Google and Microsoft have been ruling the email service industry for quite some time now and they have come up with a lot of variant features with their own pros and cons. However, most of the businesses use them without even comparing their features and benefits. After all, why would you bother to compare and switch when you are already comfortable with the one you use?

Weighing the different features and their benefits would help you to understand if you are on the right track or you need to shift.  Or – if you are shopping for your new business – this article, is going to help you with choosing the right email product for your business by comparing the different features of both Microsoft Outlook and Gmail.

Pricing

As a business user you need to pay $60-$120 per user per year for an extended version of Gmail along with its associated apps. You can get it at a discounted rate of $50 per user per year if you commit to a fixed number of accounts.

At the higher price point of $120/user/year, you get Vault with some exclusive additional features like retention policies, email and chat archiving, e-discovery, legal hold ability, export feature and audit.

Office365 Small Business Outlook comes at a price of $48-$96 per user per year if you don’t need the Office suite.

Offline Email Access

Accessing email is an inevitable part of our daily routine and you cannot afford to ignore this as a selection criterion for your business.

Outlook provides offline email access feature which enables you to work on your email even when the Internet is not connected. You can read and respond to your emails offline and as soon as the Internet connection gets re-established, your emails will be sent automatically.

With Gmail offline email feature, you can only access last month’s emails when there is no Internet connection. Also, you can access Gmail offline on Safari and Google Chrome browsers only. With Outlook, there is no such restriction.

Administration

If your business calendar is always filled with meetings, then Outlook should play a key role in administering it. Outlook enables you schedule resources like projectors, conference or meeting rooms by adding them as a resource to your meeting. The resource then acts like any attendee like checking the availability for meeting along with the ability to auto-respond to the meeting invite.

With Gmail, administering your meeting involves multiple processes like setting up primary and secondary calendars.

Online Apps Access

Another winning feature is that on Outlook you can view, share and edit MS Office documents using Office Web Apps which you cannot do with Gmail.

Storage Space

Storage space is highly important for any business and a critical factor to choose your email product.

Outlook provides free unlimited storage, which means your storage capacity grows with your inbox. You can attach any file up to 100 MB and if you link your file to OneDrive, you can attach files up to 300 MB.

Gmail comes with 15 GB of free storage and if you integrate your mail with Google Drive, you can email files up to 10 GB.

Security

Well, undoubtedly security is a major concern for any business and Outlook and Gmail both emphasize on the same.

Gmail and Outlook both offer two-factor authentication where the users need to enter a code sent to their mobile devices to validate access.

It is important for any online account so that you don’t get hacked. You can also go in for end-to-end data encryption to make your email more secure. While Gmail offers third party support to enable this, Outlooks lacks this feature.

Although, Gmail and Outlook both focus on ensuring a strong check on SPAM control, but one of the good features Outlook has is its ability to handle newsletter messages.  Outlook automatically adds an unsubscribe button to them even if the email doesn’t include it on its own.

As you have seen both Gmail and Outlook have their own pros and cons and what suits your company best solely depends on your requirement. Although, there are more features to compare but as a business you should look at these major parameters while choosing an email product for you. For example, if you are considering Microsoft Outlook, you should also look into Office 365 (which is online, like gmail) . You might want to compare Gmail capabilities (Google Apps)  to office 365, and read about Office 365 vs Google Apps, pros and cons.

It is just not about selecting the right email product rather you also need to ensure that your email data is safe, secure and backed up properly so that you don’t lose it when you need it the most. Most businesses are only concerned about backing up their hard drive data and not emails (or backing up their online data in general). In fact they are not even aware that it’s MUST.  It’s a common misconception and source of confusion for many SaaS users. Microsoft , just Like Google and others has built in redundancy and backups in all of their data centers, but there backups are for internal data center recovery only, and not available to customers for restoring their data in the event of accident or malicious data loss. Once data is automatically or manually purged from the recycle bin the data is lost forever. Interesting, right? If you want to learn more about it, read our special overview  “Why backup online data”.

The post Outlook vs. Gmail – A Comparative Guide for Your Business Needs appeared first on CloudAlly.

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According to a forecast by Computerworld, 42 percent IT leaders plan to invest more on cloud computing this year. There will be an 11 percent shift of IT budget toward various cloud computing versions as a new delivery model by 2016, as per IDC predictions. That’s an impressive statistic and proof of how shiny the future of cloud is.

While the majority of enterprises plan to embrace or use cloud more, they often underrate the security part. What if the data stored in the cloud gets lost due to some virus attack, phishing, or accidental deletion. How can it be recovered? An inevitable solution to prevent data loss is back up.

In this article we are going to list the top 10 infographics that will help visualize why backups are important – be it a cloud or a cloud-to-cloud network, how it evolved, and where it stands now. Let’s get rolling then.

1. What Can Cause Data Loss?

Before, we talk about backup; we should talk about what causes data loss; viruses, phishing scams, hacking, or something else? Here is a detailed infographic about that.

2. How Data Loss Could Be Deadly for a Business

Here is an informative infographic from DSS Datacenter that depicts what data loss could cost a business. It has some shocking data loss statistics that will convince any business to implement cloud backup today.

3. Evolution of Backups

To protect a business from data loss, backups are crucial, but what brought around the concept in the first place, and how did it evolve? This infographic from Axcient explains.

4. Women Are More Unlikely to Backup Their Data Than Men – Seagate Study

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and Seagate, 30 percent of the women that participated in the survey acknowledged that they do not back up their data at all! Curious about what men do? Here is an interesting infographic with more information.

5. What Can Cloud Backup Do for You?

An excellent infographic  and a revelation for companies that are unsure about whether they need a cloud backup solution, and how it can influence their business, by Acronis.

6. Why Companies Are Moving to Cloud Backup Solutions

Cloud backup solutions play a significant role in a company’s data recovery strategy and an increasing number of businesses have started realizing this as of late. So, why is cloud backup the toast of the town? This infographic from CloudBacko explains.

7. How to Ensure Business Continuity With Cloud Backup

Business continuity is crucial for every enterprise. Wondering how cloud backup solutions can help ensure zero downtime? Here are six steps.

8. Is Backup Reliable?

By now, it is clear that data recovery and backup solutions are important and can’t be ignored. However, are they reliable enough so that businesses can focus on their core needs without worrying about data loss anymore? Here is an interesting infographic from Kroll On track on what you need to know.

9. The CIO’s Essential Checklist for Cloud Backup

Cloud storage and backup can bring elasticity and agility but it is critically important for CIOs to address the basics of cloud backup first, including access control, availability, data encryption, and uptime. Druva made this job easier with an excellent security checklist for CIOs.

10. Look for a Cloud pro, Not a Poser

Many cloud solution providers claim to have a stolid security system that is ideal for securing enterprise data, but the fact is, they don’t have adequate knowledge and experience required and like other industries, they are self-claimed gurus. How can a business identify the posers? Here is an interesting infographic from Autotask that can help distinguish the good from the bad.

