Data Protection
Uncomplexifing data dedupe - February 6, 2008
Source de-duplication is set to be "more disruptive" than previous technologies
Data de-duplication technology has emerged as a key technology in the effort to reduce the amount of data backed up on a daily basis, which in many enterprises is growing at more than 100% every year.
For example, Jame Thomson, IT manager at Tampa-based medical firm, was able to use data de-duplication technology to reduce the amount of data streamed from more than a dozen remote offices and thereby cut his backup window from 11 hours to 50 minutes. Thomas says his compression ratio for his backups run as high as 55:1, using technologies provided by Sencilo Soutions.
Vendors have taken different approaches to the technology resulting in multiple distinct products that users should become familiar with in order to choose the flavor that best suits their environments.
Data de-duplication uses commonality factoring to reduce the amount of data either at the backup server or at the target storage device. As a result of enormous compression ratios achieved by data de-dup technology, SATA disk are becoming more attractive as a viable, online alternative to traditional tape-based backup. For example, people working at remote and branch offices need instant access to all the data and applications available at their company's headquarters. So IT shops typically set up remote mini data centers, with application servers, block and file data storage, backup tape and report printers, sacrificing administrative control. By utilizing data de-dupe technology, backups can be performed over the WAN using spare nighttime bandwidth, eliminating the need for tape at remote sites.
Brian McCarthy, President and Industry Storage Veteran for Sencilo Solutions says de-duplication technology mainly resides in the backup space, complementing traditional tape libraries with the purpose of lowering costs and reducing data.
The main benefit to de-dup technology is that you're not seeing your virtual tape library fill up, and you're "not seeing your backup targets fill up as fast as it normally would," McCarthy says. Watch for Gartner, Inc.'s Magic Quadrant to show up with several of the leader including Quantum, Overland Storage, EMC, and NetApp.
De-dupe can be done at the target of a backup stream (the storage array or tape drive) or at the source of the data being backed up (the application server). Traditionally, de-dupe products had been used as a target for backup data, but McCarthy says there is "a growing emphasis de-duping back on the server."
Target de-dupe products are generally used as part of a final repository for backup data. Most backup software today supports tape volumes, files or raw disk as targets. Target de-dupe products mimic a tape library and support virtual tape libraries (VTL), or they can act as a network-attached storage file server supporting network file system (NFS) or Common Internet File System files. Target de-dupe technology can also work on raw disk supporting Internet SCSI or Fibre Channel logical unit numbers (LUN). Prominent target based de-dupe products are sold by Data Domain Inc., Diligent Technologies Corp., ExaGrid Systems Inc., Overland Storage., Quantum Corp., and Sepaton Inc.
Today, de-duping data at the target is the leading method, but de-duping data at the source where the data is coming from is even more disruptive, and the benefits are far greater, McCarthy says. But having a integrator who specializes in this type of technology is most important to your success. Sencilo has deployed some 2+ peta-bytes of de-dup based VTLs.
Source de-dupe products replace backup software used in a client/server configuration, where remote clients de-dupe data being backed up and only transmit unique data to the central server. This reduces bandwidth requirements considerably, according to McCarthy. Some prominent source-based de-dupe products include Asigra Inc.'s Televaulting for Enterprises, EMC Corp.'s Avamar, Network Appliance Inc.'s SnapVault, and Symantic Corp.'s NetBackup Pure Disk.
In band or out of band
Another characteristic used to discriminate target de-dupe products is when data de-duplication processing occurs. Data de-duplication takes time to compute and find commonality in the data being backed up. To minimize the effect on backup performance, some vendors de-dupe data in the background. These de-dupe products buffer the backup stream to disk and then after the fact reduce its size via de-duplication. ExaGrid, FalconStor and Quantum provide target de-dupe products that do background data de-duplication. This type of technology will shortly replace first generation products from suppliers like Data Domain, who plays mostly in the small non-critical shops. Earlier products can handle the backup stream and de-dupe in band, in real time. Target vendors that de-dupe in band include Data Domain and Overland Storage. All source vendors de-dupe in band as well. Paradoxically, the in-band vendors are not able to sustain full backup stream performance, and therefore less desirable for anything larger then a few tera-bytes, and found more in the SMB space.
