Posted by Jeff Cato on Fri, Feb 17, 2012
You just have to laugh some days when you see so many people walking around with their heads down so focused on their smartphones. You would think they were on a date and the person was enthralled with listening and reading every word the phone was giving them. Tablets are becoming the same kind of obsession. Don't get me wrong, I have these same tools, but the effect they have on people's lives and even attitudes is incredible. Now what if something happened to those all important tools and the data on them was lost and not able to be restored? Can you imagine the panic that would set in?
While we love the increased mobility in our lives and in the workforce, it creates difficulties for many companies to protect that mobile data in an automated and secure fashion. Many companies still struggle protecting the data on laptops effectively with their backup processes and systems. The FBI has a stat that says "a laptop is lost or stolen every 53 seconds". If you put it in weekly terms, that is more than 10,000 a week. Wow! You can count on the amount of stolen tablets and smartphones increasing on a weekly basis too. As users today generate increasing amounts of business content on their mobile devices, IT must respond and protect this data. They must safeguard that data no matter where it is. So what is your company doing or planning to do in order to address this growing issue?
There are companies out there that have solutions that enable your business to provide that seamless and secure end to end data protection throughout it. Your company needs a data protection strategy that provides higher scalability and new application access control policies. What about regulatory compliance? Are you meeting those demands with your mobile devices? It is also vital to have the ability to roll back to any point across any device to meet recovery point and recovery time objectives. You definitely want a local and off-site encrypted backup copy of those devices. Essentially you need complete visibility, control and management of the entire backup environment from anywhere/anytime. Make sure your solution also works well in both physical and virtual environments. More and more businesses are pursuing virtualization and cloud IaaS to take further advantage of the economic, security and scalability benefits that come along with them.
So what is your plan to protect your smartphones and tablets? Do you need some help formulating one that provides you a hybrid cloud solution that is secure, seamless and provides the end to end data protection necessary in today's mobile environment? Then contact one of our cloud experts and tell them your situation so they can help you with a solution.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Wed, Jan 18, 2012
One topic that never seems to get enough attention from businesses when talking about their data protection strategy is their data retention policies. Some of these are impacted by the way a company backs up its data and if it has regulatory compliance issues. For example, many companies that backup their data to tapes tend to throw everything on them with no rhyme or reason. This causes a lot of data to be backed up that isn't necessary and could even be cause for increased liability. It also impacts your backup window by backing up more unnecessary files daily. Cloud Backup has a great filtering option allowing you to designate files or types of files you do not want backed up off-site.
Another important element to this topic is the deletion of data. There can be scenarios where you want to delete data from your network, but always keep a backup copy for legal or compliance reasons. There are also situations where you want to both delete it from your network and your backup copies. The key is to automate and review those policies for your business on an ongoing basis.
Whenever using Cloud Backup to protect your data, it is easy to set up the retention policies for your data on the front end and make changes along the way in a matter of minutes. Like anything else in life, if you make sure to do things right on the front end, it makes everything easier on the back end. Watch the following brief video from Jeff Cato, V.P. of Marketing, and Edward Wallace, Sales Engineer, as they discuss some best practices for setting up your retention policies.
If you want to learn more about Cloud Backup, then download our latest whitepaper "The Top 7 Reasons Businesses are Shifting to Cloud Backup" today. If you would like to receive a customized solution and price for your business, then reach out to one of our cloud experts so they can help you today.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Wed, Dec 07, 2011
We have highlighted three important tools to date that are essential if you are going to move your business to Cloud Hosting. Here is a quick recap of the three we have covered:
1) vCloud Director - Helps you build secure multi-tenant private clouds, along with adding and managing your resources
2) vShield App - Provides internal threat protection, port group isolation and helps build security groups
3) vShield Edge - Protects your virtual data centers from external threats
Jeff Cato, V.P. of Marketing, and Raymond Castor, CIO, come together in the final video of this series to discuss the last two tools for your virtualization tool box: Capacity Planner and Cloud Connector. Watch the following video and learn how these two tools help with assessing required resources and connecting your clouds.
