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Once a business has settled on the right server technology and understands the benefits of installing quality hardware that will perform all day and all night for years to come, it is tempting to look for opportunities to save money on secondary storage like the hardware around the chosen backup solution.

Considered from a perspective where everything is running just fine, cheaper backup hardware seems like a great area to trim cost. When the inevitable happens (IT engineers quickly learn that all hardware is going to fail sooner or later) your backup becomes a vital lifeline to get the business back on its feet again quickly.

Let’s consider the common scenario of using a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device as a backup target. This is a great idea since it allows backup to finish more quickly and to take place more frequently than most tape-based solutions would. Crucially, restores can be done far more quickly than from most tape systems.

Home NAS device

Many people would first look at the capacity and then look at the price: gigabytes of storage per pound spent seems a reasonable yardstick. This would make the Western Digital My Book Edition II 2TB NAS look like a fantastic bargain at £190 or so. When you set it up with RAID 1 (mirroring) the storage space drops to 1TB but that might still be enough to back up a small server. To use any disk system without some kind of RAID, mirroring as a minimum, would be crazy. In our experience, such cheap NAS boxes are best for home use, as in this picture, where they are only written to by one machine at a time and aren’t expected to work too hard.

Small Business NAS Device

Scaling things up a bit, we have used higher capacity and higher specification NAS devices as backup targets in environments where cost is a factor. Like the Buffalo Terastation III 6TB NAS shown here, they run a version of Linux, have software RAID 1 or 5, a Gigabit network card and are built to a businesslike standard. Cost is around £900. These work well in general. However when they are written to by multiple servers at the same time, the internal hardware starts to reach its limits, which can result in missed backups. Vendor support can be patchy and is seldom speedy.

Entry Level Corporate NAS

For multiple server environments ISN use a higher grade NAS as a backup target: basically a server running a version of Windows 2008 known as Storage Server. These rack mountable enterprise level NAS devices have hardware RAID controllers, can have multiple network interfaces and a range of other hardware options. Prices start at about £2200 for the HP X1400 2TB model shown here. Dell’s PowerVault NX300 NAS is around the same price. These use standard parts and an operating system which is easy to support worldwide. If you add an onsite warranty pack, you can have an engineer from HP (or Dell) on your doorstep to fix it within 6 hours if it breaks . So much better than trying to revive a cheaper NAS at the time when you need it most.

Value doesn’t come cheap

As in so many situations, you do get what you pay for with IT hardware, just like you do with cars, cameras, smartphones, whatever. The cost of a £3000 NAS depreciated over 3 years is a minimal cost to a business compared to several days of downtime if an inadequate backup system fails to restore your critical data.

This short article only covers one aspect of data backup for businesses. We sell all the items mentioned above and many more besides. Please speak to your ISN account manager or our sales department on 020 7313 8300 to discuss whether your backup solution is robust enough for your business needs.

Windows 7 is the latest desktop and laptop operating system out of the Microsoft stable and it’s a thoroughbred from the start. As one of ISN’s desktop specialists, I have been using it for some time now. I like it a lot.

Better Performance

It’s faster than Windows XP and much faster than the ill-fated Vista, due to smaller resident memory requirements. Windows 7 installs far more quickly than either of its predecessors.

• Faster to startup - the record for booting a quad core PC is 19 seconds
• 64 bit version available - meaning your applications could use up to 192GB of memory
• Faster searches - find files and folders faster and more easily than in Vista or XP
• Back compatibility - run older programs in a virtual Windows XP window
• Better power management - longer battery life: some of the latest laptops can run for 6 hours or more.

Windows 7 is capable of running on existing hardware and so the PC you use today will probably be usable for the next few years: all it will need is the new operating system.

New usability features

With new features and improvements under the hood, people will be impressed with the speed and the improved stability, thus reducing the need to call your helpdesk and making it easier to get stuff done.

• New Taskbar - pin common apps to the taskbar; preview open application windows.
• Left/Right alignment - easily use two applications side by side, each occupying half your screen
• Aero Shake - May be a gimmick rather than a feature, but still handy. Grab and shake any application title bar with the mouse and all other windows minimise!

New enterprise capabilities

When used with Windows Server 2008 R2, you will be able to use new features that link with Windows 7 and provide added value to the software.

• DirectAcess - automatic VPN connection
• BranchCache - data replication and sharing
• VPN Reconnect - seamless reconnection when moving between networks (e.g. wi-fi points)

All in all, it should bring an increase in productivity and a reduction of desktop problems, bringing new life to existing hardware.

The annual conference for the EAGE - European Association of Geologists & Engineers - took place in Amsterdam last week - 8th to 11th June. A great opportunity for professionals in geophysics, petroleum exploration, geology, reservoir engineering, mining and civil engineering to get together for one of the key events of the oil and gas IT calendar.

As an IT infrastructure specialist for the Oil & Gas industry, London-based IT consultancy ISN Solutions partnered storage vendor Isilon Systems on their stand at the show. ISN have much experience of consultancy, design, project management, installation and support of IT and comms infrastructure for the oil & gas exploration and production sector.

With seismic data storage very much on the agenda and new applications for its manipulation and interpretation being showcased, ISN and Isilon where kept busy with interest on how best to manage the obvious storage implications, not just now, but allowing for likely growth patterns into the future.

Isilon’s scale-out NAS products offer unparalleled speed of access, uptime and cost effectiveness for storage of seismic data. Having evaluated the options available in the marketplace, we have been impressed by how easy  Isilon clustered NAS arrays are to manage and maintain. We have seen nothing that scales so well, while still maintaining extremely fast response times. Isilon’s product range includes solutions for storage needs from 5 Terabytes to over 5 Petabytes. Ideal for many geoscience applications.

Call us on 020 7313 9900  to tell us more about your storage challenges.

People often ask us for ways to share files with suppliers, partners and remote workers when those files are too big to be sent as email attachments. After testing a few different approaches we’ve found the easiest way to do it.

One solution has been to set up an FTP site but that can be cumbersome for non-IT people. If hosted on your internal network, it could swamp your internet connection, or even provide a way in for hackers.

Having evaluated various sharing websites, we have found what seems to be the perfect solution in a new service called ShareFile. You can even brand it to look like your web site.

It ticks all the boxes for what we needed:

• Data stored externally
• Secure and encrypted data storage and transfer
• Easy to use for anyone, specialist or not
• Easy to control access for different recipients
• Low cost

ShareFile offer a free trial on www.sharefile.com. If you want to try it out for 30 days without having to submit a credit card, please call me at ISN on 020 7313 9900.

Wow factor

Having braved the queues outside Carphone Warehouse early on a Friday morning, I found myself one of the first owners of the new iPhone 3G by Apple. I love it, it truly is one of the best mobile phones ever made, but past the ‘wow’ factor and ease-of-use, I’m discovering that the iPhone isn’t the direct replacement for my BlackBerry I thought it might be. Read more »

There’s plenty of free software around but these three are really worth taking a look at. They all save a load of time or money and are actually fun to use. Read more »