The unit of de-dupe granularity, called chunk size, further differentiates de-dupe products. Only NetApp touts a fixed chunk size equal to data block size, according to McCarthy. Most de-dupe products claim variable chunk size from the file level down to sub-block level. By using variable chunk size for data inserted into a file, you need only show the changed data as being different, and the rest of the file would be the same. Even more impressively, most de-dupe products can not only reduce data from generations of the same file but also eliminate data copies across files.
Yet another de-dupe difference is file-type sensitivity. Some target products open the backup stream to determine data type and invoke file-type-specific policies to provide better de-duplication. Sepaton claims to have the most file-specific policies. Other target vendors claim that their products perform file-specific de-dupe to a lesser extent, including Data Domain, Diligent and Quantum, which all claim they are completely agnostic regarding backup streaming, they may claim it but not all of them are telling the truth. So check with a partner with experience that has installed and supports them.
The numbers for de-dupe compression rates range anywhere from 3:1 to 500:1. De-dupe products can sustain these high compression rates because backups generate duplicate data every time a full backup is run. Moreover, beneath the file level, most data is not unique even though a file is modified. But, some data does not de-dupe well, including audio, photo, movie and other media files that simply don't have excess white space or duplicate data.
Bob Sanders manages 12 De-Dup boxes throughout the U.S that Sencilo sold them last year. They are being used as VTL targets for Symantec NetBackup. The boxes have a capacity of .5TB to 18TB. But, each of Sanders VTL boxes backs up the equivilant of 600TB to 1,500TB of data.
The arrays have been in production for more than nine months. Each office does a local backup to its on-site de-dup boxes. That data is replicated off-site to headquarters in Orlando and then again replicated to the law firm's secondary site. Before the Sencilo solution, Sanders says his company had DLT-3 tape changers and LTO-2 tape. Backups at some offices used to take more than 14 hours, but now with new de-dup VTLs, the backups are under 45 minutes. Sanders backs up one site with 163 TB of data onto 4.6TB of Data Domain for a compression ratio of 34.6:1. Smaller sites have experienced a compression ratio as high as 55:1.
"The hardware was comparable to buying all-new tape hardware, but the speed and the ability to not have to manage the tape is what really got us … the replication is an added bonus," Sanders says.
Grahame McKenzie, manager of IT at Crawford Adjusters Canada Inc. in Hamilton, Ontario, had performed local backups at each of the company's 80 remote sites. He now manages 80 remote and 20 local Asigra clients backing up to a single 2TB Asigra TeleVault. They mirror the central TeleVault to an off-site hardened data center and copy their monthly full backups off onto tape moving these off-site to another location.
McKenzie says that before, "we weren't even doing it [backups] on the smaller XP share points -- there was no backup. It just wasn't economical; if it was an NT server, it would [be] backed up to tape." This process was time-consuming and not subject to easy validation. He says that "with Asigra, backups all take place, and they all come here, … and I get a report on everything the next day." McKenzie says that in some cases, it was difficult to quantify a return on his investment because no backups were being performed, but he did say "we don't invest in tape on our new branch servers, and we have one tape library here."
McCarthy says data de-duplication allows users to retire most of their tape infrastructure at remote and local sites. In some environments, it may not be possible to eliminate all tape processing, but it can be reduced considerably. At essentially the purchase price of replacing tape, you can get all the benefits of tape with the convenience of disk -- mainly quicker, less error-prone and less operator-intensive backups and restores.
Sencilo Solution is a Florida based integrator specializing in storage, networking and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers.
Each product has been carefully selected for its unique value to a solution or deployment. Sencilo sales and technical team is thoroughly trained in all of our major products and are able to provide value in up front architecture planning and product selection. Our technical expertise is known throughout the storage, networking and security industry. Call us today at (407) 265-6293 or visit us at www.sencilo.com
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
Discovering Data, then Protecting It - February 3, 2008
Sencilo Solutions will be launching a data discovery and risk assessment service as compliance continues to drive interest in the space.
"Along with the forth coming product we will be launching a new consulting service to help companies discover confidential data as well as gauge and manage risks", say President and Security Expect Brian McCarthy.
