With this acquisition, cloud based recovery services based on Microsoft Azure Cloud will also be offered where an MSP or a value added reseller can choose to resell branded online backup service.  Vembu technologies will soon release communication to all its Channel Partners regarding what this acquisition means for them. For the near future, Vembu Technologies will operate as an independent company till the acquisition and migration is fully completed.

There was this heated bidding war which went on between Microsoft and Google with regards to the acquisition of Vembu Technologies as both of them wanted to establish a strong presence amongst the Channel Partner space with regards to offering a solid backup service to SMBs. These heated exchanges where then noticed by the FTC which then intervened and after sustained negotiations handed over 68% of ownership to Microsoft and the 32% of share to Google.

Hence going forward, all client installations of Vembu will be handled by Google and all Server installation of Vembu will be handled by Microsoft and Vembu is looking to release necessary documentation on whom to contact when an issue arises as soon as possible. Here’s what our VP – Storage Products, Sathish Subramanian has to say about this acquisition. “We have been constantly contacted by Microsoft and Google to complete this acquisition and there were also times where we were forced to avoid taking calls with regards to this acquisition. Only after the intervention of FTC did things start to settle down and we felt now is the right time to release this critical information. However, we believe that this breakthrough now opens new horizons for our Channel Partners and they can now enjoy the benefits of having the option of being branded by both Google and Microsoft for offering their backup service”

We don’t expect any price rise amidst of this acquisition and we don’t have any plans to increase prices in the near future too. The management team of Vembu will now focus on a different industry segment which will be revealed shortly. To know more information on this acquisition, please check the official press release here

The above post was written by Lenin Srinivasan of Vembu Technologies. Vembu Technologies is a backup software vendor whose product, StoreGrid, powers the online backup services of a large number of service providers across the globe. Besides remote backup, StoreGrid is also used for on premise backups of workstations and servers at various companies & universities.

Vembu Pro Online Backup Service allows Value Added Resellers and Managed Service Providers to offer online backup service to their customers without worrying about storage or hardware infrastructure.

Vembu Home is the only FREE consumer backup solution for free local backups and optional Amazon Cloud backups. Get your FREE COPY now

With the release of StoreGrid v3.1 SP1, StoreGrid now supports Exchange Server 2010 database backup and restore. The v3.1 SP1 patch should be installed on both the backup server (and replication server) and in the client machines running StoreGrid v3.1. Remember this patch installs only on top of StoreGrid v3.1 installations.

Exchange 2010 Backup Restore

VSS based backup of Exchange 2010

Unlike Exchange Server 2000, 2003, 2007 where StoreGrid uses Exchange Server’s ESE API (Extensible Storage Engine) for backing up live Exchange databases, in Exchange 2010 StoreGrid uses VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Services) based APIs. StoreGrid invokes the “Microsoft Exchange Writer” (comes with the Exchange 2010 Server) which provides the backup of the live Exchange databases in a consistent state.

During the Exchange 2010 Server backup, the VSS is used to create a snapshot of the database and log files pertaining to the databases configured for backup and those files are then saved locally in a temporary location. Once all the relevant files are saved in the dump location, StoreGrid will report to the VSS that the backup is complete and the VSS will then purge the log files. StoreGrid will then backup the dumped files to the backup server and will delete these files from the temporary location.

Efficient as always..

Though the way Exchange provides its backup data may be different in Exchange 2010 server, but to StoreGrid users, Exchange 2010 Server backup and restore will work exactly the way Exchange 2000, 2003 and 2007 backup and restore work. The process continues to be slick and efficient as always:

1. Only incremental changed data is dumped during the incremental backup and not the entire Exchange database

2. Even within the incremental data that is dumped, StoreGrid backs up only the changed blocks by running StoreGrid’s Intelli-Delta on the incremental log files

3. Backup data files are deleted from the dump location once the backup is completed.

What is next in StoreGrid for Exchange Server Backups

We continue to make enhancements to Exchange Server Backups since we know that it is one of the most important service offerings for our MSP partners. Here are some the enhancements that is in near roadmap

1. Mail Level Restore – Specific emails from can be restored and attached into the Exchange Server.

2. Synthetic Exchange full backups – During additional full backups only the incremental backup data with respect to the previous full backup is sent to the backup server. Large Exchange Server data can be first seeded from the Exchange Server machine to backup server using StoreGrid’s seeding (export/import) feature and then later all additional full backups can be Synthethic Full Backups.

