Comments for Stop Buying Servers http://stopbuyingservers.com Cloud Computing for Small Business Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:02:33 +0000 hourly 1 Comment on Symform: A cloudy backup option? by Amy Babinchak http://stopbuyingservers.com/2010/01/symform-a-cloudy-backup-option/comment-page-1/#comment-14 Amy Babinchak Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:02:33 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/2010/01/symform-a-cloudy-backup-option/#comment-14 I had a similar reaction when I was first introduced to Symform. But when I talked to them I realized something important - the first premise is that we can't trust where our data is stored. That's a very important premise from which to start and I'm not aware of any other backup storage method that starts from that premise. So building from there, they created a highly redundant, encrypted storage system and using the cloud via Amazon Web Services they found a way to cut the cost of data storage and improve data recovery times. 1. We can't trust where we store our data. Disks fail. An unauthorized person might get hold of our data. Symform breaks your data into 1mb chunks, then they encrypt it, then they send that 1mb out to 32 different locations for RAID-96 redundancy. Then they move to the next 1mb and repeat the process. Each megabyte is uniquely stored over an ever growing array of disks. 2. When they come around to your usergroup be sure to ask about data duplication. They are de-duplicating data through the whole shared cloud. My mind bends at the concept. 3. Time to recover data is greatly reduced. This is a big problem for cloud storage of data. If you've ever tried to get you 300GB of data back from any of the services you know what I mean. It just takes a very long time. Symform reduces this time by taking advantage of using the download speed on your own Internet service. When you request data back from the Symform cloud each 1mb piece is going to come back from a unique location (or as unique as the algorythym can manage). This is an upload for that person. They are uploading data to you. Upload is the slow side of ISP service, so minimizing that to 1mb is a good thing. It won't run into bandwidth issues on the side of the storage. On your end, you are downloading many 1mb pieces of data, but that's OK, they are small and coming from many locations and you are using big end of your ISP service to do it. It's an interesting service and one worth looking into deeply. I had a similar reaction when I was first introduced to Symform. But when I talked to them I realized something important – the first premise is that we can’t trust where our data is stored. That’s a very important premise from which to start and I’m not aware of any other backup storage method that starts from that premise.

So building from there, they created a highly redundant, encrypted storage system and using the cloud via Amazon Web Services they found a way to cut the cost of data storage and improve data recovery times.

1. We can’t trust where we store our data. Disks fail. An unauthorized person might get hold of our data. Symform breaks your data into 1mb chunks, then they encrypt it, then they send that 1mb out to 32 different locations for RAID-96 redundancy. Then they move to the next 1mb and repeat the process. Each megabyte is uniquely stored over an ever growing array of disks.

2. When they come around to your usergroup be sure to ask about data duplication. They are de-duplicating data through the whole shared cloud. My mind bends at the concept.

3. Time to recover data is greatly reduced. This is a big problem for cloud storage of data. If you’ve ever tried to get you 300GB of data back from any of the services you know what I mean. It just takes a very long time. Symform reduces this time by taking advantage of using the download speed on your own Internet service. When you request data back from the Symform cloud each 1mb piece is going to come back from a unique location (or as unique as the algorythym can manage). This is an upload for that person. They are uploading data to you. Upload is the slow side of ISP service, so minimizing that to 1mb is a good thing. It won’t run into bandwidth issues on the side of the storage. On your end, you are downloading many 1mb pieces of data, but that’s OK, they are small and coming from many locations and you are using big end of your ISP service to do it.

It’s an interesting service and one worth looking into deeply.

]]> Comment on Welcome to Stop Buying Servers by David Schrag http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/02/welcome/comment-page-1/#comment-13 David Schrag Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:46:31 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/?p=1#comment-13 Chris, many server-based companies these days are also somewhat dead in the water when the Internet connection goes down. No web, no e-mail, no remote access, and so on. My recommendation is to get redundant Internet connections (e.g. cable AND DSL) and a firewall that can automatically switch upon failure. Companies that are cloud-based have an easier time doing this than companies that are hosting their own servers that rely on static IP addresses for full functionality. Chris, many server-based companies these days are also somewhat dead in the water when the Internet connection goes down. No web, no e-mail, no remote access, and so on. My recommendation is to get redundant Internet connections (e.g. cable AND DSL) and a firewall that can automatically switch upon failure. Companies that are cloud-based have an easier time doing this than companies that are hosting their own servers that rely on static IP addresses for full functionality.