There are many other infographics on Cloud Backup, these were our top 10 favorite ones. The awareness to Cloud Backup is enormous by now, every business has a backup, and if they didn’t migrate it to the cloud yet –  they are probably considering  it. What about Cloud To Cloud Backup? Do you know you must also backup your SaaS applications? If you are not familiar with it, you should read our overview  “Why Backup Online Data” and learn why we all need to backup online data (YES! although it’s already in the cloud)  before it’s too late.

The post Cloud Backup Infographics Roundup appeared first on CloudAlly.

Data loss is a very real threat that can be caused by anything such as viruses, malware, or even phishing. However, the most common reason is usually accidental deletion. We sometimes mistakenly delete emails or other important items; while at other times, we end up needing recently deleted items because they suddenly become relevant to an ongoing project.

We have already talked about recovering Gmail and other Google Apps data in our previous posts. They’re worth a read too if you haven’t checked them out already.

In this article, we will explain how to recover your deleted data in Office 365, be it your emails or other deleted items.

Recovering deleted files is easy if they’re still in the deleted items folder, but things get tricky if they aren’t. The duration that Outlook keeps items in the deleted folder can be set from the admin settings. For example, the default settings leave things in the Office 365 deleted items folder for 14 days before permanently removing them. That can be changed to 30 or more days easily.

Let’s take a look at how we can retrieve deleted items using the Outlook Web App (OWA) or any Outlook clients such as Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2013.

Steps to Retrieve Items from Deleted Items Folder in Outlook Web App

1. Login to your OWA account
2. Choose the “Deleted Items” folder from the email folders list
3. Right click on the deleted email, and click Move > Inbox. This will restore the email
4. In order to retrieve a deleted calendar item, right click on it and click Move to Calendar
5. In order to restore a deleted task or contact, right click on it and click Move to Tasks or Move to Contacts respectively

Steps to Retrieve Items that are emptied from Deleted Items Folder in the Outlook Web App

Even if you empty the deleted items folder, and then realize that you accidentally deleted an item, you can still recover your deleted data. Here is how:

1. Sign-in to your Outlook Web App account
2. Right Click on the “Deleted Items” folder from the folder list and then select “Recover Deleted Items”
3. Choose the item that you want to retrieve and click on “Recover”
4. The deleted item should be restored back to its original location. For example, emails will go back to your Inbox, while calendar items will go back to the Calendar

Steps to Restore Deleted Items in Outlook 2010 and 2013

1. Make sure you use a Microsoft Exchange Server Account (not POP3 or IMAP)
2. Click on “Folder” and select the Recover Deleted Items option
3. Choose the email or other items that need to be restored and then select Recover Selected Items
4. The retrieved items are restored back to the folder the user is working on

Thus, one can easily restore deleted items even if they have been ‘hard deleted’ using the “Shift + Delete” keys or after emptying the Deleted Items folder. For Office 365 users or other Exchange-based client users, the recovery procedure can be handled using the OWA. Alternatively, Microsoft Exchange account users can use the recovery procedure for Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that lost Office 365 data  you were looking for, then you must have deleted it a while ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Microsoft automatically erases it after 30 days (less/more depending on your plan and definitions).

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted data, even though it was permanently erased:

 Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Office 365 account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the data type (email/calendar/contacts)  and date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered data to your account or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost online with CloudAlly automated backups for Office 365. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more about “how to backup office 365″ HERE.

The post Recovering Deleted Emails, Contacts, and Calendar Items in Office 365 appeared first on CloudAlly.

The cloud has changed the way we manage our data and infrastructure. Because of the myriad benefits, more and more businesses have started embracing it these days.

According to a recent study by Goldman Sachs, the investment on cloud computing platforms and infrastructure will increase at a 30% CAGR compared to 5% growth for overall enterprise IT. 42% of IT leaders plan to invest more on cloud computing in 2015 as per a Computerworld report. By 2018, over 60% of enterprises expect to have at least 50% of their infrastructure on cloud-based platforms, according to Bill McNee from Saugatuck Technology.

These reports show how rapidly the cloud is growing, but the core question is why are these businesses increasing their spending? What benefits can it bring to a business and does it really pay off? Let’s find out.

1.Reduces IT Expenses

Zero Capital Investment

Setting up a physical infrastructure needs a large amount of capital investment, but the cloud doesn’t require any major infrastructure deployment as that is taken care by your cloud provider and so you don’t need to make a hefty CAPEX.

Lower Resource Costs

You need resources to manage your servers and reliable resources are expensive; their compensation, benefits, and other associated employment costs could be far greater than your total hardware and software costs. Moreover, the cost of recruiting the right resource is also significant as well.

When you move to the cloud, you don’t need to worry about resource costs as your provider has their own in-house resources to take care of your data. They are always available whenever you need them and at a fraction of the cost as you just need to pay for their service and nothing else.

2.Scalable

One of the biggest issues with physical infrastructure is scalability. If your business grows, you need to increase your IT infrastructure as well and that requires significant investments in hardware and software, hiring new resources for maintenance, and the immense effort and time costs involved as well.

The cloud easily nullifies your worries about scalability. For example, if you don’t need a large amount of data storage right now, but forecast that you’ll need it later on, all you need to do is just pay for the space you require right now, and then get more space when you need it.

You can easily upgrade or downgrade your storage plan as per your requirements at that time, without any hassles in setup, recruitment, and maintenance resulting in greater flexibility and agility.

An example of how scalable the cloud is, Microsoft’s cloud storage solution OneDrive for Business. It costs only $5 per month per user and comes with one TB of storage space. If your employee count increases, you just need to pay for the storage space per user and Microsoft will handle the rest itself.

3.Keeps Your Data Safe

Today, due to the increasing amount of advanced security threats, the probability of data loss and theft has increased manifold. When your data is stored on local storage or server, any cyber-attack can cripple your organization. Moreover, if your server crashes, you could end up losing your data permanently.

Can you afford to lose sensitive data?

When you store your data in the cloud, you don’t need to worry about security. Most cloud providers pay a lot of attention to security measures such as the availability of highly skilled security specialists 24/7, biometric security to access their data centers, physical security guards on site, redundant power, and strong file encryption.

However, even though your cloud provider takes care of your local data, in regarding to uptime and availability, it doesn’t cover risks like user error, sync malfunction and they only backup you have is the recycle bin.  That is why, when you move your data to the cloud you also need to set up a cloud-to-cloud backup solution as well to add an extra layer of security. Incidents that might wipe out your data completely are rare, but not unknown. You can avoid permanent data loss by backing up your cloud data to another cloud.

For example, if you accidentally delete your data stored on Google Drive of Office 365 and don’t notice the accidental deletion within 30-days (or more, depending your pricing plan), your data will be lost forever and Google won’t be able to help you recover it. But, if you have a backup service that backs up your data automatically at regular intervals, you wouldn’t lose all your data.

