Brightpearl Blog

Putting your trust in cloud computing Posted on November 30th, 2009 by Chris Tanner

Recently we had to do a backup for a client who had just deleted a lot of data by mistake. Fortunately, we had a full database available from only a few hours previously, which was restored to a copy of their account, from where they could cherry pick the missing data. As it happened, the client decided to restore the whole backup and carry on as before with minimal business impact.

Life would not have been so rosy if they had been running their business on a laptop that had been stolen, or if they had not followed their own daily backup routine like a religion (do you?).

Lots of people are hesitant to put their business information in “the cloud”, but for small businesses without heavy on-site IT infrastructure, using hosted software is often a safer, more reliable and more secure option.

Phil Wainewright over at ZDNet puts it elegantly:

It is no surprise that the heritage of buggy, unproven and unwarrantied software that businesses and individuals have been saddled with by the established vendors over many years has led us to instinctively mistrust any computing that forces us to rely on a third party.Yet despite our understandable caution, it is far better to trust the cloud, where security and performance are continuously open to public scrutiny, where costs can be predictably mapped to actual value delivered and where the technology is constantly kept up-to-date for no extra cost or disruption to the customer. Provided the buyer makes proper due diligence and precautions, there is in my view no alternative form of computing that is more trustworthy.

Here at Pearl:

  • We host with Rackspace. These guys are good. Really good. Not only is the hardware and infrastructure superb, they also have an uber-qualified tech team at our beck and call 24 hours a day. The other night we spent 3 hours non stop on the phone with them between 3am and 6am during a server upgrade.
  • We back up ALL your data every day at 0600 GMT. We keep daily backups for up to two weeks, and weekly backups for longer. Data is backed up off site, and can be restored within minutes.
  • We have a number of interconnected servers with data redundancy and automatic failover, so that if one hard drive or network card fails, the system will only be unavailable for about half a second.
  • We update the software automatically, and invisibly. As soon as issues are found and improvements available, you get the benefits straight away, without needing to pay any extra. When was the last time you updated (and probably were charged for) your desktop Accounting/CRM software?

So if you’re at all concerned about keeping your business critical data safe, consider getting it off that laptop or shaky old Windows 2003 server and onto a reliable cloud hosting platform.

Posted in General posts, Security | No Comments »

Securing your digital experience Posted on November 9th, 2009 by Andrew Martin

Pearl safeguards your data through secure access control, encryption and a regimented backup strategy, so all that is left to protect is your password – the snippet of information that verifies your identity online. To prevent impersonation by a malicious user your password must be kept private. There are many ways this secret data can be gleaned (including spyware, stray pieces of paper and lost laptops), so you need to be careful.

October was the US government’s National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and many companies took the opportunity to advise their users how best to protect themselves online. Computer security relies on threat awareness, as the oft cited Sun Tzu states:

“against those skilled in defense, the enemy does not know where to attack”

Conversely an uninformed,  loose security policy will offer nuggets of confidential information to any potential attacker that chooses to look for them.

Here is a round up of the most informative security related articles published during the last month:

  • Choosing a smart password: Google addresses insecure password selection in this article, highlighting password re-use, how to avoid common words and patterns, the relationship between your personal information and your passwords and how to remember your password without a pen and paper. You may be surprised how insecure your password really is.
  • Keep your small business safe: 10 tips: Microsoft covers virtual as well as physical security – one of the most overlooked aspects of computer protection. Many businesses consider anti-virus and firewalls sufficient defence from intrusion and data theft, however reliance on these technologies is unsafe in the face of hardware theft, for example.
  • Stay Safe Online Blog: The National Cyber Security Alliance’s Stay Safe Online blog is host to a glut of informative articles  including posts concerning social media, identity protection and cyber attacks.
  • Cyber Security Tips: The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team’s thorough Cyber Security Tips archive covers every conceivable aspect of online security, and is a great resource to learn about specific aspects of the threats presented to today’s web user.
  • Gmail account security tips: For the companies turning to Google Apps to host their mail services, this post from Google concerning email safety provides  some less obvious warnings, including directions to force secure communication with Google’s servers.
  • Cyber Security Awareness: YouTube hosts an informative Cyber Security Awareness channel, paying special attention to updating your computers’ defences.

Using Pearl means that you have the secure storage,  processing and retention of your data covered, the failure of which is commonly associated with business collapse (as many as 60% of businesses fold within 6 months of serious data loss); however the value of your data to a competitive third party should not be underestimated. As a chain’s strength lies in its weakest link, so your company’s security policy must safeguard against a broad range of threats  to fully  secure your presence online.

Stay safe!

Posted in Security | No Comments »