]]> Comment on Welcome to Stop Buying Servers by Chris Patterson http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/02/welcome/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Chris Patterson Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:31:53 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/?p=1#comment-12 So.... what happens when the Internet is down, and the client can't do ANYthing? I had a situation last week where one of our businesses was having Internet problems, and I was able to perform my server software updates, and everyone was able to keep working on the three packages they use from the server, all with no problems. If they'd been "clouding it", they'd have been down until later that morning, when the Internet company finally sorted out why the fax line was shutting down the Internet connection. So…. what happens when the Internet is down, and the client can’t do ANYthing? I had a situation last week where one of our businesses was having Internet problems, and I was able to perform my server software updates, and everyone was able to keep working on the three packages they use from the server, all with no problems. If they’d been “clouding it”, they’d have been down until later that morning, when the Internet company finally sorted out why the fax line was shutting down the Internet connection.

]]> Comment on “New way” of doing things involves cloud computing by Allen Falcon http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/07/new-way-of-doing-things-involves-cloud-computing/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Allen Falcon Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:22:07 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/07/new-way-of-doing-things-involves-cloud-computing/#comment-9 David, For file sharing, I suggest using OffiSync (www.offisync.com) in conjunction with Google Docs. OffiSync lets you create, open, share, and save Google Docs using MS Office applications. The OffiSync add-on menu in MS Office provides the core functions of the File menu, using Google Docs as your storage mechanism. Check it out and let me know what you think. Allen afalcon@horizoninfoservices.com David,

For file sharing, I suggest using OffiSync (www.offisync.com) in conjunction with Google Docs. OffiSync lets you create, open, share, and save Google Docs using MS Office applications. The OffiSync add-on menu in MS Office provides the core functions of the File menu, using Google Docs as your storage mechanism.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Allen
afalcon@horizoninfoservices.com

]]> Comment on The future of remote monitoring and management by Chad Gniffke http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/03/the-future-of-remote-monitoring-and-management/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Chad Gniffke Mon, 04 May 2009 18:58:02 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/03/the-future-of-remote-monitoring-and-management/#comment-8 David, I remember your questions sitting on the panel. This is truly a difficult one and some may say that some of the answer s are cliche and don't really showcase the forward planning on this transition. Truthfully, IT has increased in complexity and management of this complexity will remain for at least another 10 years. I can say that Kaseya has their ear to the ground and even though remote monitoring is an important part of what we do, there are plans to expand far beyond so that we can assist our customers for many more years to come. Thanks for the post and I wish you the best, Chad Gniffke Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Kaseya David,

I remember your questions sitting on the panel. This is truly a difficult one and some may say that some of the answer s are cliche and don’t really showcase the forward planning on this transition.

Truthfully, IT has increased in complexity and management of this complexity will remain for at least another 10 years. I can say that Kaseya has their ear to the ground and even though remote monitoring is an important part of what we do, there are plans to expand far beyond so that we can assist our customers for many more years to come.

Thanks for the post and I wish you the best,
Chad Gniffke
Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Kaseya

]]> Comment on Welcome to Stop Buying Servers by David Schrag http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/02/welcome/comment-page-1/#comment-7 David Schrag Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:11:50 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/?p=1#comment-7 No question that LAN speeds are generally faster than WAN speeds today (although one of my small business clients is about to get a 100Mbps WAN connection). But virtualization does not seem to address the real problem facing microbusinesses. Very few of these companies are going to have 10 servers to begin with, and even if they did and virtualized them, they are still going to be burdened with the responsibilities of managing those servers and at risk of being completely down if there's a local hardware or facility problem. Virtualization may indeed be a technology worth adopting, but probably not by the market I'm focusing on. No question that LAN speeds are generally faster than WAN speeds today (although one of my small business clients is about to get a 100Mbps WAN connection). But virtualization does not seem to address the real problem facing microbusinesses. Very few of these companies are going to have 10 servers to begin with, and even if they did and virtualized them, they are still going to be burdened with the responsibilities of managing those servers and at risk of being completely down if there’s a local hardware or facility problem.

