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SharePoint is a content sharing and collaboration platform. It provides document sharing, team discussion and document-based workflow. SharePoint is highly customizable and each customization depends on the business environment. Although, there are loads of free templates from Microsoft that add further functionality to SharePoint, businesses can write their own code to add specific functionality related to their business needs. In addition, there are whole products that can be installed on top of SharePoint such as, Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Project Server 2007.

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Cloud computing can be anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Cloud services are categorized as, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service or Software as a Service. While, the name cloud, is the symbol used to represent the Internet in various technical and non-technical documents. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a pay-per-use service where a cloud-computing provider offers storage space, network equipment, and virtual servers as consumable resources. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a platform for the development, deployment and hosting of applications where the final product is delivered to the users via the Web. Software as a Service (SaaS) is when providers provide applications to customers via the Internet as Web services.
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One of the major players in cloud computing – Amazon, are SAS 70 compliant. A small step forward towards safer environments as many commented but I see it as an important move – well done Amazon! As I stated in previous articles, cloud computing has to proof that that it is getting safer and safer. Ernst & Young carried out Amazon’s SAS 70 Type II audit, quite an assurance that the job was done to high standards. This means that remote online backup providers that use Amazon as their backend have one important layer SAS 70 certified, however, the backup service provider remains responsible and should implement the necessary security measure to protect their customers’ data.

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From online backups to tape-drive articles! The latest generation of the LTO technology has some interesting features and since these relate to data backups, I decided to share a couple of thoughts with you!
The LTO (Linear Tape-Open) consortium has recently released the 5th generation of tape storage technology. It can store up to 3 TB of data if we assume a compression ratio of 2:1, it has data transfer speeds of up to 280 MB /s, it has a new partitioning feature and Linear Tape File System specification to provide enhanced file control and data management.
It includes two data partitions on the tape that support a tape file system, allowing files to be written directly to a tape and read by another computer, independent of OS or application. That is, we can say it is cross-platform capable and hence, truely portable!

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Every solution has its two sides of the coin. We come across various marketing techniques that somehow define cloud computing in relation to the services they provide! In order to jump on to the cloud bandwagon and attract customers, some companies advertise their services as cloud services when in fact these are not! Therefore, what is cloud computing? – We define cloud computing as anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Cloud services are categorized as, Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service or Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). While, the name cloud, is the symbol used to represent the Internet in various technical and non-technical drawings.

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One of the concerns of many people who consider performing online backups is the matter of security. You are uploading sensitive stuff to a foreign site. Can anyone from within read this stuff? And what if the site is hacked and white collar thieves living in some foreign country get hold of the data? What would happen?

One solution is to protect each and every document using a password. Many programs have such a capability built in.  For many one, two or three person organisations this solution could work; the people would password protect every file using a phrase that is shared amongst colleagues. As the number of employees increase, guaranteeing that everyone is obeying the rules makes this solution one that is too problematic. Besides certain file types cannot be password protected.

The script I am sharing is one that addresses this problem. It makes use of the commercial product WinRar to archive an entire directory (including subdirectories) into a RAR file. The RAR file name is user definable and is placed in a folder under C:\RSB. The RAR archive is password protected using a password passed to the script. The script is called rsb.cmd.

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Sage Pastel Evolution is an Accounting / Stock / Point of Sale program for medium to large sized companies. The program can support a large number of concurrent users and an unlimited number of companies. It uses Microsoft SQL Server as its underlying database. Small setups (up to 10 users) can use Microsoft SQL Server Express with larger shops necessitating the use of the standard edition of SQL Server.

In order to backup Sage Pastel Evolution one needs to backup the Microsoft SQL Server database as well as the appropriate registry entries. In this article I will not discuss how to backup Microsoft SQL Server Express or Standard edition—email me on chribonn@gmail.com if you are interested in a write-up on how to backup these products.

The Windows Registry

A word of warning about handling the registry: unlike many programs, the registry program does not have an undo or an undelete option and changes go into effect immediately. If you delete a file by mistake you can pull it out of limbo by visiting the Recycle Bin. If you screw up a document, pressing undo will take you back one action at a time until you reach the stage before the oops or, if necessary, you can abandon all changes done during that session simply by not saving the updated document. None of this exists in the registry so be cautious.  Read more »

Data deduplication is a data backup process that eliminates duplicated data. At first thought, one may think that the word deduplication means the negation of duplication! Although, this is what happens in data deduplication that connotation is not the right one! Actually, the word deduplication means the division of that which is one whole into two or more pieces. In fact, the data deduplication mechanism divides data into blocks or chunks of bits in order to eliminate the redundant pieces within data.

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