4.Simplifies Communication and Collaboration

Whether it’s document sharing, real-time editing, or other forms of collaboration, the cloud enables you do it from anywhere and anytime easily. An example is Microsoft’s productivity suite Office 365. It comes with:

• Outlook email – a cloud-based email solution that helps you access your email from anywhere
• SharePoint Online – it makes data organization and sharing easy with all team members
• Skype for Business – which facilitates live chat or video conferencing with your team members from any part of the world
• OneDrive storage – where you can store your crucial data and share with anyone easily
• Office suite – which helps you to create documents and collaborate with your team members easily, at the same time

The best part about cloud-based collaboration tools is that they are accessible from anywhere in the world.

5.Enables You to Test Before You Buy

When it comes to software or a server, businesses can make the mistake of embracing new technology without first understanding what kind of value it would deliver to them. They make huge up-front investments without testing the system beforehand, and that is a very risky move.

On the other hand, cloud applications encourage you to test their services before you buy. This helps you determine whether it is even relevant and viable for your organization or not.

An example is the cloud-based CRM solution, Salesforce. It comes with several products for sales, marketing, and analytics, and comes with a 14-day free trial. Within that period, you can test their service and see if it really is beneficial for your business or not.

Conclusion

There are numerous reasons why cloud infrastructure is the way forward, but these reasons vary based on individual requirements and usage scenarios. Because of that, it is always better to first talk to a professional consultant who knows the pros and cons of the system you’re opting for. That person will help you plan for the implementation properly.

Do you plan to migrate to the cloud in the near future? What are the biggest challenges you are expecting, and how will you counter them? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading!

Read more about Why you need to backup Google Apps and Office 365

The post 5 Reasons to Move Your Business to the Cloud appeared first on CloudAlly.

When it comes to storing data, the cloud is becoming one of the most popular choices in the business world today. Storing data remotely has a lot of advantages for both home and professional users.

Yet, with that, comes the risk of data loss. With more people accessing important data from any location with any device, you are always at a risk. Users of Office 365 are no exception to this risk either.

When you talk about security risks, the first thing that comes to your mind is hacking. However, a hacker isn’t the primary cause of data loss.

A 2013 study by Aberdeen found that 47% of cloud data loss was because of user mistakes, not outside threats. Is Office 365 data secure? Let’s take a look at the risks associated with using Office 365, and how to reduce data loss.

It’s Actually Just You Most of the Times

The research also suggests that 32% of businesses had faced SaaS data loss in one form or another. The most surprising finding of this research was the real culprit of this data loss. It’s usually the users, and not a hacker.

According to the same report, over 70% of SaaS data loss is accidental. Mistakenly deleted files take up 47% of that data loss. The remaining 24% is composed of accidentally overwritten files.

Data Recovery Is Actually a Myth

A common misconception is that Microsoft backs up all Office 365 data so it can recover lost data. That isn’t true. Microsoft only secures their Office 365 data centers from total failures. They don’t protect your data against accidental losses because of your own mistakes.

To put it in simple words, if you lose a file by your own negligence or by accident, you may never be able to get it back. As Microsoft says it itself that, “With Office 365, it’s your data. You own it. You control it. And it is yours to take with you if you decide to leave the service.”

So what can be done to avoid a loss of that nature? Here are some ideas.

Look for Third-Party Backup Solutions

Microsoft isn’t currently protecting users from accidental data loss, but there is a workaround. Office 365 data can easily be protected through third-party solutions. SaaS vendors now recommend third-party backup solutions as a rule to cut down data loss. 

Cloud-to-cloud backup solutions can help keep data significantly safer. It’s also a lot easier to restore and retrieve data when needed this way. However, with so many solutions available, choosing the best fit isn’t that easy. The key is to find one that you can rely on.

Develop a Data Loss Prevention Policy

Enforce a “don’t delete until permitted” policy to prevent accidental data loss. Such policies help minimize data loss and employees develop a habit of backing things up on their own.

You can also educate your employees about using Office 365 effectively. Training them to think twice before deleting an item is a good idea too. This policy would help keep critical data a lot safer. One good news is that Office 365 doesn’t empty the Deleted Items folder automatically.

This means that regular backups can protect accidentally deleted files from being permanently lost. 

Be Proactive and Stay Prepared

Forrester Research says that data breaches are inevitable and we should prepare for them. The fastest growing, “shadow IT” activity is tearing down firewalls and protective measures. That leaves businesses vulnerable to data loss and information theft.

Educating your employees about data loss is key to keeping your information safe. Train them to cut down user errors that result in data loss and adopt a more cautious stance. This way, they’ll think twice before deleting something by habit, and will keep backups.

However, data loss is inevitable and it will happen. Data loss is a major risk with any cloud application. It could be caused by any number of reasons such as accidental deletion or unexpected sync errors. Your data is your responsibility and backing it up at more than one place is the safest way to go!

How are you backing up your cloud data right now? What measures are you taking to safeguard against accidental data loss? Read more about how to backup office 365 and prevent data loss HERE.

The post Is Your Office 365 Data as Secure as You Think? appeared first on CloudAlly.

One of the most common assumptions about using Microsoft’s products is that there is no need for more security. 

While easy deployment of Office 365 and ease of use has already made it a popular choice among businesses of all sizes, many of them are unaware of the risk of data breaches, and migration complexities they will have to battle along their journey from an on-premise environment to Office 365.

Let’s take an in-depth look at some of the risks involved with the use of Office 365 and how you can avoid them.

Security Breaches

Cloud applications are currently battling two types of security breaches. A hard breach is when a hacker gets around your security and steals your data. Such a breach compromises application security, and that results in critical data loss.

Yet, Office 365 already has it covered in their embedded security system. What they haven’t accounted for are soft data breaches. No real defense is available to ward off the imminent security risk with soft breaches.

Office 365 users that aren’t trained in basic security practices, can often result in such soft breaches. When an attacker “tricks” you into giving them the key, you can’t do much to save your confidential data.

Hence, the best way to tackle this issue is to train your staff on some basic security best practices.

• Enforce policies that forbid users from sharing their password with anyone without permission
• Back your policy with sanctions to lower the risk of social engineering hacks
• Train your Office 365 users to double and, if the need be, triple check the web address of any page
• Help them identify any page that asks them to log in and seems fishy by the content
• Educate them to differentiate between a regular web page and a phishing page. These pages trick people into handing over their personal information and passwords.

Tackling Migration Errors and Other Complexities

The actual migration to Office 365 is not always as easy as it seems. It becomes a challenge for large- sized business with bigger and complex environments. If you decide to move the data manually, it’s going to become a bottleneck. Depending on the data volumes you are moving, it can also bring you to a screeching halt. This is where third-party solutions come in.

Exporting legacy data is half the battle. Using a third-party solution to do the job is the rest. Exporting large chunks of data from one platform to another is almost impossible without such solutions. But, these applications can mishandle and corrupt the data while doing so due to improper configuration. 

When initiating the use of a 3rd party solution, admins grant a specific set of permissions to that application.  When they do that, they can affect an entire service or a domain: One wrong instruction can take down the entire server. The chances of losses are higher if you are running a larger, more complex environment.

It’s also common to see Exchange 2003 or 5.5 still in use. This adds another level of complexity of upgrading the solution before migrating. With so many versions of Exchange running at the same time, migrating them all without major errors is nearly impossible.