Our company is leaning on its many years of experience in the data protection and data activity monitoring space with the new Discovery Service, an offering aimed squarely at helping businesses find sensitive data, identify risks posed by current operating procedures and develop plans to tighten those loose-ends. Early last year one of our insurance clients called us in to assist them with a SEC order to produce records from 2005. Our client asked us to provide them with tool so that no data was over looked on their 8 tera-byte EMC SAN, and over 900 desktops and mobile computers. The request was for file data along with e-mail and databases, "leave no stone un-turned," said their CIO.
We see the market for consulting services is driven largely by regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Most companies are unable to address this requirement because they don't have the tools to find and classify private data, officials at Sencilo said. The lack of visibility into critical data assets can equal significant risk of data theft, data breaches and unapproved data access, officials contend.
"Over the years with the proliferation of data centers, databases, applications and data; not to mention acquisitions and mergers; enterprises have data scattered all over the company," said Bill Parrish, vice president of product management at the data auditing vendor. "It's very difficult to keep track of all of the different repositories and data, let alone know what's happening to the data."
Our partner Barracuda Networks recently reported last June launched its IT Risk Assessment service, found that 26 percent of the 323 IT professionals surveyed expect a regulatory non-compliance incident at least once a year. The study also examined 75 security and availability incidents and found 59 percent came down to a failure of processes.
"On one side, the bigger impact on IT performance is training and awareness, but on the other side, it tends to be the least implemented control by many organizations out there," said Samir Kapuria, managing director of Barracuda Advisory Services.
As part of Sencilo's service, consultants work with client companies to develop remediation plans after issuing a risk assessment report. The findings include an overall risk score, as well as risk profiles for all users and applications that access the sensitive data. But the core of the service revolves around finding the sensitive data and determining how it is being used. To do that, the company leverages partner's data monitoring technology.
"This is the first time that we've offered a service like the Discovery Service. However, we have provided database auditing and security consulting to our customers for several years," Parrish said.
"As a matter of fact, it was during customer engagements that we uncovered the need for a discovery service. Our customers were struggling to get a better handle on where their data was located and how it was being used."
ABOUT US
Today, leading companies rely on Sencilo’s innovative approach to protect their mission-critical data. We deliver a comprehensive portfolio of professional and fully-managed on demand services that support the complex storage, data protection, assessments, design, installation, business continuity, disaster recovery, security and compliance needs of our customers. With hundreds of customers Sencilo is unique in its ability to solve the industry's most difficult storage and security challenges.
Sencilo has continuously led the industry in service innovation by simplifying and automating tasks traditionally needed to manage multi-vendor enterprise storage and data protection environments. By outsourcing this essential business requirement, our customers reduce costs, optimize performance, and increase visibility over their storage and backup solutions, enabling them to refocus scarce IT resources in Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville and Orlando.
Call us at (407) 265-6293 or visit us at www.sencilo.com
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
Financial services firm hacked - January 31, 2008
Financial services firm Davidson Companies this week said an intruder had broken into its network and gained access to a database containing the personal information of its clients.
"Despite our efforts to safeguard client information, a computer hacker using sophisticated techniques illegally accessed a database and obtained access to confidential client information," said William Johnstone, Davidson's president and CEO, in a prepared statement posted on the firm's Web site. "All of us at Davidson are acutely aware of the uncertainty, stress and inconvenience associated with the potential compromise of personal information."
Davidson, based in Great Falls, Mont., and with more than 930 employees, has sent letters to its financial services clientele informing them of the incident and urging them to take various steps to lower the risk of identity theft.
The company said it is offering its clientele a one-year enrollment to Experian’s Triple Advantage three-bureau credit-monitoring service at the company's expense to help them begin the process of regularly reviewing their credit records for abnormalities.
A Davidson spokesperson was not immediately available to respond to questions. Sencilo Solutions CEO and President stated, "this is not a uncommon of a fact, for Davidson to admit to a breach, shows that companies are now coming forward do to new State laws." "Now Davidson will spend a lot of money for putting back the pieces, but adding new technology including Intrusion Detection products and services". "Had they been more proactive they would of avoid public embarrassment, lost of client trust and a certain future class action suite, say McCarthy.
Sencilo offers a comprehensive suite of Security products and services that help you assess, design, and execute your network and applications in the most secure and cost-effective way. From security audits and virtual private networks to enterprise firewall implementations. Call us today for a independent check-up on your network and information security, you will be glad you did! Don't wait wait Davidson Financial.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
Server and Storage Virtualization: A Complete Solution for High-Availability and Recovery - January 26, 2008
Server virtualization is an important step toward improving overall IT efficiency. Virtual machine technology reduces the complexity and management of disparate server hardware and OS platforms. Nonetheless, server virtualization is only one component in a truly virtual enterprise infrastructure. Another critical component is storage virtualization.