Hopefully you have gained some valuable insight into what your business should consider when deciding to implement Cloud Hosting. If you select the right provider they will be able to provide you with these tools, while walking you through how to use them in the process of moving to the cloud. One more piece of educational information to consider is our latest white paper. You can download our latest whitepaper to learn more about why businesses are pursuing virtualization and cloud IaaS. Also, if you want a customized quote for your business please take two minutes to tell us about your situation so one of our cloud experts can assist you.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Tue, Nov 29, 2011
We have highlighted two important tools in parts one and two of this series for your virtualization tool box: vCloud Director and vShield App. Each tool serves their respective purpose ensuring your successful move of servers, data and applications to the Cloud and ongoing management of them.
Jeff Cato, V.P. of Marketing, and Raymond Castor, CIO, team up in our third of four videos to discuss the "must have" tools for your virtualization tool box when you decide to implement Cloud Hosting as a service. The third tool being discussed is vShield Edge. Security is always a hot topic for business leaders and this tool helps with that concern by protecting your virtual data centers from external threats.
We are almost to the finish line with this series. We only have part four left which will cover two final and essential tools your business needs to have in its virtualization tool box. In the meantime, download our latest whitepaper to learn more about the benefits of virtualization and cloud IaaS. To get a customized quote for your business and see how our cloud solutions could solve your problems and decrease costs, tell us about your situation so one of our cloud experts can assist you with how we can help solve them.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Tue, Nov 15, 2011
Tool boxes with the right tools are an absolute necessity whenever fixing or building something. If you don't have them, you cannot successfully complete your project. The same is true whenever a business decides to put its servers, applications and data in the Cloud. You will need certain tools not only to help make the transition to the Cloud a successful one, but also your ongoing experience there as well.
Jeff Cato, V.P. of Marketing, and Raymond Castor, CIO, team up in our second of four videos to discuss the "must have" tools for your virtualization tool box when you decide to implement Cloud Hosting as a service. The second tool discussed is vShield App. Why is it important? It helps your business deal with important security issues such as internal threat protection, port group isolation and building security groups, while decreasing hardware expenses.
I hope you have seen parts 1 and 2 of this video series and they educate you on important items to consider should you pursue Cloud Hosting for your business. Stay tuned for the final two parts that discuss the last three "must have" tools. In the meantime, download our latest whitepaper to learn more about the benefits of virtualization and cloud IaaS. To get a customized quote for your business to see how our cloud solutions could solve your problems and decrease costs, tell us about your problem and one of our cloud experts can assist you.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Tue, Oct 18, 2011
How many of you reading this have a tool box in your garage? In fact, I don't know of anyone that doesn't have one. If you have ever fixed or built something, then you were forced to get one and stock it with at least a few tools at some point in your life. The same will be true whenever your business decides to put its servers, apps and data in the Cloud. You will need certain tools to help make both the transition to and experience in the Cloud a successful one.
Jeff Cato, V.P. of Marketing, and Raymond Castor, CIO, team up again to produce this new four part series discussing the "must have" tools for your virtual tool box when you decide to implement Cloud Hosting as a service. The first and most important one is the vCloud Director. If you were to build anything, you almost always will need a hammer to get the job done. It is central to any tool box. The same is true with the vCloud Director. It's a must have if you are going to host all of your stuff in the Cloud. It is what helps you build your secure multi-tenant private clouds, along with add and manage your resources, to name a few.
Hopefully Part 1 gets you off first base and thinking more serious about Cloud Hosting for your business. If so, then stay tuned for the next three parts that discuss 4 more "must have" tools. In the meantime, you should download our latest whitepaper to learn more about the benefits of virtualization and cloud IaaS. If you want to get a customized quote for your business to see how our cloud solutions could solve your problems, then tell us about your problem so one of our cloud experts can help you.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Mon, Sep 12, 2011
We are in our last segment of this series where we are discussing why dentists should be using Cloud backup and recovery. In part two we discussed how Cloud services can improve important areas like HIPAA compliance and Data Security. Don't you want to spend less time on administrative items when it could be spent on taking better care of your patients or growing your practice? Just think if you ever lost data and could never restore it. Can you imagine the liability and risk to your practice that would create? It's just not worth it.
When we look to the future, technology is changing every industry and the dental one is no exception. Just look around at your dentist's office today and the computers, tablets and new software he or she is using to manage their practice and your records. It's amazing.
In the last part of our three part series we discuss how the Cloud computing industry is growing at a tremendous rate along with the changes in the dental industry. According to IDC, spending on public cloud services will expand to $72.9B globally by 2015. Again, it is not a matter of if you move to the Cloud, but when. If your dental practice is thinking of making or has already made the switch to digital, then you should be considering embracing the Cloud for improved data protection.