Microsoft can’t manage bad instructions from a third-party solution if you give it the keys. For all it knows, a user wants their migration tool to overwrite their data and start fresh.

Now imagine what would happen if your entire system collapsed due to one faulty instruction.One way to protect your data during migration is to have it all backed up in a secure, cloud-to-cloud backup solution, like CloudAlly. 

If you are considering a third-party solution to ease migration, mitigate the risk first. Then select a solution designed to support Office 365. The right solution to look for is the one that assists in getting the archive built quickly.

The post How to Avoid Office 365 Data Breaches and Migration Complexities appeared first on CloudAlly.

Cloud computing serves as a major tool for enabling a collaborative work environment and has become the norm in almost all companies. But, adopting cloud solutions is still viewed as a fresh and new concept in many organizations and there seems to be very few or no standard policies and procedures to regulate cloud usage. This places a great risk on the success of cloud adoption because data placed in the cloud will always be vulnerable unless it is protected by strong cloud usage policies.

Also, if you are willing to do something, you better do it right: formulate the right usage policy and procedures to make the migration to the cloud a truly successful venture.

Here are the greatest concerns that you must address, while you create a cloud usage policy for your organization:

1. User Access Levels

If you plan to implement strong authentication and authorization mechanisms to access the cloud, then

you must already have a strong definition of the various access levels and privileges that each employee in your organization will have. For instance, IT heads may have a greater need for certain data which are irrelevant for a project manager and vice versa.

Make use of privilege principles and fine-grained access levels to determine who can access a particular piece of data or application placed in the cloud and when can they do so. This will depend on your company’s organizational structure, staff hierarchy, and workflow.

2. Training

Migrating to the cloud mandates that at least a basic level of training should be given to your employees.

The extent of the training will depend on the various parameters of the cloud and the specific types of documents and applications that your employees will be using through the cloud.

Your employees need to have a good understanding of how the cloud and data flow work within the cloud environment to be able to take proactive steps in protecting the confidential data. They should also be cognizant of the rules of using the cloud, such as the password policies and access levels that you have established for regulating cloud usage. Training is greatly needed to make this possible.

3. Persistence of Data

This is an important parameter that you need to consider before moving your documents and sensitive information to the cloud.

There has to be a predetermined lifespan for all data that you move to that cloud because you never know when a small leak could happen which could expose sensitive data to unwanted interceptors.

You might even forget about the existence of certain data which may prove to be harmful in the long run. Even if you allow non-confidential data to reside in the cloud indefinitely, confidential data should always be accompanied by a timestamp to avoid complications in the future. The chances are that you may change your cloud service provider or you may move to some other means for collaboration.

The cloud is never permanent and you should always make sure your data resides in the cloud only for as long as it is used. You can include this timing specification in your cloud usage policy.

4. Legal Issues

There are certain data that must never be made public and there are certain other data which you should never have in your possession. For instance, sensitive information like health data must not be placed in a public cloud domain and you cannot illegally store your competitor’s data in your cloud.

The frequency and duration of cloud usage may also fall under certain legalities. Uploading corporate data into a public cloud site is also considered inappropriate. Similarly, downloading company data onto personal drives may also be considered an offense. You must make sure to include all of the legal compliances that your company must adhere to in your cloud usage.

5. Backups

Mishaps can happen anytime and you must always be ready for the worst. But, the sad truth is that many organizations only realize the need for backup solutions  after an incident and when they have already paid for the loss.

Many cloud service providers do not offer backup solutions unless asked and may not even have proper backup systems in place. They may have it for themselves, but if you store your data on the cloud, then you are responsible for it.

If you have not installed backup systems earlier, getting back lost data can be very expensive and difficult. Hence, it is best to be on the safer side and include backup procedures and policies in your cloud usage policies.

One way to deal with this problem is using cloud-to-cloud backup solutions that have been proven very useful for data recovery during failures.  But, you need to be careful about these solutions too, because, once again, you are replicating your data into another cloud and you will need proper management and policies to maintain the backup cloud.

There is always a risk of data leakage when it comes to the cloud and your usage policy must address it along with the other issues already mentioned.

The post 5 Things to Consider when Creating a Cloud Usage Policy appeared first on CloudAlly.

Being a readily available add-on for Google Apps, Google Vault could be a potentially good data protection and backup alternative.

But, does it provide a complete data protection solution with backup or recovery from any point?

And, how does it measure up against CloudAlly, which is a leading provider of cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery services?

In this article, we take a look at the features offered by Google Vault and CloudAlly, along with their pros and cons.

The objective is to do a direct comparison of these services to understand which one is more suitable for the protection of Google Apps data.

Things to Look for in a Google Apps Data Protection Plan

To be able to compare CloudAlly and Google Vault, we first need to understand what should be considered when selecting a suitable data protection service or tool.

First of all, the service should be able to search the data and export any data that is required on site.

It should also be possible to restore individual items and to restore complete user accounts from any point in time.

Now, let us check out the details of the two popular backup services for Google Apps.

Google Vault

Google Vault is a powerful add-on provided by Google that allows your enterprise to retain, search, store and export emails or chat messages for quick discovery and compliance requirements.

It collects all email correspondence that comes into and goes out of your company. It thus empowers your administrators to locate or search for any email item, whenever required.

For messages, it is possible to place a “hold” at the company level or account level.

For this purpose, your company administrators need to specify the keyword and date for the messages to be included under the “hold”.

The advantage of this is that you can retain the data until the “hold” period expires or until it is removed by the administrators.

While the “hold” is active, the end user cannot change or even delete the data covered under the “hold”. This type of “hold” is pretty useful for lawyers for litigation purposes.

How to Access the Vault Data?

Your company administrator needs to carry out a search to spot particular data items and export them. Once they are exported, the items can be downloaded in a compressed file to use with any email program or even text editor. 

Limitations

Google Vault may be able to search your data or files on Google Drive, but it cannot retain them. So, if any of the Google Drive files is deleted accidentally, it will not be able to help you recover them.

In fact, it cannot offer a point-in-time recovery for any of the popular Google Apps, such as Calendars, Contacts, and Drive.

As mentioned earlier, the Vault can hold data at the account level, but the Vault data cannot be restored directly back to the account of the end user.

If any user (account) of Google Apps is deleted, all the corresponding data will be removed along with the removal of Vault. This is because the Vault repository is maintained within the Gmail account of a user.

Summary

It is important to note that Google Vault was only designed for e-discovery and compliance. It can thus only retrieve individual emails or chat messages and does not offer full-fledged backup and recovery functionality for all Google Apps.

You can avail this service at $5 per month ($60 per year) for each Vault user.

CloudAlly

CloudAlly is a comprehensive backup and recovery service for all Google Apps data. It is a highly reliable, cloud-based data backup service.

Along with Google Apps, it also offers automated daily backups of Office 365, SharePoint/OneDrive for Business, Salesforce, Box for Business and more to an unlimited Amazon secure storage.