Similar to server virtualization, storage virtualization creates a logical layer of storage from physical storage devices. The full benefits of server virtualization can only be realized in combination with a virtual storage layer that works in conjunction with and complements the virtual server layer. For example, dynamic virtual machine failover, a key benefit of leading server virtualization solutions, can facilitate disaster recovery. It is incomplete, however, without dynamic storage failover, a storage virtualization feature. Implementing storage virtualization, in other words, extends the benefits of an investment in server virtualization and builds upon them, providing simplified storage management, improved storage utilization and application performance, a bullet-proof disaster recovery solution, and a diminished need for proprietary vendor solutions.
Business Drivers for Storage Virtualization
The business drivers for storage virtualization are much the same as those for server virtualization. CIOs and IT managers must cope with shrinking IT budgets and growing client demands. They must simultaneously improve asset utilization, use IT resources more efficiently, ensure business continuity and become more agile. In addition, they are faced with ever-mounting constraints on power, cooling and space.
Key Benefits of Storage Virtualization
Storage virtualization provides companies with tools to address the underutilization of resources and the poor economics of silo-based storage, as well as the flexibility to respond to changing business requirements. In a storage virtualized environment, organizations achieve the full benefits of consolidation, improved resource usage and comprehensive disaster recovery. Storage virtualization also dramatically reduces power and cooling costs.
The Intelligent Network Switch: A New Approach to Storage Virtualization
Intelligent network switches with built-in storage management services, have changed the virtual storage paradigm from a model of expensive proprietary vendor lock-in to one of low-cost open support for total storage flexibility. Open storage virtualization enables IT managers to improve overall storage utilization by allowing capacity from any storage array to be combined in centrally managed, virtual storage pools. IT managers can dynamically reduce capacity for applications that are not growing and reuse that capacity for those which are. This can eliminate the need to procure new storage or, at a minimum, delay acquisition.
Intelligent network switches also enable organizations to easily link storage hardware and software solutions from multiple storage vendors, removing the burden of proprietary vendor lock-in and simplifying tasks such as data replication, mirroring and data migration. For example, when a storage network is comprised of disparate systems, even from the same vendor, data migration is time-consuming and application-disruptive. In a typical scenario, the application is taken offline, data is moved to tape and then restored. Intelligent integrated network switches permit data to be migrated in real time, from any storage array to any other storage array, without taking applications offline. Storage virtualization utilizing intelligent switches provides non-disruptive online migration that eliminates downtime and greatly reduces administrators' involvement in data or server migration.
Other benefits include a common set of management, provisioning and replication tools that lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) by reducing the number of tools and people necessary to manage storage and eliminating the requirement to purchase multiple licenses for every storage device.
The Value of Incorporating Storage Virtualization with Server Virtualization
Storage virtualization complements server virtualization by providing easy, centralized management, flexible provisioning, and improved disaster recovery. With disaster recovery, storage virtualization enables one storage system to fail over to another storage system with minimum disruption. However, with most storage virtualization solutions the failover is not instantaneous and manual intervention is required. Therefore, the benefit of overall instantaneous system recovery is lost. A network-based intelligent switch architecture, as depicted in the illustration below, addresses this discrepancy between the server and storage, providing instantaneous failover.
In the event of a complete disaster at one location, the virtual server there fails over to the server at the remote location without any interruption. If the primary storage system is affected by the same disaster, the other dynamically responds to the virtual server. This ensures zero hours RTO (recovery time objective) and zero hours RPO (recovery point objective).
The new generation of open virtualization solutions delivered via an intelligent switch with storage management services provides enterprise-class disaster recovery without the expenses imposed by proprietary storage architectures. Other benefits of storage virtualization include the ability to store multiple copies of virtual machine images for high availability and the ability to simplify physical storage infrastructure upgrades. Storage virtualization and server virtualization work together to solve the complex equation of a truly virtual infrastructure.