3. ‘Copy Only’ local backup – StoreGrid client can be configured to do regular weekly or monthly full ‘Copy Only’ backup of the entire Exchange Server, while it continues to run its incremental/differential backups to the offsite backup server. The ‘Copy Only’ backup will not set the archive bit on the Exchange Server, therefore letting the offsite backup to continue running its incrementals.

4. Incremental/Differential Exchange backups both locally and to remote backup server – We have also started working on providing the ability for the StoreGrid client to backup both locally and to a remote backup server in the same backup schedule.

Want to learn more about Exchange Server Backups and Restore using StoreGrid?

Please refer the following URLs:

http://www.storegrid.com/online-backup/sp-help/PageHelp/exchange-backup-configuration.html

http://www.storegrid.com/online-backup/sp-help/PageHelp/exchange-server-restore-configuration.html

http://www.storegrid.com/online-backup/sp-help/PageHelp/exchange-recovery-database-restore.html

http://www.storegrid.com/online-backup/sp-help/PageHelp/exchange-mailbox-rights.html

http://www.storegrid.com/online-backup/sp-help/PageHelp/exchange-mailbox-backup-configuration.html

http://www.storegrid.com/online-backup/sp-help/PageHelp/exchange-mailbox-restore-configuration.html

The above post was written by Arul Prabhu of Vembu Technologies. Vembu Technologies is a backup software vendor whose product, StoreGrid, powers the online backup services of a large number of service providers across the globe. Besides remote backup, StoreGrid is also used for on premise backups of workstations and servers at various companies & universities.

Vembu Home is the only FREE consumer backup solution for free local backups and optional Amazon Cloud backups. Get your FREE COPY now.

SMBs – Steering well in rough seas

Here’s an excerpt from the May 1st Edition of Wall Street Journal :  “Like most companies, smaller firms used the global crisis to pare costs and trim inventories. They are running lean nowadays and have relatively strong balance sheets, with more cash and less debt as a percentage of market capitalization than do large companies, according to Standard & Poor’s data. Also smaller companies tend to thrive most during low-interest-rate environments, when they don’t have to pay much to get capital to fuel their growth—the very conditions that have prevailed in the U.S. for much of the past decade”.

Now this means a huge potential for the Hosted IT Services to the SMBs

Now let’s take a closer look at the SMB market and the impact of Information Technology.  According to a recent Survey from Microsoft, Small and Midsize Businesses using Hosted Services have shown better financial performance. Of the Small and Midsize Businesses that viewed IT as a critical element, 60% of them saw their revenues grow in the past 12 Months (i.e. 2009). In contrast, among the SMBs who viewed IT as insignificant, less than 29% saw an increase in revenue. Now, this is makes the point very clear that IT services have a positive impact on SMBs.

YIPPEE! – Cloud Computing

Contrary to my previous blog on ‘SMBs reaction to Cloud – A Pro/Con Analysis’ where I focused on the point that SMBs are reluctant to cloud,  I am finding this climate to be changing. According to the Microsoft 2010 index, Small and Midsize businesses are starting to see the benefits of Cloud Computing and more than 40% of respondents that used Cloud Computing technology reported a revenue rise of more than 30%. SMBs see Cloud Computing as an effective platform for IT Management, Maintenance and reduced operation cost.

How to solve the IT Requirements of SMBs effectively? – Give what they want!

Whether it is E-Mail, File Sharing, Data Backup, CRM, Website Hosting or E-Commerce, roughly ~50% – 70% of SMBs have their IT Services On-Premise and ~20% – 30% of them have it hosted and ~10% – 20% don’t have these IT Services at all. If we see Data Backup in particular, almost 71% of SMBs have their Data Backup installed On-Site and 22% of them have them hosted on a Offsite Server and nearly 7% of them don’t have Data Backup at all.

