Thursday, December 13, 2007

Remote Desktop Provider Network London Achieve 200% Growth Due To Increasing Demand For Disaster Recovery Solutions

Network London is a UK IT company specialising in IT support, disaster recovery and remote desktop solutions for SME and corporate companies.

Due to changes in technology and greater customer awareness over the past couple of years, companies are now seeking remote access solutions for their IT systems. The benefits to companies both large and small is significant and with constant improvements in internet connectivity, the shift towards such systems is evident, with companies increasingly having some knowledge in remote desktop systems or disaster recovery, prior to tendering for new IT systems and contracts.

Many companies assume that such systems come with high price tags, but in many cases there is actually a short-term and long-term cost-saving to be made, due to customers’ maximised availability of systems and data, lower capital costs and increased efficiency through enhanced communication.

Network London prides itself on being able to offer traditional IT systems and IT support, alongside cutting-edge technologies such as Terminal Services, Citrix, ESX and VMware, which are helping to shape the future of IT systems in London and the UK.

With many clients coming from real estate, hedge fund, investment and FSA regulated industries, Network London are helping to deliver a fantastic service, coupled with great customer care, which means stress-free IT for our customers.

Hosted services and hosted applications are improving companies by providing trouble-free communications, disaster recovery, resilience and global delivery of software applications (Software As A Service).

Some of the more common hosted services and applications are:

Exchange email
Hosted Blackberry (BES)/smart phones (BIS)
Microsoft CRM
Sage & accounts systems
Microsoft Office Suite
Almost any windows-based applications
Full data hosting/warehousing

The possibilities are endless and Network London are helping to shape the future of remote desktop systems in the UK.


For more information contact Lee Smith @ Network London on:
+44 (0)844 884 5196
http://www.networklondon.co.uk

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Secure Online Backups, Are You Being Smart?

Data loss is one of the major problems especially in big business houses where a large number of data has to be dealt with and in all the circumstances the data loss can be minimized by using secure online backups. Although there are many conventional backup systems such as CD, DVD, and floppy that can be used for storing small amount of data, however for storing large amount of data secure online backup seems to be the right option.

Nowadays many commercial secure online backup providers are easily available and after paying a nominal fee, you can store your data at a remote location. These commercial online backup stores ask you to download their backup software and the software manages the backup and does the rest of job. A few commercial backup stores charge anywhere between 20 cents to 3 dollar per month for storing 1 GB of data, however there are some online backup stores who offer the online backup free for a limited period.

Actually you should ensure that the commercial online backup you have chosen is genuine and reliable and the privacy of your document is maintained. Many individuals take the benefits of these low cost commercial secure online backup facilities and store their family albums and other data. The software provided by commercial stores is easy to operate and with the instructions provided to you, you can install and operate the online backup software. You should try with a free online secure backup for a month and if satisfied with the services you should continue for the desired period.

The secure online backup software will generally have many features and the latest and modern software are equipped with highly sophisticated technique to protect the privacy of the data. The system ensures that backups are taken routinely as per your requirement and accordingly you are intimated by email. The software also ensures that the file system and directories structure is maintained during backup.

The software installed at your computer first compresses the data and sometimes the space occupied by the data is reduced to 85 percent. The data afterwards encrypted so that the privacy of these data is maintained and then forwarded to the commercial backup store via local area network or Internet. Due to the encryption of the data, these are even not accessible to the backup store employees and therefore the data are fully private and while retrieving the software installed at your computer decrypt the data.

The data loss is a very big problem for large business houses, commercial ventures and even for an individual and therefore secure online backup of data is one of the right options for each one of us. Sometimes it is also necessary to maintain the privacy of the data and therefore suitable commercial backup organization having an excellent track record should be carefully selected. So instead of taking a risk of loosing your important data, it is better to store and secure online backups available at a marginal price.

What Are the Benefits of Remote Access and Remote Desktop IT Systems?

Remote access is fast being a necessity for many businesses and organisations both large and small.

With the ever increasing availability of high-speed Internet access you can have your software applications hosted remotely, which allows staff and global offices access to shared applications with simplicity and without the need for IT technicians or support and specific computer knowledge.

There are many business essential software applications that can be delivered remotely and some of the more common ones are Sage Accounts, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office suite, Adobe Acrobat and almost all Windows compatible applications.

Other benefits of a Terminal Services or Citrix remote access system are:

· Secure E-Mail - plug in Blackberry devices and smart phones to receive secure Microsoft exchange e-mail, and have secure wireless synchronisation for your communications.
· Disaster Recovery - never lose any data or worry about fire and theft, as all data and files are housed in secure data centres. All connections to your remote desktop are encrypted both upwards and downwards, to ensure your communications are safe from hackers.
· Work from Anywhere - take your desktop anywhere in the world and, using any PC or laptop, you can work seamlessly, taking your desktop where you go.
· Remote CRM Hosting - using the power of applications such as Microsoft's CRM and Goldmine, you can increase customer retention and sales and have remote salesforces working efficiently and effectively wherever they are in the world.