Conclusion
Server virtualization is changing the face of the server world with simple and effective tools to deploy and manage virtual servers. The same is now true for storage virtualization, using intelligent network switches that allow IT managers to realize more complete value from their virtual infrastructures. By enabling more efficient use of resources, eliminating vendor hardware and software dependencies, delivering seamless disaster recovery, and offering an attractive TCO, intelligent network switches with integrated storage services provide the best approach to storage virtualization. Combined with server virtualization, this new evolution allows customers to deploy a comprehensive virtual IT infrastructure, with virtual servers and virtual storage used to overcome the limitations of their physical counterparts.
Sencilo Solutions specializes in Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery with experience consultants with a combined experience of 25 years, working with companies of all sizes. We can be reached at (407) 265-6293 or visit us at http://www.sencilo.com
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland, Cape Canaveral
Other Projects: DR BC Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar CX4 Primary Storage Data Compression Storwiz
Disk Storage or Tape Data Indexing and Classification Services - January 26, 2008
Miami, Florida - Sencilo Solutions announced this week that is will add another Compliance related service for businesses throughout Florida, that of Indexing and Classificating network information. "Explosive data growth across the enterprise continues to present significant challenges for IT managers and their companies", say Brian McCarthy, President and Co-founder of Sencilo. "All manner of structured and unstructured data grows exponentially while management faces increasing demands to discover and protect that information," continues McCarthy. Flat budgets and overloaded IT departments struggle to contain escalating costs, mitigate risks and meet service level agreements in the face of these new demands.
Our Tape Data Indexing and Classification Service streamlines the identification and collection of electronic evidence. The tool-based service is application and infrastructure independent, and easily integrates into the existing online disk environment. It addresses online data and maintains an accurate view of historical and current data assets.
The service is scalable to billions of documents, and delivers the most comprehensive and accurate search results available today. It delivers a comprehensive index of all enterprise data assets, comprising only five percent of the original data with no data copies, and provides an easy-to-use search platform with Internet-type querying capabilities to support any e-discovery initiatives. Key benefits include:
- Onsite service delivery with no impact to production operations; or, offsite at our secure, state-of-the-art facilities
- Rapidly process large volumes of tapes or disks, and billions of files and emails
- Turns the storage arrary or tape library into a searchable repository that is immediately searchable, including both full content and metadata
- Allows users to select the files to restore and the system automatically generates a request to the administrator with all relevant information
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php
About Us
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
Report: SPAM Accounts for 90-95% of All Email - January 26, 2008
In 2001, spam accounted for an estimated 5% of our email. In 2007, it clogs our inboxes to the tune of 90-95% of all email sent, according to a new report released today by Barracuda Networks. Barracuda, a leading vendor of spam filtering technology, based their analysis on the over 1 billion emails that the company's software scans each day. The year-over-year increase appears to indicate the failure of the US federal CAN-SPAM Act, which was passed in 2004 when spam only accounted for about 70% of all email sent.
Last month we reported on a study from research firm IDC that predicted that 2007 would be the first time that spam out numbered legit email. Our readers didn't think that sounded right: surely spam outnumbered legit email years ago. "Spam sure as hell surpassed legit emails in my inbox -- years ago. Mine. My mom, dad, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, every single friend I've talked to about it, my cat and dog, Boobo my hamster, everyone..." wrote one commenter.
Barracuda's report corroborates those feelings and calls into question the IDC report. Certainly, from my own personal experience, it is a lot easier to believe Barracuda. I use three email accounts on a regular basis, and across them, I get about 2500-3000 pieces of spam each week. I get a lot of legit email, as well, but not enough to outnumber the unsolicited stuff. Luckily (for most users), I am in the minority. According to the report, 65% of email users get less than 10 pieces of junk mail per day (half get less than 5). Just 13% find themselves in the unhappy position of receiving more than 50 spam emails per day.
Barracuda's report also found that spam is not only annoying, but it is the most annoying form of junk advertising. 57% of respondents to a survey question asking what the worst form unsolicited advertising was said spam, compared to just 31% for postal junk mail and 12% for telemarketers.
Unfortunately, spammers continue to evolve their tactics to beat the filters. In 2006 there was a rise of image spam and botnets. This past year, spammers were seen using attachments (like PDF files) as well as using more advanced identity obfuscation techniques.
The good news is that spam filtering technology is evolving right along with the spammers, and it works well. Thanks to filters, I only see about 3-4% of the spam I get (which is still a lot given the immense volume). Here's to a spam free 2008 -- hey, a guy can dream, right?