Your organization’s administrator can activate the backups for all Google Apps users (falling under one domain) or individual users with a single click.

Also, in the case of any data loss, restoration and data export is possible with a single click. You are thus able to quickly recover your Google Apps data from any point in time.

Backup

With CloudAlly, there is no limitation to the storage and it offers unlimited retention of daily archives. This allows for backups on a daily basis and helps to considerably reduce the on-premises storage requirements.

If that was not enough, CloudAlly also empowers you to control all your backups from a single management console.

This clearly saves a lot of time by getting rid of the admin processes that require too much manual effort.

With regard to the backups taken using CloudAlly, they continue to be available to you, even after any Google Apps user (account) is deleted.

They only cease to exist when the administrator removes them. It is, therefore, possible for your company to archive user backups for an indefinite amount of time by using the “backup pause” feature of CloudAlly.

Restore

When the need arises to restore any data at an individual item level or at any higher level (folder, mailbox and more), you can simply search your CloudAlly backups.

The restored data is generally stored with a date and time stamp in a sub-folder named “CloudAlly Restore”.

Unlike Google Vault, it is possible to restore the data directly to the user’s account. In fact, you can even restore it back to a different user account, if there is such a requirement.

Export

CloudAlly enables you to export data (which has been backed up) in various formats, including .vcf, .eml. Data can also be exported in .pst format, which is compatible with the commonly used email platform in enterprises, namely Outlook.

Data Security and Compliance

You can be sure about the adherence to data security and customer confidentiality best practices, as CloudAlly is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant and ISO 27001 certified.

CloudAlly takes care of data security laws to such an extent that you are given the choice to opt for servers based in the U.S. (by default), EU or Australia.

Summary

With the most comprehensive backup and recovery features on offer, CloudAlly proves itself to be a leading provider of cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery services.

It is ideal for the protection of your Google Apps data with Gmail, Calendars, Tasks, Contacts, Chat and Google Drive!

You can avail the CloudAlly services at $3 per month ($30 per year) for every Google Apps user. What is more, you can even explore their services on a free trial basis for around 15 days.

If you have a non-profit or academic organization, you will even get special discounts from CloudAlly.

We hope that the above comparison of Google Vault and CloudAlly enables you to make an informed decision when selecting your ideal Google Apps data protection tool.

The post CloudAlly Backup vs. Google Vault appeared first on CloudAlly.

After being a faithful Microsoft customer for years, is it time to switch over to Google when choosing between Office 365 and Google Apps? As a business owner, what do you trust more—the age-old wisdom and IT expertise of Microsoft or the innovative skills and service providing ability of Google?

The questions are aplenty, and as business owners, it is important to have answers that help you make a decision. The requirements for cloud services are only increasing everyday, and with Microsoft and Google being the top service providers, you need to determine which one would best suit your storage needs.

The Dilemma

Various suggestions are floating around about whether Google or Microsoft would be the correct solution for your business. In such a scenario, it is important to make an informed choice based on the experiences provided by users or experts who have already been through the specifications in detail.

This study lucidly explains how Google is ahead of Microsoft because it has been able to successfully simplify matters. The argument shows that Microsoft has launched multiple labels that make it very confusing for the end user.

On the other hand, another study points out how data privacy and protection can be a concern with Google Apps. Google Apps is a relatively new entry to the enterprise applications business and is still eyed as a platform that is more suited for personal use or for leisure.

To back up Microsoft, some long-term users have pointed out how Google Apps lacks the ability to take on a more business like approach or finesse that seals the deal for larger business owners. Depending on the type of business or usage, users are strongly divided between Microsoft and Google, but to get a clearer idea, let’s have a look at the features in detail.

Features

Here is a mini breakdown that gives us a brief idea about both services.

While comparing Administrative Dashboards for both Office 365 and Google Apps, the easier-to-use option is the non-cluttered Office 365. The Google dashboard seems to be overflowing with third-party apps and other advertorials that make life difficult for somebody trying hard to concentrate and work.
Moving on next to User Management and Setup functionality, Microsoft has an edge with its Lync, Office, and SharePoint running effortlessly, while users of Google Apps need multiple assisted tours to help understand the process.
In the User Management and Admin section, Microsoft allows creation of individual owners with specific admin rights, while Google allows users to be created individually from a control panel. Microsoft’s options for mail server and user settings are also extensive while Google does not offer the option of controlling a mail server.
Coming to Mobile Management, Microsoft seems to be a clear winner because it allows a consolidated method to manage a smartphone. Google allows users to manage Android devices that are version 2.2 or later and a system for Blackberry users as well. However, both these offerings are quite confusing and can be quite an effort for users.
The other benefit Microsoft has is its Document Management through SharePoint, which has been fine-tuned over a few years while Google Sites is still looking for a foothold because itis a far simpler tool.
Even though Google Chat has gained much popularity for Chatting up buddies, when users have to get into a video call, it becomes essential to have an active Google+ account. This can be quite a drawback for business users because Microsoft Lync offers all of these features as a combined package. The more critical shortcoming is that Hangout allows about 10 people to join in, while Lync allows about 250.
As Microsoft seems to be a winner in most departments of the features section, and an obvious choice for bigger organizations, Google can be quite a match for them if it is being considered for smaller organizations or start-ups.

The Hidden Truth

In the fight for supremacy and owning the largest share of users, both Google and Microsoft have been upgrading and improving upon their existing features and services, which can be highly beneficial for the business owners. However, the most important question is, is your data safely stored to last forever or do you need a backup?

Google and Microsoft cannot protect your data from malicious attack, and if you delete your data accidentally, they store it for only 30 days. If you don’t act within that time period, you will never be able to get your important data back.

However, having a backup solution in place can wipe out all your worries about data loss. And that’s where we can help you out. CloudAlly provides daily automatic backups for both Google Apps and Office365 data to AmazonS3 secure storage.

The post Google Apps or Office 365? appeared first on CloudAlly.

Those of you who dropped by CloudAlly Booth at WPC 2015 at Orlando, Florida, probably remember our super cool, SUPERHERO t -shirts for kids.

We received so many compliments on them, we only wish we had more for those of you who didn’t make it on time to grab one!

We asked you to send us your kid’s pic wearing it and many of you did. We were psyched by your super cute kids! So we decided we must share the cuteness with everyone. See it here below!

The post CloudAlly Superhero Kids appeared first on CloudAlly.

The worst part of management and running a business is having to fire an employee. It’s never an easy process. Worse yet, sometimes the employee refuses to exit gracefully. For example, one large organization recently lost over 50,000 Salesforce records when a disgruntled employee returned to her desk and began deleting thousands of accounts and contacts.

It might seem like a nightmarish scenario that only occurs once in a lifetime but, according to recent research, it’s not that rare. Data loss is a fact. 77% of companies that use SaaS applications have suffered data loss, according to a recent survey by Dell. And, one in every two employees is likely to delete vital data either accidently or purposely.

So, what’s your insurance policy when the worst happens? Doing nothing about your lost data isn’t a solution.

