile; we have new options: - Free Backup Risk Assessment – we come onsite or via web meeting for a one hour and make an assessment on your environment. We do this through an interview and actually looking at your system(s). On-line tool also available on the website. - CUSTOM Backup Appliance – we custom build these for almost all our customers now - Complete Local Backup Options – now contains the full range of versioning kept on the server - Version Customization – now available to customize per backup set - Bandwidth Enhancement – now offering 25/25gb speeds - New Personal & Desktop Client Interfaces - Multiple Language Support – now offering simple client interface in Spanish, French & German - Custom Throttling available – control the speed customer can update changes (key for those using a collocation facility that charges for bursts above their contracted limit) - Exchange Backup – added information store utilizing VSS to go along with the already brick level option that’s been around for years - Version 11.2 coming out any day now. Replacing previous open file methods with Microsoft Volume Shadow Service (VSS) Options COMING SOON (additional charge): - Bare Metal Backup/Restore coming January 2011. This option will be at an extra charge but if you have looked at the price of this type of option it will be MUCH less expensive than the $150 – $1000 alternatives. - Geographical replication – your data can not only stored on our two hosted storage area networks (SAN)where it is replicated four times, but also to between 1 & 5 other sites. These include Virginia, Chicago, San Antonio, Frankfort Germany, and Tokyo Japan. Resources for you: Website BLOG NEW Brochure Free Online Assessment Quiz *We offer a referral program that includes residual income.	Online Backup Data Storage – Advantages Of Using Offsite Data Backup Services Are you searching for a reliable way to backup and store your computer information? If you are, know that online data storage backup is one of the best there is. There are plenty of advantages to this solution. Here you can read a few tips about online data storage backup and how it’s able to help you. Why should data storage be a concern for you? When you backup your data online, you eliminate the hard drive as a single source, which is good, since it can fail and cause total lost documents and files. It might not seem a problem for you now, but hard drives will fail, it’s a matter of when, and you can lose all the data on them. Whatever the problem you might have with your hard drive or whatever disaster might hit your network, you lose everything if you kept it all in one place. You might have backup hard drives or tapes in your office, but a fire that destroys the office will damage the backups as well. When you store that data online, the security is higher because you keep it in a different location. All you need to restore the files after that is an Internet connection. Even if your offices are out of order, all you need is a computer and Internet to recover them. That’s another argument in favor of online data storage backup. Even if you’re travelling and you’re away from your computer, you can access all the files you backed up. So, if you lose your computer, office or your entire building all you need is your encryption key and any computer with an internet connection. In such a case, you no longer need to talk to people to email you the files you need. You can restore the files and version of a file you need and download the files that you need. And all this access is available 24/7. Online backups are a lot cheaper than other data backup options. No hardware, replication, versioning, encryption software, or other data center location rental/leasing required. Online backup data storage is a serious option that you should consider, for all the reasons I mentioned so far. Lastly, I have another Truth about data backup: “We manage our customer’s backups, other services manage credit cards.” In other words, their customers won’t hear from them unless the credit card doesn’t work. Our customers hear from us when there is an issue. We look forward to helping you with your online backups. Start your FREE Evaluation today, without any strings attached; only what your dad taught you!