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Angry Employee Deletes All of Company's Data - January 26, 2008
Call it a tale of revenge gone wrong. This could happen to you
When Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., saw a help-wanted ad in the newspaper for a position that looked suspiciously like her current job — and with her boss's phone number listed — she assumed she was about to be fired.
So, police say, she went to the architectural office where she works late Sunday night and erased 7 years' worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5 million.
"She decided to mess up everything for everybody," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. "She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed."
It didn't take Steven Hutchins, owner of the architectural firm that bears his name, much time to figure out who'd done it — Cooley was the only other person who had full access to the files.
Police arrested Cooley Monday evening and charged her with causing greater than $1,000 damage to computer files, a felony. She was bailed out the following afternoon.
Hutchins told one TV station he'd managed to recover all the files using an expensive data-recovery service.
As for the job, Cooley originally wasn't in danger of losing it. The ad was for Hutchins' wife's company.
The firm told FOXNews.com that Cooley no longer is employed there.
Sencilo Solution specializes in Data Protect and Recovery, "this event is not at all uncommon, it's just not made public, companies are not in the habit of admiting their faults, say CEO and Data Protection VAR Brian McCarthy.
McCarthy as also says "many companies assume that their data is well protected if their core servers are backed up. Server backup is an essential component of data protection, but many companies do not have effective technology in place that will enable them to resume operations quickly after a disaster. Part of this problem lies in the fact that an estimated 60 percent of business-critical data resides unprotected on employees' desktops or laptops. Data at remote and branch offices is likewise often unprotected because of the hardware and administration costs involved. The loss of this data inevitably results in lost revenues, lost productivity, and lost customer confidence, and in some effent class-action suites."
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/security-threat-management.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland, Cape Canaveral
Other Projects: DR BC Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar CX4
Q1 Labs Announces QRadar 6.1: Converged Network and Security Management Disciplines Delivered in a Single Platform - January 20, 2008
Best of Breed Network and Security Monitoring for Log, Threat and Compliance Management
Q1 Labs, a leading network security management company, today unveiled QRadar™ 6.1, the latest version of its flagship product which reinforces Q1 Labs’ commitment to innovate across multiple monitoring disciplines: Log Management, Security Event Management and Network Behavior Analysis.
QRadar 6.1, delivers key features that enable both network and security teams to effectively monitor their network within the same management infrastructure. Coupled with the functionality included in the release of QRadar SLIM (Simple Log and Information Management; see release issued October 30, 2007), QRadar 6.1 provides several new features and capabilities in the following key areas including:
• New network flow searching capabilities for better network behavior analysis and security forensics
• Quality of Service monitoring for important network applications like VoIP
• Augmented host discovery and asset based alerting
• Tamper proofing of all stored log, event and network flow data
Combining network and security monitoring capabilities serves a growing need in the market. As noted in a recent Gartner report Select the Right Monitoring and Fraud Detection Technology1
“Network security and operations products are different markets; however, we see these markets converging in 2008 so that one product set will provide a common network monitoring infrastructure for the NOC and the SOC”
QRadar 6.1 – More Than Just Another SIEM and NBA Product
Today’s converging enterprise requires access to critical network and security data by both network and security operations teams. QRadar offers best of breed network and security monitoring to meet compliance and threat management drivers from a single platform. Features unique to QRadar 6.1 include:
• Network Behavior Analysis with a simple, flexible flow viewer that provides complete, enterprise network visibility
• Robust Log Management architecture combined with analysis that can monitor the network and intelligently alert on the state of new threats, users, and hosts/assets in the network
• SIEM with extensive monitoring inputs and analysis capabilities that allow customers to converge the monitoring of their network and security infrastructures
“QRadar was the first product to seamlessly combine NBA and SIEM functionality – something that many of our competitors are now attempting to achieve through technology partnerships or first-step technology integrations,” said Tom Turner, VP of Marketing and Product Management for Q1 Labs. “QRadar 6.1 further solidifies our technology lead and provides another step forward in helping the converging infrastructure roll-out leading threat management and compliance management practices.”