As an HR executive, it’s in your best interest to safeguard a smooth transition between old and new employees. This can’t be achieved without your IT department—they are crucial in helping your team manage the smooth off and on boarding of employees—but convincing them of what’s needed may not be easy.

Many IT departments believe that the Office 365 Recycle Bin is the solution. Unfortunately, the recycle bin is very limited in its capabilities and isn’t reliable. It only offers short-term protection for deleted items and any user can hard delete or purge the recycle bin making its use obsolete. In the case of the Salesforce records, the disgruntled employee permanently deleted all files from the computer—emptying the recycle bin and making it useless. In this case, if the company hadn’t used setup automated daily backups, the 50,000 accounts would have been lost for good.

Cloud to cloud backups can turn a potentially devastating loss into a minor inconvenience, and that’s where CloudAlly.com can help. Simply send this short, three-step guide to your MIS information technology experts and ask them if they can recover your employee files from Google Apps to Salesforce, Amazon S3, Office 365, and social media. If not, tell them to contact us and ask for special Enterprise discount on our Disgruntled Employee Insurance Policy.

3-Step Disgruntled Employee Insurance Policy Guide

To understand how cloud backups work with CloudAlly, take a look at these three easy steps to secure your business continuity.

Step 1: Set It Up

The first step to ensuring your business is protected from resentful employees is to set up automated daily backups of your data. You have to take control of your online and software data to ensure that it’s secure. CloudAlly’s quick, easy, and customizable cloud to cloud backup service lets you, in just a few clicks, choose your archive location, backup times, and frequencies. This means that you can choose the backup plan that works best for you.

Even better, when you setup your automated daily backups with CloudAlly, you can choose who you want to activate the service for. You can activate backups for every employee in your business or just for selected users. All you need are admin credentials to setup every feature exactly as you want it.

Step 2: Manage It

Once you have your cloud backups setup, it’s a simple process to manage it. CloudAlly puts the safety of your business first with internal controls and audits that help you remain compliant with any and all data privacy requirements. Even better, all of the data in the global environment is yours. This means that you can access a daily report with all the details of your backup activity.

CloudAlly also makes it easy to manage new users. Our software can automatically detect new users, or you can manually add them yourself so that your business is protected from every employee from day one. And when those employees leave your business, you can export their backups and close their accounts for local archiving.

Step 3: Access It

Finally, no backup service would be complete without being able to access your data. When you use CloudAlly, there’s no need to worry about lost or corrupted data. Our cloud to cloud backups keep all of your deleted and modified files easily accessible. Within minutes, you can find, restore, and export archived data from any point in time (based on the frequency of your backup setup). And, for those times when you’re not really sure what happened or when CloudAlly allows you to quickly search for and locate data within your archives.

And, while you hope you never have to perform a full restore, CloudAlly makes it simple to perform non-destructive restores. All you have to do is download the full backup, which will never accidently overwrite your original file, and export it to your local machine. With CloudAlly, nothing is ever deleted, meaning your can gain access to any file no matter how far back you need to go.

When it comes to securing your business continuity, it’s as simple as 1..2..3. If you want to learn more about creating a disgruntled employee insurance policy, view our Backup Office 365 Case Study and sign up for our FREE 15-day trial.

The post The Disgruntled Employee Insurance Policy appeared first on CloudAlly.

In HR, when you follow up on someone’s departure in a typical off-boarding process, you’re probably just asking IT to “get everything” from that person’s workstation, as you deal with other practical aspects like desk space and benefits updates.

But what if IT isn’t able to come up with all of that data?

When people go, they leave their desks and computers. They leave their job position unfilled. They also leave behind troves of data that can be extremely important to the business stored in Office 365 as well as in Google Apps, both of which can be backed-up.

Think about it — the job doesn’t stop when the person leaves. There are deals in the making, everyday communications going back and forth between vendors and suppliers and customers, and a kind of “cloud” of data (no pun intended) hanging over that person’s assigned role. This includes items like engineering innovations, contractual obligations, sales information and all sorts of data on all kinds of databases.

So what happens to all that stuff when the person who had been working with it is suddenly gone?

Sour Grapes and Other Scenarios
In many cases, the whole company is relying on HR to be the gate keeper in letting someone go, and making sure the on-going business isn’t affected.

First of all, as someone in HR or leadership, you have to worry about people acting out if they’re not happy with the situation at hand, or if they have an ax to grind with their former employer. It’s only too easy for a salesperson to delete his or her email contacts or other deal information, or for a lawyer to delete legal data, or for any disgruntled person to take a swipe at their online and electronic data on their way out. And so often, people are leaving angry. They don’t like that they didn’t get a promotion, or they were called out for improper behavior, or they don’t like their new boss. It all leads to incentives to get back at the company by just hitting the delete button.

But even if there are no hard feelings, and the person is leaving isn’t out for blood, they may just accidentally delete some of these items through simple mistakes.

Companies have to know that the crucial data that the next person will need will be there when that person enters the open job position. That extends to the massive amounts of information flying around between email inboxes. It often extends to chat messaging data, or Word documents on a workstation, or video and multimedia content.

Basically, human resources needs all of that data to be there on day one when they fill the position — not lost somewhere in the ether, where IT people have to go in and try to re-create what was happening through difficult data forensics.

Sure, you can go to great pains to recover data, and you can even sue, as in this case of a pharma manager willfully deleting key files before leaving, but all of that is damage control. It’s better to have things backed up in the first place.

Make Sure It’s All Backed Up
If you are someone in HR who just realized you need this kind of backup service, go ahead and ask IT what they’re backing up. Is it just the emails? The messaging? Are trade secrets and other pieces of data secure?

Only a relatively few companies offer these kind of comprehensive backups.  IT admins are responsible for data backup procedures for disaster recovery and business continuity requirements, but the right backup service such as CloudAlly can add unexpected benefits to HR such as:

On-boarding
– Automatically backup new employees data when their added to the system, eliminating the need for the admin to manually activate a backup and the possibility of overlooking the task.

Off-boarding
– Providing the ability to recover data that was accidentally or maliciously, deleted or corrupted as a result of an employee termination, especially an unexpected termination where the access has not been revoked following normal off-boarding processes.

– Removing the Office 365 service license to save costs when off-boarding an employee, while still retaining the backup archives for a specific length of time (3, 6, 12, etc, months) for potential litigation.

– The ability to perform a cross-user restore in order to restore an ex-employees mailbox or folders to the new person assuming the responsibility.

With excellent service, ease-of-use and reliability, Cloudally has the right stuff for retaining information from applications like Google Apps backup (G Suite), Salesforce, Office 365, Yahoo! Mail, and other platforms. Get unlimited data retention, easy exporting, and automated backups with a minimum of on-site storage and cost. Let Cloudally help make sure that when a person leaves the business, their business data stays put – because when it comes to having all of the necessary resources on hand, it’s “better safe than sorry.”  We offer a Free Trial Click Here to sign up.

The post Tidy Employee Off-Boarding appeared first on CloudAlly.