Remote IT systems are much more common nowadays, due to the stability and reliability of the Internet, which delivers the remote desktop or remote access service and is a key factor in the performance of your system. In terms of cost, any company, whether they have 1 user or 1000 users will find that the cost is actually much lower than a traditional system, and also delivers disaster recovery benefits that are crucial to most businesses.

Some of the major cost-saving issues are:

· The fact that your business will never need to purchase Microsoft Office suite software as it usually comes included within the remote IT system packages.
· As your IT system is delivered remotely in secure data centres, your IT infrastructure, hardware and support costs are greatly reduced or become a thing of the past as it is up to the remote hosting company to ensure you can access your system, data and files to guaranteed service levels.

One of the only factors to consider is that you have to actually require internet access to access your data and files. However, this can be solved by using synchronization software that will allow you to have the files locally on your laptop or PC, as well as on the remote servers, although this does defeat one of the main objectives with these systems, which is to keep your data and files secure in the event of equipment theft or hackers.

Why Online Backups Are The Only Choice For Many Businesses

Online backup is a process of taking routine backups of data and files from your computers or servers and it is generally taken at least once every week and ideally every day. This is one of the preferred data protection measures and nowadays all business organisations regularly take online backups of important data and documents.

Taking regular online backups of your essential documents and data is now very easy and initially your service providers may provide a free trial for a fixed duration. To begin your service, you simply download the online backup software and the software does the rest of the job.

The program collects the various files, compresses and encrypts the files and then sends these encrypted files to the remote server of the service provider. No one, even the employees of the backup company, has access to these files and the files decrypt only when they are received back on the originating computer or server. Thus, this ensures not only the safety of the data but also its security.

There are lots of features available including open file backup, binary data transfer, and continuous or predefined backup. Generally the software has the feature of taking backups even when several files such as Outlook emails or SQL files are open. The administrator, in such case, need not plan separate maintenance and backup schedules. Another feature is continuous backup of data instead of predefined schedule. Companies and especially financial institutions need continuous backup of financial records and banking statements for FSA regulation purposes.

The latest techniques allow the identification and transfer of only binary data that has been changed from earlier backups, instead of taking whole data files. This technique not only reduces traffic on local area networks (LAN) and the time required for online backup, it also reduces the bandwidth and hence the cost of backups. The other typical feature of backup software is that it is compatible with almost all the operating system environments such as Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Macintosh.

There are many advantages of online backups over traditional backup systems. First of all the user has nothing to do manually to store data, or take the backup of data. Secondly, with online backups the data is automatically stored on the remote servers at a predefined time intervals or continuously.

Secure online backups also use software that encrypt the files so no one can have access to the data, however in traditional backup scenarios, you have to ensure yourself that the data is safe as well as secure, by keeping it in safe custody as well as password protecting it.

Online backups are necessary for data safety and you should ensure that your data or the necessary documents should be stored at a remote and safe location for your business continuity in the event of disaster or hardware failures.

http://www.networklondon.co.uk/services/secure-backups.html

Remote Backups

Remote backups, as the name suggests, are backups taken remotely. These backups are taken without interfering with the server, the data of which is being backed up. Remote backups are relatively new but are catching up quite rapidly as compared to other forms of backup.

Remote backups are exactly similar to online backups. Online backups involve copying the data while it is being saved on the server and simultaneously saving it to some offsite location. Online backups are also known as real time backups as they involve backing up the data in ‘real time’ that is almost simultaneously to the entry of the data. In the same way, remote backups involve taking a backup of the data to be backed up in real time. Real time backups involve backing up the data as and when it is entered into the system. However remote backup and online backup should not be construed to mean the same thing. Remote backups are a part of online backups. Remote backups are a type of online backups, which are normally preferred by organizations as they do away with the shortcomings of conventional backups as well as the shortcomings of other forms of online backups.

Remote backups involve backing up of the data of a particular server from a place distant to the server. Online backups involve running a backup process simultaneously on he server, which is to be backed up. This often leads to the server being overloaded with multiple processes and programs. This leads to low performance and output levels from the server. It also increases the risk of a server crash due to overloading. These shortcomings of other forms of online backups led to the origin of remote backups.

Remote backups do away with almost all shortcomings of conventional forms of backing up data. Remote backups do not involve interfering with the server being backed up. This virtually rules out any form of mishap to the server due interference during the back up process. Hence data integrity is not compromised on during the process of remote back up. Also remote backups are conducted simultaneously to the process of data entry. Hence, this form of backup does not require the server to remain idle for some time. This form of back up thus does not involve any down time on the part of the organization. Thus the organization can save on many productive man-hours. These can further be used profitably by the organization.