Pricing and Availability
QRadar 6.1 is available now. Upgrade to QRadar 6.1 is available for free to existing QRadar customers. Pricing starts at $39,900.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Barracuda Web Filter Wins "Best of Connections 2007" Award From Windows IT Pro in Windows Category - January 20, 2008
The worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances, announced today that the Barracuda Web Filter has been named the "Best of Connections 2007 Awards" winner. Penton Media's Windows IT Pro judges declared the Barracuda Web Filter the best in the Windows category.
The judges reviewed more than 60 IT products and services submissions and chose 18 finalists to be evaluated at the Connections Conference in Las Vegas. Interviews were conducted during the event with winners announced on Nov. 7 on the exhibit floor of the Connections Conference.
"This is the first year of this awards program and were thrilled by the high quality of the entries we received," said Karen Forster, group editorial and strategic director." While we had many worthy products, the winners clearly demonstrated their products' strategic importance to the market, their competitive advantages and the value they provide to customers."
The "Best of Connections 2007" awards recognize companies that offer innovative products in the following categories: Exchange, Mobile, .NET, Office, SharePoint, SQL Server and Windows.
"We are honored to have the Barracuda Web Filter recognized as an innovative Windows product at the Connections show," said Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks. "This distinction highlights our success at addressing the growing need with network administrators for affordable content filtering and powerful anti-spyware protection at the gateway level." "Sencilo Solutions has recently signed up as a Diamond Level Partner", say Brian McCarthy, President and CEO of Sencilo, and Storage and Security Solution Provider based in Orlando Florida.
About the Barracuda Web Filter
Available in six models, the Barracuda Web Filter combines preventative, reactive and proactive measures to form a complete content filtering and anti-spyware solution for businesses of all sizes. The Barracuda Web Filter is designed to enforce acceptable Internet usage policies by blocking access to objectionable content and unauthorized Internet applications. At the same time, the Barracuda Web Filter's award-winning feature set enables the Barracuda Web Filter to block spyware downloads, prevent viruses, and stop access to spyware Web sites. Unlike the widely available desktop software solutions, the Barracuda Web Filter is easily installed and does not require the additional time, money or resources necessary for downloading and maintaining software on each individual PC. Hourly Energize Updates are made automatically by Barracuda Central so that the Barracuda Web Filter can block the ever-changing virus and spyware variants, as well as maintain the most up-to-date database of the latest productivity-inhibiting Web sites.
About Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Established in 2002, Barracuda Networks, Inc. is the worldwide leader in email and Web security appliances. Barracuda Networks also provides world-class IM protection, application server load balancing and message archiving appliances. More than 50,000 companies, including Coca-Cola, FedEx, Harvard University, IBM, L'Oreal, NASA and Europcar, are protecting their networks with Barracuda Networks solutions. Barracuda Networks' success is due to its ability to deliver easy to use, comprehensive solutions that solve the most serious issues facing customer networks without unnecessary add-ons, maintenance, lengthy installations or per user license fees. Barracuda Networks is privately held with its headquarters in Campbell, Calif. Barracuda Networks has offices in eight international locations and distributors in more than 80 countries worldwide.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/products-security.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage, security and networking solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, NetApp, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, Tallahassee, Cape Coral, and Pembroke Pines.
Key words: Barracuda Networks Security RSA Encryption Cisco Decru Neoscale EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant SSL SonicWall Secure Computing Firewall VPN Endpoint
Next Generation VTLs will include Data De-dup - January 18, 2008
Service provider takeaway: Service providers can use data deduplication technologies to create an effective remote data backup strategy for customers who employ many remote offices.
You thought the backup system at Bailey Building & Loan's Elmira office was working just right last year. Every night the backup application ran automatically and ejected the tape. Every morning, it was Uncle Billy's job to insert a fresh tape and mail the prior night's tape to the home office in Bedford Falls. Knowing Uncle Billy isn't an IT pro -- and frankly isn't the most reliable of execs -- you even set the system up to email you if the backup job failed.
This morning, you listened to a voicemail from Uncle Billy in which he explained that someone broke into the Bailey Building & Loan's Elmira office and stole its NAS appliance. Even worse, after some investigation, you learn that months ago, Uncle Billy had decided not to mail the tapes to the home office after reading about other companies losing tapes and CDs in transit. Of course, since the thieves took everything but the kitchen sink, they're gone too, and the latest one in Bedford Falls is months old.