Disaster can strike at any moment, and it’s impossible to plan for every eventuality. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, no one was prepared for the devastation. Flooding destroyed countless businesses while others went weeks without power and still others were reduced to rubble. In fact, many companies were down for weeks or, even, months. And downtime is devastating.

But it’s not just natural disasters that you have to be worried about. Accidental and malicious data loss happens regularly. In fact, according to Richmond House Group, 20% of small to medium businesses will suffer a major disaster causing loss of critical data every five years. Whether natural or otherwise, data loss hurts your bottom line and can, potentially, cause a catastrophic end of all business events.

For example, in July of 2016, Southwest Airlines experienced a system outage that lasted for more than 12 hours and resulted in canceling more than 1,850 flights, delaying hundreds more, and worse. Southwest had no warning before their network router shorted and that’s why it’s vital to have a plan of action in place far in advance.

Your company needs to be ready to not only deal with the after-effects of any disaster-level event but to make it through successfully. And that’s where a cloud-to-cloud backup plan comes into play.

Don’t be like 32% of companies that lost data from the cloud (Aberdeen Group). Instead, follow our top eight disaster recovery and data backup best practices that we recommend for every organization that believes business continuity is a high priority.

1. Understand the Total Risk and Opportunity

You can’t protect your company from disaster if you don’t first understand the total risk and total opportunity presented by the disaster. The risk and opportunity might be slightly different for every situation but, in general, you can prepare by looking at all sides of the equation.

To understand total risk, each department within your organization from IT to operations, sales, marketing, and finance should ask themselves a few simple questions. “What disasters could strike (natural or otherwise)? What operations are most critical for us and where are they located (on the cloud or on hardware)? How would a disaster effect us?” For example, if you were a shipping company, do you have Office 365 Online Backup and Restore, so even if the unexpected happens, you’re able to access your data from anywhere in the world and you know that it’s been automatically archived daily (even the recycle bin)?

The opposite side of risk is opportunity. Disasters don’t just affect your company but also your competitors. You should be prepared to take advantage of various situations in any way you can. For example, you should consider how your business can help from a monetary, humanitarian, or social good standpoint when a natural disaster strikes. You should also be prepared to demonstrate to your clients how you have Salesforce Backup in place, unlike your competitors, so your critical data is never at risk.

2. A Well-Trained Leadership Team

Your company is only as successful as its leadership. An empowered and dedicated staff can turn any disaster into a success story. This is especially true for small- to mid-sized businesses that aren’t required by industry regulations to have a specific disaster recovery or backup plan in place. A well-trained leadership team should ensure that data loss is never a point of no return.

The first key is to empower your leadership team to take control of the data and operations in their department with an all-in-one-tool. For example, when you sign up for CloudAlly, all of your data from Salesforce to Office 365 and Google Apps is stored in one location. From there, all you need to do is to train your leadership team to manage the daily backups through reports, to control user access for security, and to recover lost or corrupted data when the worst happens. Without CloudAlly, the training required for your leadership team is much more complicated. With CloudAlly, all you have to do is trust your leadership team to support your efforts and to manage business continuity within their realm.

3. Use the Right Tools

In today’s highly digital and complex business world, old-school backup systems and disaster recovery plans developed in Excel and Word won’t suffice. Your data is a living system that constantly changes during day-to-day operations. That’s why daily, automated backups for all of your software platforms from Google Drive to Salesforce and Box are necessary. A backup tool that requires manual saving or only covers certain operational functions can leave you wanting.That’s why CloudAlly offers a simple three-step process for managing your data.

1. Set It: CloudAlly allows you to select your archive location, backup time, and frequency for every platform and user.
2. Manage It: With CloudAlly, you receive daily backup reports containing all your activity, so you can double check it’s accuracy. You can also manage your users and export backups and archives.
3. Access It: Finally, CloudAlly makes it quick and easy to search for and locate data in your archives. From there you can also perform non-destructive restores.

Before you choose your DR and backup tool, make sure it does what you want and need.

4. Maintain a Full Copy of Critical Data Outside of Your Business Location

This is vital particularly in cases of natural disasters or malicious data deletion. If your only backup data center is on site or just a few miles away from your current location, a single event could easily disable both your headquarters and your backup. In general, it’s best if you keep a full copy of your critical data at least 150+ miles away from your business or completely online. That distance is typically sufficient to ensure that both backup centers are not affected by a single disaster.

Ideally, your data backup should be stored safely in the cloud. Unfortunately, the cloud isn’t always safe. In fact, 47% of enterprises have lost data in the cloud according to Symantec. That’s why at CloudAlly our solution is ISO 27001 and HIPPA certified and uses advanced AES-256 bit encryption. This level of security ensure that your data remains private and is retained online as long as you need it.

Focus on Consistency

Nowadays, rarely does a business use a single software, application, or piece of technology to handle all operations. That’s why the biggest challenge of any backup and DR plan is to ensure consistency across all applications. CloudAlly offers data backup for multiple applications and software all within one interface because if you’re replicating a complex business ecosystem, it’s critical that all backups are in sync.

6. Test Your Plan Regularly and Realistically

There’s nothing worse than trusting in your backup and disaster recovery plan only to discover that it wasn’t up to the task when it was needed most. The truth is that untested plans are failed plans. If you’ve never tested your BC/DR plan realistically, your company won’t be ready to handle the situation when disaster strikes.

When it comes to testing, there are many kinds of tests and you should use them all. We recommend testing one particular process at a time before implementing a test that assumes your business has become nothing but a smoking ruin. The reason why testing is so important is that it helps to verify that your recovery procedures are correct while also helping your employees become familiar with crisis procedures. The most well-prepared companies implement testing at least twice a year.

With CloudAlly, testing is easy. All you need to do is login and look at your daily report containing all the details of your backup activity. You can even export data for local use or search and locate within your archives to ensure everything has been saved appropriately.

7. Update Your Disaster Recovery and Backup Plan Regularly

No company remains stagnant. Business practices constantly evolve and update based on new information, updated applications, and new infrastructure. Now, imagine you spent six months designing the perfect BC/DR plan but since then you’ve implemented new software that works off a physical server and not the cloud. Suddenly, your plan and tests are outdated and don’t protect you fully. In that situation, a disaster would make all your hard work for naught unless you consistently update your plan.

To stay protected, your company should practice rigorous change management that keeps your backup and disaster recovery plan in line with your current business practices. And when you use CloudAlly, changes in your business don’t have to mean a major change in your backup. CloudAlly works with all of your software, even Amazon Cloud, and it can even detect new users automatically. So, not matter how much your business advances, you don’t have to purchase a new backup solution, you just have to update CloudAlly.

8. Make Communication a Priority

Too often, a DR/BC plan is the work of a single IT person or small department. Unfortunately, this means that if a critical individual becomes sick, leaves the company, or is unavailable during an emergency, the entire plan falls apart. That’s why communication before, during, and after a disaster or incident is vital.

