We put a lot of work into making our first update to SyncBlaze SP Edition that includes the much awaited downloadable SyncBlaze Server Installer and other configuration options. The update mainly focuses on making the installation procedure easier and more simpler to our valued partners.

The following are available for this release update.

• SyncBlaze Server Installer for Linux – Automated server installation is now available
• Google Domain Configuration – Configuration to enable Google Apps Data
• Zoho Viewer Configuration – Configuration to enable integrated file viewer
• Email Settings – Settings to configure custom email server
• Reseller Disk Space – Storage quota and space allocation for resellers

SyncBlaze Server Installer for Linux

The server installation was done manually by our technical team to create a specific build on the Linux platform within your premises and in this regard we used to collect some technical information to complete this effort.

With high demand from our partners, we have made the downloadable installer available on our website. As a registered partner, you have to simply download the installer and proceed with the installation procedure.

The complete installation guide is available here.

Google Domain Configuration

Google Domain Configuration is used to access user’s Google Apps data such as Emails, Docs and Contacts using Google API.

Follow the steps to proceed with the Google Domain Configuration and as the final step enter the generated Google Consumer and Secret Key in the respective fields. Click ‘Save’ to complete the configuration.

After successful configurations, users get the privilege to enable all Google Apps data.

Zoho Viewer Configuration

Zoho Viewer Configuration is used to view synced files through Zoho Viewer using Zoho API.

Follow the steps to proceed with the Zoho Viewer Configuration, copy and paste the generated Zoho API and Secret Key in the respective fields. Click ‘Save’ to complete the configuration.

Once configuration is successful, the files can be viewed with the integrated Zoho Viewer.

Email Settings

Email Settings is used to configure the email address for all outgoing emails from your custom email server.

The SMTP Server Name and Port Number of the specific server have to be used along with the User Name and Password if the partner opts for Authentication.

All emails sent to the customers/users will use the configured custom email server.

Reseller Disk Space

In the ‘List of Customer(s)’ section, the Reseller Disk Space Info has an update to edit the storage quota of that specific reseller account and also assign space for reseller’s use.

Click on ‘Edit’ to make the necessary changes in the Storage Quota and Space Allocation section.

And more

We also fixed a number of bugs, improved the installation and made SyncBlaze more stable.

We are really looking forward to hearing what you think of the new improvements available. There are also many more updates and enhancements coming to SyncBlaze. Stay tuned. Drop your thoughts. We are available in twitter too.

Start Experiencing SyncBlaze!

Jason Steuernagel, Got It Back LLC

The Challenges

The advent of virtualization and cloud technologies has changed the Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) picture dramatically in the SMB space. Managed Service Providers offering backup services face a greater challenge to provide Backup & Disaster Recovery Solution which is not only automated completely but also reliable and flexible to the ever growing demands of their business customers.

The Solution

Due to increase in virtualization and cloud technologies adoption, Service Providers need to identify a Backup & Disaster Recovery solution which offers high-performance backup with multiple restore options to cater to different categories of customers. They also have the onerous task to lookout for a product which constantly improves  to meet the  emerging data protection and disaster recovery needs of  evolving  businesses.

The StoreGrid Benefit

Vembu StoreGrid offers a compelling recipe for addressing the technical and economic barriers to broaden Cloud Backup and Virtualization based disaster recovery adoption in SMB. In particular StoreGrid attracted SMBs as it allowed them to perform virtualized disaster recovery shrinking the CAPEX required with traditional DR.

See a real MSP talk about  all this and more of his experiences of solving the challenges with StoreGrid in this video case study.

At Vembu, we not only believe in offering a profitable partner channel program but also constantly listen to valuable inputs from our partners to continuously improve the product.

Feel free to take a closer look at our latest edition StoreGrid 4.2 to learn more.

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.

Folks in the UK are building storage boxes that could house up to petabytes of data using commodity hardware.  Managed Service Providers can benefit from this cost-effective storage solution for their StoreGrid Backup or Replication servers.

This initially started as an effort by an online backup service provider to build cheap cloud storage for its own storage needs (thanks to them for sharing the design for those who wish to build their storage cost-effectively!).   This has triggered a few hardware architects in the UK to explore building cheap storage options for service providers.  Interested?  They are taking orders for the storage cases.

Would be interesting to see how Managed Service Providers use these cost-effective storage solutions to cut down the cost of their off-site storage and replace it with their own.  StoreGrid has partnered with leading storage technologies like the Amazon Cloud, Parascale and Caringo for the backup storage component of their online backup service.

Using StoreGrid, MSPs have a variety of options in setting up the backend for their service depending upon their customer needs.

1) Own servers in their data center / colo along with RAID drives / NAS storage devices / innovative storage pods as the one above for storage.

2) Amazon Cloud for running the backup service with StoreGrid running on EC2 instances (there’s a ready AMI with StoreGrid’s latest version pre-installed!) and Amazon’s S3 service for the storage.  This option features unbeatable pricing for offsite storage.

3) Parascale or Caringo cluster software for setting up the storage backend for StoreGrid backup/replication servers

4) Hybrid options using a combination of the above.  (E.g. on-premise backup server with data replication to the Amazon S3 service)

5) Locally attached drives in client machines for backups where you would like to have a copy available locally while having another copy in the backup server.