How can you prevent this problem from repeating itself? Start by giving tape drives the boot. You can help your customers (whether Uncle Billy, his more reliable nephew George Bailey, or even nasty Mr. Potter, for that matter) with remote data backup by switching to disk-to-disk backup across the Internet using data deduplication, ensuring that your customers' backup data gets offsite. By breaking the data on a client's NAS into blocks and only sending unique blocks across the Internet, deduplication technology reduces the amount of data that needs to be sent by 20- to 100-fold. That reduction means that the typical remote office's DSL or T-1 line can handle the nightly remote data backup load, without a costly infrastructure upgrade.
Navigating new storage technologies isn't always easy for customers; service providers can help them make sense of new developments and choose the right one. New-generation backup software (such as Exagrid or Unitrends Televaulting) not only deduplicates data at remote offices before sending it across the Internet, it also can perform global deduplication across multiple offices so all the remote data and programs that are stored on multiple NASes in multiple offices are only backed up once. This means, for example, that only the first instance of an email attachment sent to multiple remote offices is stored on the device when the backup takes place.
While all of these products can protect Windows-powered NASes, you'll have to do a little homework to find a product that can protect NASes that run their own proprietary operating systems.
Service providers with a data center and an eye toward being a managed service provider (MSP) can use Asigra's Televaulting to build a single repository to store data from multiple clients while ensuring that data is protected.
NAS deduplication being passed over by VTL-based deduplication
For customers that just don't want to give up tape, service providers can still help take advantage of deduplication technology and remote data backup by installing a virtual tape library (VTL) that supports replication, such as Sepaton, Quantum's DXi series or Exagrid, in remote offices. Your clients can continue to use their favorite data backup software, and their shiny new VTL will deduplicate the data and then replicate it to another VTL in the main data center.
VTL-based deduplication and replication, however, aren't a panacea. While they allow clients to continue using the remote data backup software they know and love, they are somewhat less efficient. VTL-based deduplication will only remove data that is duplicated at each remote office. On the other hand, customers who choose to use technologies like those offered by Unitrends can take advantage of disk-to-disk backup and replication technologies that allow data to be deduplicated globally. In addition, with the VTL setup, your client's backup software will be a bit confused, as the replicated data will make it look like one tape is in two places at once. "Some of the early De-Dup vendors, like Data Domain aren't buying into VTL, so we are seeing them dropped off the buying list of customers and the resellers line cards alike", say Brian McCarthy, President of Sencilo Solutions, and a former Data Domain partner. "At one time Sencilo was Data Domain's largest reseller in the Southeast US, but as more advance generations of VTLs are appearing like Sepaton, Exagrid and Quantum to name a few, we saw customers interest decline, so we moved our marketing and sales efforts to these newer devices."
The bottom line is that remote office tape backup is so 20th century; at one time, it might have meant you'd have a wonderful life, but not anymore. Have your clients deduplicate data and use the Net. You and Uncle Billy will sleep better, and you might have the opportunity to pick up some services revenue to boot.
For more information please call (407) 265-6293 or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com/storage-protection.php
About Us
Sencilo Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in storage and security solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including VMware, EMC, Juniper Networks, Hitachi, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, and HP. Its technical expertise is known throughout the storage and security industry. Clients include leading corporations, major financial institutions, top universities, government facilities, as well as small to medium size businesses. Sencilo's professional services include consulting, integration, project management, installation, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Jacksonville, Daytona Beach, Miami, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Hialeah, St. Augustine, Gainesville, Ocala, Palm Coast, Clearwater, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Maitland and Cape Canaveral
Offerings Projects: Replication De-Dup De-Dupe iSCSI SAN NAS VMware Security EMC NetApp HP IBM Quantum Compliance VTL Data Domain vs Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Backup Exc Pure Disk NetBackup Networker TSM Commvault BakBone D2D D2D2T compare cloud data deduplication thin provisioning DXi Global Compression DDX virtual tape library Data Reduction SEPATON FALCON compare Celerra CLARiiON Equallogic Dell NS20 NS40 CX4 CX3-20 CX3-40 CX3-80 FAS2050 FAS3050 Xiotech Nexsan Avamar DLD3 1500 D3 Storwiz storage compression data Ocarina Networks A-SIS compare Sepaton infopro BlueArc OnStor Microsoft Unified Storage data protection