According to CRN, it is estimated that small business spending on cloud computing will reach nearly $100 billion. Where is your practice with the Cloud? Are you looking at it to help better manage your growing needs and data?
If you want to learn more about Cloud backup and recovery and why businesses are moving this direction, then download and read our latest white paper. You run your business. We run the cloud.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Tue, Aug 30, 2011
Last week in part one, we talked about how automation and data recovery were very important to dentists' practices. Why would you stick with manual and unreliable processes when you could easily automate them? Isn't you or your staff's time worth it? Don't you want to spend less time on administrative items when it could be spent on taking better care of your patients or growing your practice? Just think if you ever lost data and could never restore it. Can you imagine the liability and risk to your practice that would create? It's just not worth it.
While CoreVault is recommended to more than 15,000 dentists across the country, we continue to see a growing trend of acceptance of the Cloud by dentists. Why? I believe it is because they see the true benefits of the Cloud and it improving their practice in many ways. We discussed automation and ease of data recovery last week as two of the many benefits that are drawing dentists to this type of service.
Today we are on part two of our three part series on why more dentists should be embracing Cloud backup and recovery. In the video below, we discuss how this Cloud service improves the important areas of HIPAA compliance and Data Security.
So why would you continue with your same old ways when technology exist today that would drastically improve the HIPAA compliance and security of your data? If your practice will focus on what it does best and allow a trusted Cloud provider do what it does best, then that makes for a powerful combination.
If you want to learn more about Cloud backup and recovery and why businesses are moving this direction, then download and read our latest white paper. You run your business and we will run the cloud.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Thu, Aug 25, 2011
When is the last time you have been to the dentist to have your teeth checked, cleaned or worked on? In case you did not notice, Dentist offices are going through a digital revolution these days. There is all of the new digital equipment, digital x-rays and computers next to every seat tracking every bit of your patient history. Of course there are those dentists that haven't yet embraced all of this new technology and may be close enough to retirement that they never will. Is that your dentist?
Our company is fortunate enough to be working with many dentists across the country as CoreVault is recommended to more than 15,000 dentists. You find all different kinds of scenarios with Dentist offices as it relates to how they handle their patients and information. However, one common factor in almost all of them is they need to be HIPAA compliant and more secure with their patients' data. You wouldn't think there were any regulations based upon how some, like many other businesses, don't have good best practices in place to protect their data.
Today we are launching this new three part series focused on why more dentists should be embracing Cloud backup and recovery. In part one below, we focus on the important benefits of Automation and Security that come with this cloud service.
So why would you continue with your manual and unreliable processes when you can drastically improve the automation of your practice and be HIPAA compliant with your data on a daily basis? Focus on what you do best, which is taking care of patients. Allow a trusted Cloud provider do what it does best and that is taking care of protecting your data.
If you want to learn more about Cloud backup and recovery and why businesses are moving this direction, then download and read our latest white paper. You run your business and we will run the cloud.
Posted by Jeff Cato on Mon, Aug 15, 2011
In Parts One & Two of this latest series, we discussed the important steps of Choosing the Right Partner and the Tools & Timing related to moving to the cloud. In Part One, we covered making sure your company is evaluating important Cloud Hosting partner criteria like their staff and facility certifications, network resiliency, level of service and support, etc. You must ask these types of questions because your migration to the Cloud is dependent upon it. In Part Two, we looked at the tools and timing your trusted partner should possess to assess and monitor your migrating systems in order to size your systems in the cloud appropriately. Your different types of data needs to be categorized and then schedule your move based upon your maintenance windows and uptime needs.
Today our V.P. of Marketing and CIO will finish this series by drawing out on a white board the four steps to expect during the move of your company to the Cloud and how they impact you. These steps will deal with: Internal or External IT Resources, System Evaluation Results, Migration and Connectivity. See the video for further details.
Hopefully after reading and watching all three of our blogs on "How I Move My Stuff to the Cloud", you have a much better understanding of what to look for and expect should you decide to embrace the Cloud for your business. If you are looking for more information on this important topic, then download our latest white paper "Future Proof and Maximize Your IT Infrastructure with Cloud Services". You can also contact us at cloudexpert@corevault.com or visit us at www.corevault.com if you would like more information on how our cloud services can help your business.