With so many cost-effective options, what are you waiting for?

The above post was written by Gokul Sriram 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.

“Thought Leadership centers on earning trust and credibility. Thought leaders are noticed by offering something different – information, insights and ideas, for instance.”

For IT service Providers who are wondering what this TLM can do for them, here is the answer. According to the recent press release by Gartner , Thought Leadership Marketing can be a powerful tool for IT service Providers.

Also Gartner defines TLM as giving of information or advice for free or at nominal charge that a client will value so as to create awareness of the company’s product and stimulate demand for it in the market. Below are some of the key benefits of Thought Leadership Marketing.

1) TLM shortens the sales cycle
2) Change the pattern and terms of how people buy from you.
3) Diminish price resistance
4) Prospects experience your value before buying
5) Buyers invested in your service before purchasing
6) Growth in Social Media Placements
7) Assistance in SEO and SEM activities

TLM is one good piece of advice or information that can expressed via blogging, public speaking, writing articles and through various social media activities. According to Mark Peshoff, Senior director of Cisco, “Once Thought Leadership is established, the rest of the industry, the media, academia, government policy makers and the broader business community turn to that company for ideas and insights into where things are going”.  There are various programs employed for implementing TLM. However Gartner Analysts say that the company’s brand and positioning must form the basis for the development of TLM strategy.

Below are the Five Keys to successful TLM as per marketingsavant.com in the IT Service Provider Industry.

1) Be Generous with your knowledge – Share information beyond marketing
2) Be consistent in delivering information – Calendar your activities – daily, weekly etc.
3) Always deliver value to your clients – Listen, think, revise and teach
4) Take your strong positions in the market
5) Track your results in Months & Years.

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.

“I don’t want to sound arrogant. It is not lack of time. I am pretty jobless trying to figure out ways to scale our company trying various new things. The problem is the serious lack of interest in pitching my company to investors. I have spoken to so many VCs on the phone. It’s always the same. I refuse to do a business plan projecting how we can scale. It is like an experiment we are running and it is against my personal nature to pitch my plans to investors – just to raise money – as something that will work without fail. VCs don’t understand my perspective and I can’t blame them as they have to justify their investments to their LPs. I cannot change my nature and personality just to raise money.  If anyone is interested in my company I prefer a one on one meeting. But I insist that I will not give a business plan nor I will pitch my company to raise money. The investment has to come because they instinctively trust me and have a somewhat religious belief that I will at least give their money back if not grow it by 10 times. That is the understanding with which our angel investors have invested in us, by the way. One of them is a VC and he thinks personally he has no problem with my style but as a VC he cannot convince his other partners. My yard stick for success is different from the pure professional investors.”

The above post was written by Sekar Vembu 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.

As part of being the “Startup Of the Day” our CEO, Sekar Vembu was interviewed by the Microsoft BizSpark team. Here is a quote from the interview:

“It certainly feels good to be selected. Microsoft is especially relevant considering that over 90% of our deployments are on Windows Operating Systems. Additionally, our software, StoreGrid, is used to backup a lot of data created with Microsoft applications like Outlook, SQL Server & Exchange Server.”

Click here to read the full interview.

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.

We have always believed that the Cloud would be a valuable addition to an MSP’s arsenal – and we went about supporting Amazon Cloud services precisely because of that.  This enabled our partners to either operate their entire backup service out of Amazon’s EC2/S3 services or simply leverage S3 storage service for the offsite replication.  And we are sure glad we were able to see the business value this brought to MSPs early on and be among the first to adopt this crucial step in the backup/storage industry.

The concepts of substance and form always been closely examined since historical times.    Steve DuPlessie (of ESG fame) gave a unique twist to this age-old ‘form vs. substance’ conundrum with this incisive post on the Cloud here -

Surely, the Cloud is a very convenient ‘construct’ – so much so that it took a lot of time for the industry and analysts to even pin down a definition for the Cloud!   Steve makes two significant points in this post – one, that ‘being’ a Cloud is a sure way to failing in the long run (after a great round A valuation, of course ) and two, that ‘using’ the Cloud for viable solutions will be better off than those masquerading AS the Cloud.

The Cloud ‘form’ became very important for all those who sought to ride the media wave when the Cloud started getting a whole lot of media attention last year.  I noticed several BU/DR firms started sporting the term ‘Cloud Backups’.  This was funny since none of them had even the basic characteristics of cloud computing (like scalablilty (on the scale of the Amazon Cloud),  true pay-for-what-you-use model, etc.) – features which can only come through actual seamless integration of a backup solution with a Cloud service provider.

I believe that the ‘substance’ of the Cloud is what counts for a service provider – the solution to her client’s problem that makes business sense for her to provide.  Not all the ‘form’ – backup players sporting websites with ‘Cloud’ strewn all over – the proverbial new bottle for their old wine.