Now this being the case, if you are trying to pitch your offsite backup solution to a customer who has his present backup data on-site, it’s going to be difficult winning the customer until he completely trusts your solution. The best way to handle this situation is to propose a hybrid backup solution model, where there will be a local copy of backup data on the customer’s premises and the backed up data is then optionally replicated to an offsite server / cloud platform for additional redundancy. Online Backup Software like Vembu StoreGrid can be deployed as a Managed On-Premise Backup Solution for customers who prefer that option and the backed up data can be optionally replicated to an offsite replication server in a co-lo facility or a Cloud Platform like Amazon Web Services. This becomes a win-win situation for the SMB as well as the Service Provider as this kind of a hybrid backup model is mutually beneficial.

These research reports say one thing very clearly that Small and Midsize Businesses show greater awareness to the benefits of IT and indicates a clear path towards better financial performance for those who take advantage of IT advancements such as hosted services. The SMB market is really big and hot out there for IT solution providers or the managed service providers and what is needed is the right strategy and execution to win big.

The above post was written by Lenin Srinivasan of Vembu Technologies. Vembu Technologies is a backup software vendor whose product, StoreGrid, powers the online backup services of a large number of service providers across the globe. Besides remote backup, StoreGrid is also used for on premise backups of workstations and servers at various companies & universities.

Vembu Home is the only FREE consumer backup solution for free local backups and optional Amazon Cloud backups. Get your FREE COPY now.

Apologies for the corny headline. This has nothing to do with working out.

But it is good news for all those laptops that are backing up online…

G.Y.M. is short for Google, Yahoo & Microsoft. The three companies seem to be in the midst of a flurry of FREE WiFi announcements. Here’s stuff that came through from G.Y.M. in the last 48 hours:

Google announced free WiFi at 47 airports – through the holiday season and into January 2010. They even have a FreeHolidayWifi web site on this. In what could easily be spun as a “limit the joy to Microsoft” tactic, Seattle airport joins the list of 47 a little later.

Yahoo announced free WiFi at Times Square, NYC – for a whole year.

Microsoft, not to be outdone, and in an effort to popularize Bing,  has announced an interesting promotion going with JWire. Their “search for access” program offers  a session of free Wi-Fi access in exchange for a search on Bing. Users are presented with their search results, and they can then enjoy free Internet service for a specified time period.

So there, you have it. Connectivity can’t be your excuse this season – for not backing up! I’m curious though – how did the free WiFi idea hit G.Y.M. – at almost the same time (all of the above announcements happened in the last 48 hours)

Crunchgear has an article on this too.

Prediction: Amazon will make a similar announcement – soon.

The above post was written by Lakshmanan (Lux) Narayan of Vembu Technologies. Vembu Technologies is a backup software vendor whose product, StoreGrid, powers the online backup services of a large number of service providers across the globe. Besides remote backup, StoreGrid is also used for on premise backups of workstations and servers at various companies & universities.

Vembu Home is the only FREE consumer backup solution for free local backups and optional Amazon Cloud backups. Get your FREE COPY now.

Some time ago, we’d written about David Chappell’s talk on Windows Azure, and why it was different. I’d also mentioned that I’d share the slide deck once I got it from David. Here it is.

(the ppt is cued to slide 27 which is where the fun stuff begins – the comparisons with other platforms. As we said earlier, the ‘neutrality’ with which this was presented was refreshing)

Read on…

The Windows Azure Platform a Perspective Chappell

The above post was written by Lakshmanan (Lux) Narayan of Vembu Technologies. Vembu Technologies is a backup software vendor whose product, StoreGrid, powers the online backup services of a large number of service providers across the globe. Besides remote backup, StoreGrid is also used for on premise backups of workstations and servers at various companies & universities.

Vembu Home is the only FREE consumer backup solution for free local backups and optional Amazon Cloud backups. Get your FREE COPY now.