Remote backups also do away with the shortcomings of the other forms of online backups. As they are not run on the server being backed up, they do not compromise on the integrity of the data being backed up as also on the performance of the server. Also, such backups can be retrieved almost instantly. This is not the case with other forms of online backups, which can be retrieved only with a certain time lag. Remote backups also have a distinct advantage in comparison to other forms of backup. Remote backups are taken simultaneously offsite on a different server and hence are almost always reliable. Remote backups are steadily gaining ground among corporate and other organizations due to their obvious advantages and are here to stay.

Disaster Recovery

As a savvy businessperson, it is very important for you to be able to plan for unexpected events to occur. Disaster Recovery is like buying insurance for your business; we all hate paying those insurance premiums but if the unexpected actually does happen to us, we are always glad that we signed up for that insurance plan!

In business, there are many more variables to take into account. Because of the wide-open nature of most business nowadays, it is more difficult to cover all of the contingencies and for this main reason it is important that any disaster recovery plan be flexible enough to be used in more than one situation. Most businesses will not get very far in trying to predict the types of disasters that might occur and indeed most businesses don't even try to do that. The best disaster recovery plans are the ones that are able to be utilized regardless of the specifics of the disaster itself.

Disaster Recovery is actually just a very small portion of a larger plan that businesses need to have. The Business Continuity Plan (BCP) covers all aspects of a business and companies that have a very detailed BCP are more likely to do better in the long run than companies that don’t think about those kinds of things.

Disaster Recovery in More Detail

So what makes a good disaster recovery plan? Well, there are a few things that are very important considerations to keep in mind when designing a disaster recovery plan. A few of these very vital considerations are discussed briefly below.

Versatility: One of the oldest jokes in the book is about the person who had a contingency plan for his own contingency plan. This may seem a little redundant, but this is one area of your business where you want redundancies. If an unexpected situation occurs that bypasses or otherwise renders ineffective your initial contingency plan, it is very important to have another contingency plan to turn to. Some owners may be loathe to spend the extra money to come up with an additional contingency plan, but remember the insurance comparison from the start of this article; contingencies are either annoying or a Godsend depending on what happens to you.

Flexibility: If you are determined to only have one disaster recovery plan, then it needs to be flexible. Recovering data and other potential losses in the event of a disaster is something that all businesses think about, but only a truly flexible disaster recovery plan, with no disaster specific (i.e. planning for a specific disaster) contingencies in place, will be able to truly expect the unexpected and act accordingly. These types of plans are extremely difficult to create, which is why the versatility of multiple contingency disaster recovery plans is more desirable.

Final Remarks

However you decide to go about doing disaster recovery, be sure that you understand what it is you want to recover in the event of a disaster taking place and make sure that your plan is complete in that regard.

Disaster Recovery, Are You Prepared?

Disaster recovery is one of the most important factors for most businesses, yet it is often overlooked or considered too expensive to implement.
Disaster recovery solutions enable a business to continue working in the event of fire, theft, malfunction or terrorism. By preparing for disaster recovery, your business will not lose any valuable data, configurations or time, saving you money in the long run.
By backing up data, applications, and settings continuously, to a secure location, your business will be ready for any disaster situation.
Any proven IT company can provide these services, but at what cost, and how good is it?
Since the introduction of Citrix and Microsoft's Terminal Services, it has been possible to provide these disaster recovery services at a much lower cost, with greatly enhanced security benefits.
Switch your IT system to a corporate-level, Terminal Services environment and what you get is a complete disaster recovery solution for a much lower cost than you would expect.
As well as having your data and applications held in secure data centres, your data could be continuously backed up, providing total disaster recovery. The ultimate solution is to have complete redundancy for your IT system and this involves not having any single point of failure within your IT infrastructure.
Imagine having your company's entire data, software and structure housed in two separate data centres, spread across two different ISPs, and having all your systems and data held on servers that have their own backup servers to automatically switch on, in the event of failure.
Most corporations do not have this level of redundancy, but for a fixed, monthly fee, this and more is possible for companies with anything from two uses to a thousand users.
Apart from all the mentioned benefits, you could also get the power of hosted Microsoft Exchange, Outlook Web Access, easy Blackberry mobile integration, hosted Microsoft CRM, and for the ultimate peace of mind, you can have portable security keys as used by major companies around the world to secure data, where password-only protection fails.
These systems and solutions put companies back in control of their IT, as systems are centrally managed, updated and supported from outside company offices, providing a completely outsourced solution that will save you money, instead of costing more.
Some companies get nervous by the prospect of their entire data being held offsite, but this can be the safest option as multi-million pound data centres have all the facilities to safeguard and protect your data 24 hours a day. With high-powered backup generators, security patrols and fire suppression equipment, your data and applications will be in complete safety, giving you a powerful remote system with disaster recovery to take your business to the next level.
Network London provides remote access systems and disaster recovery to businesses in London and Europe.Disaster Recovery Solutions