Vembu StoreGrid has provided a perfect platform for MSPs to USE the Cloud where it makes perfect business sense.  Case in point, offsite replication from StoreGrid to Amazon’s dependable S3 storage service costs less than 50cents/GB/month*.  Before this, MSPs were used to spending ridiculous amounts to get offsite storage services of questionable security with no scalability or pay-for-use model.

We still see a lot of backup players going gung-ho about Cloud related terms for their backup solutions – Public Clouds (as opposed to what?), Hybrid Clouds (an umbrella term meant to cover all they wished were a Cloud, but wasn’t)…. and so on.

I see that when the dust settles on the Cloud phenomenon, MSPs will be quick to see what is getting passed of as ‘Cloud Backups’ to them.  I think the day when the skies will clear is not far off and all undeserved ‘Cloud Backup’ terms in several websites will be off in a jiffy!

* – As of  1st Feb 2010.  Please check the latest AWS pricing here.

The above post was written by Gokul Sriram 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.

There’s a competitor of ours called Axxxx

They have a forum (if you hadn’t guessed already, you know who they are now)

One of the key rules on their forum is ‘no names of competitors’. So you’ll find references to us as Vxxxx. For example (from their forum): My reseller is close to dropping our service and switch to a vxxxx based solution because of these kinds of glitches. Please help.

You’ll also find references to some of the consumer backup services like Mxxx and Cxxxxxxxx (who is sometimes also referred to as Carb – in the fond hope that a reader will dismiss this reference as a discussion on the Atkins Diet)

Frankly, I find the whole thing rather childish and an insult to a Service Provider’s intelligence.

We run a forum too, but we leave it ‘open’ in the true spirit of the word. Sure, we’ve had our fair share of bouquets & brickbats….and positive & negative references to competitors’ products. They all make for a healthy discussion. And quite honestly, if you’re confident about your product, facilitating a free and open discussion is only to your advantage – in the long run!

So why this post, now? We’ve always had a quiet chuckle on Axxxx’s forum policies, but this recent post in response to Axxxx’s huge price rise really lowered the bar (notice the subtle irony)!

In the thread, there is a comment by a ‘thdrought’ wherein he says (grammar and typos are his own):

I am currently evaluating this software bring my clients online backups in-house.  This is my second company I’m evaluating, and so far have no issues with this product. I’d like to get other Ahsay users comments on this product, and for the unhappy ones, maybe some reasons why you don’t like it.

As for other providers, I just warn to steer clear of V-e-m-b-u. I ran a trial of thier product for 1 week. Installation seemed easy enough, though all clients run a version of Apache web server. I thought this was very strange. Why are the backup clients needing to run Apache?

Not a single backup ever completed! Ever. Though the portal would say that they did. Weird… but I would get a failure email, followed by a sucess email and the portal always said “100% complete” on all those backups.

Then, the portal stopped working. Never could log back into it. A sales person from V-e-m-b-u called me, transferred me to technical support, which they “logged a ticket”, but never called me back. That was a week ago.  I promptly uninstalled their portal, clients and made sure that the V-e-m-b-u directories were deleted from all.

If anyone else is looking at something else, please share, but even with the price increase, so far this product is looking better and better for a backup solution in this price range.

Now, that’s insulting. Not to us! We’re still laughing. It’s insulting to a service provider’s intelligence to assume that he won’t see through this hollow attempt by Axxxx to ‘doctor a conversation’. I’ll save the Sherlock Holmes post for a later date, but suffice to say that at least one other person thought the same and even mentioned so in the thread:

thdrought : I highly doubt you are a real person. You sound more like an Ahsay sales person trying to pretend to be a user.

Hungry for more XXX? Here’s  another thread where their tech support replies saying:

May I ask what version of OBM are you currently using? Furthermore, may I ask if the machine in concern has “Shadow Protect” or “Sxxxxxxx Bxxxxx Exxx System Recovery” installed? If so, there is a Volume Shadow Copy conflict between the two software. Our development team has resolve the incompatibility issue. Could you please try patching your OBM to the latest version to see if the problem can be resolved?

(Note: Thanks to Symantec, Sxxxxxxxx is NOT StoreGrid)

Two tips before I sign off:

1) If you’re an Axxxx partner looking for better prospects, please click here. And be sure to ask your sales rep for the ex-Axxxx special.

2) If you’re planning on starting a backup software/service and want free publicity from your competition, call yourself Bxxxxx (yes, the URL is available)

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.

As promised we have chosen 5 lucky winners from the Survey Respondents, who will be awarded with $300 worth of Amazon Gift Certificates.

And the winners are ….

1) Todd Mitchell (wbltd DOT com)

2) David Tschoepe (beenanza DOT com)

3) Andrew Cohen (smr DOT us)

4) Alex Rodriguez (ontimecomputing DOT com)

5) Gerald Sornig (reliableit DOT net)

Congratulations to the winners. You will be notified by email with details of your gift certificates shortly. If you’re redeeming your gift certificate for something like a Samsung / Acer netbook, don’t forget to use Vembu Home or Vembu StoreGrid to back it up.

Others… fret not! You still have one more chance.

If you decide to purchase Vembu StoreGrid before December 31st 2009, you will get $60 worth of FREE licenses along with the purchase.

What are you waiting for?

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.