Virtualization may indeed be a technology worth adopting, but probably not by the market I’m focusing on.

]]> Comment on Welcome to Stop Buying Servers by Doug D http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/02/welcome/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Doug D Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:43:11 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/?p=1#comment-6 The future of servers is not the internet as even in this day and age there are too many speed restrictions compared to running a LAN. The answer is to only buy one or two servers and virtualize them for redundancy. I currently own and operate approx. 10 servers with a few extras currently working as door stops. All of these servers are wasted in there capacity as I am in the process of taking a couple (2) of my strongest servers and virtualizing them . The future of servers is not the internet as even in this day and age there are too many speed restrictions compared to running a LAN.
The answer is to only buy one or two servers and virtualize them for redundancy.
I currently own and operate approx. 10 servers with a few extras currently working as door stops. All of these servers are wasted in there capacity as I am in the process of taking a couple (2) of my strongest servers and virtualizing them .

]]> Comment on The future of remote monitoring and management by Allen Falcon http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/03/the-future-of-remote-monitoring-and-management/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Allen Falcon Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:56:32 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/03/the-future-of-remote-monitoring-and-management/#comment-5 David, Great question. The challenge for these vendors is whether or not they can adapt to a shifting market, but the competition once they get there. These vendors are designed for service providers to manage multiple customer environments. When a cloud vendor sets up monitoring and management for a large, virtualized data center or computing grid, the demands are greater. Not only is there a difference in scale, but complexity. Once these vendors step into that market, they are up against some big players (HP, IBM, etc. ) , and large open source solutions (Nagios, Cacti, etc) that are already entrenched in corporate data centers. David,

Great question. The challenge for these vendors is whether or not they can adapt to a shifting market, but the competition once they get there. These vendors are designed for service providers to manage multiple customer environments. When a cloud vendor sets up monitoring and management for a large, virtualized data center or computing grid, the demands are greater. Not only is there a difference in scale, but complexity. Once these vendors step into that market, they are up against some big players (HP, IBM, etc. ) , and large open source solutions (Nagios, Cacti, etc) that are already entrenched in corporate data centers.

]]> Comment on Taking the Google with the bug by Allen Falcon http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/03/taking-the-google-with-the-bug/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Allen Falcon Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:41:18 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/03/taking-the-google-with-the-bug/#comment-4 David, It is also interesting to know that the scope of the glitch was very limited. At most, it impacted 0.05% (5 in 10,000) of the user population, and only if the users had followed a specific sequence of document sharing between collaborators. One of the challenges facing cloud computing providers is managing the "crisis" communications when errors arise. Allen David,

It is also interesting to know that the scope of the glitch was very limited. At most, it impacted 0.05% (5 in 10,000) of the user population, and only if the users had followed a specific sequence of document sharing between collaborators.

One of the challenges facing cloud computing providers is managing the “crisis” communications when errors arise.

Allen

]]> Comment on Favorite cloud apps: Autotask by Barbara Dove http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/02/favorite-cloud-apps-autotask/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Barbara Dove Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:25:52 +0000 http://stopbuyingservers.com/2009/02/favorite-cloud-apps-autotask/#comment-3 Hi David, Nice summary of Autotask. I use it for many of the same reasons. My techs use it to keep track of their daily activity. I can do the reports I need to assess our key performance indicators. It helps me with planning and staffing as well. Thanks for sharing! Hi David,
Nice summary of Autotask. I use it for many of the same reasons. My techs use it to keep track of their daily activity. I can do the reports I need to assess our key performance indicators. It helps me with planning and staffing as well.

Thanks for sharing!

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