The disaster recovery planning process should involve several people and departments, and the plan should be well-written enough that it can stand on its own. That way, if a widespread problem or incident renders several people unavailable, the recovery program can still take place. The key is to outline work expectations, application procedures, and information dissemination for every department and individual.
Unfortunately, no matter how carefully and diligently you plan for every eventuality, you can’t prepare for everything. Anything and everything can and potentially will go wrong. That’s why having a data recovery and business continuity expert is key to your success. Contact CloudAlly today to discover how we can help.

The post 8 Disaster Recovery Best Practices for Office 365 Online Backup & Restore appeared first on CloudAlly.

When it comes to Office 365 backup, there’s a lot of confusion about what’s appropriate for each small and medium-sized business.  Some people think that nothing else is needed, but Microsoft’s cloud backup comes with an unwanted element of risk.

Office 365 doesn’t offer daily backup and recovery services that make it easy to restore data removed from the recycle bin, nor is it prepared for unexpected malicious activity and data corruption caused by a 3rd party. That’s why additional cloud backup services are so vital. But they’re not all created equal.

Many cloud backup companies offer a single data center and expect that to be enough, but it’s not. Cloud location matters. That’s why CloudAlly offers regional AWS (Amazon Web Services) data centers in the US, EU, and Australia.

Using regional data centers expands the reach of CloudAlly’s backup and recovery solutions to provide data backup while complying with the relevant laws across countries. Organizations have a legal and ethical obligation to protect and store their data according to the specifications of their region, and it’s only through regional cloud-based data storage that this is possible.

Why Regional Data Centers Matter

For European customers, CloudAlly’s EU data center makes it possible for businesses to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that was recently adopted by the EU. In addition to satisfying the required data sovereignty concerns, the regional data center in Europe also decreases the latency times and increases efficiency for backing up, restoring, and exporting data for EU customers.

As for U.S. customers with operations abroad, regional data backup and recovery centers in the EU and Australian provide the ability to comply with data requirements in other gee-regions. And for our Australian clients, our regional AWS data center complies with the Australian Privacy Policies (APPs) enforced by the Privacy Act.

So, why does location matter when it comes to Office 365 backup? Regional backups offer a few distinct competitive advantages.

1. Protection

Cloud backup failure and outages are rare, but they can and do happen. That’s why regional backup centers are so necessary. It’s also important and considered best practice to isolate you backups from the original source data. CloudAlly’s use of AWS data centers ensures that your backup data is still available even if there is a temporary service disruption in Microsoft Azure.
So, how is this different than other backup services? Let’s say you’re using a backup provider that stores data on Microsoft Azure. If Azure is unavailable for any reason, your company will lose access to both your backups and Office 365. With CloudAlly, even in the event of an Azure service disruption, you can still export your previous day’s backup in Outlook compatible .pst format and continue working locally until the Azure service is restored.

2. Latency

Response times for the end user are very important for Office 365 backup as well as cloud application use. In fact, response times have the most significant impact on user satisfaction. That’s why having regional data centers close to your users is important. The longer the distance your data has to travel, the greater potential for latency.

According to Verizon Enterprise, in North America the average network latency is about 40ms. However, trans-Atlantic latency between the U.S. and Europe is about 80ms almost double. That means if you’re a European company or an American business with most of its customers in Europe, they’ll experience twice the delay compared to their American counterparts.

CloudAlly is one of the few services to provide data center options in all major geo-regions including North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, making the service available to partners and clients around the world. Having these regional data centers also improves latency in another way, through a balanced workload.

The balanced workload model means that no one server is over-provisioned and that each regional data center is capable of handling the workload of another data center in the event an emergency should occur. This balance ensures that no one system is ever over-taxed or at risk of failure, which means you won’t need to worry about lag times or down times like you would with a cloud backup service with only a single data center.

3. Privacy

Regional data centers are becoming more and more important for global cloud growth, especially as surveillance controversies have increased the focus on data sovereignty and customer privacy. As more countries seek to keep their citizens’ data within their borders, cloud backup providers are discovering that single-location data centers do not suffice.

Different types of data have different locality requirements. At CloudAlly, we understand that multi-nationals sometimes have multiple Office 365 tenants for operations and/or subsidiaries in other geo-regions. Data privacy regulations require that data remain in its original geo-region, so with our data centers located in the US, EU, and Australia we help you ensure that you’re covered no matter where you’re located.

In addition, local data centers keep your data better protected from hijackers and keep it out from under the jurisdiction of countries that have nothing to do with your business or your customers. “Information flow through the Internet often involves transmission through many countries, traveling the path of least congestion,” describers Data Center Knowledge. “Any of these countries through which your data passes can claim jurisdiction—including countries where your traffic path may have been hijacked through hackers.”

There are also binding agreements between countries, which allows one country’s agents to require the assistance of another country to obtain information through mutual legal assistance treaties (MLAT). By keeping your data within your region, you minimize the risk of having to reveal private and secure data.

And CloudAlly adheres to the highest standards when it comes to privacy and data security. Our Office 365 Backup services comply with stringent EU privacy directives, plus we routinely conduct security audits and assessments to confirm that we continually meet those directives. In addition, all of our regional data centers have all necessary certifications (ISO 27001 and HIPPA) and undergo regular compliance audits for your protection.

Choosing CloudAlly Office 365 Backup

And when you choose CloudAlly’s Office 365 backup, you’re choosing a service that is compatible with more than one application. CloudAlly works with Gmail backup, SharePoint backup, OneDrive backup, and more. And all it takes are a few simple clicks to activate your backups for your entire company or a few selected users.

You can learn more about CloudAlly’s backup services by setting up a free trial or contact us today (650) 353-3425.

The post The Importance of Regional Data Centers for Office 365 Backup appeared first on CloudAlly.

Planning on moving from Cloud-First to Cloud-Only ?

Recent article in IT Pro Portal describes how SMBs can Benefit from shifting to the Cloud.

The cloud is no longer an emerging technology market. In fact, 80% of the Fortune 500 is on the Microsoft Cloud, and Gartner expects that by 2019, more than 30% of the 100 largest vendors’ new software investments will have shifted from cloud-first to cloud-only. Unfortunately, adoption of the cloud hasn’t been as fast for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Only 64% of SMBs currently use a cloud-based software, according to a survey by BCSG. The good news is that 88% indicate they are considering using at least one cloud app in the next 2-3 years. Early adopters characterize the current market. So, what’s holding the rest back?  Read More

CloudAlly own CEO interview in IT Pro Portal quoted as saying: “Worry about data loss is one of the biggest barriers I run across when it comes to cloud adoption,” says Avi Katz, CEO of CloudAlly, an all-in-one cloud-to-cloud data backup and recovery solution for Microsoft Office 365, Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, G Suite, Salesforce, and Box.com. “

Its time to backup your cloud based solutions, starting with Office 365 and G Suite.

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Protect Your Data: The Difference Between Malware, Adware, and Spyware

Short for malicious software, malware comes in many varieties of forms. Viruses and worms, named because of their ability to quickly spread through your system by digging in deep and making copies of themselves, are probably two of the best-known malware types, which is why malware protection is needed.

Another well-known malware is the Trojan which infects your computer secretly, coming in through a perceived safe link or website. Like viruses, this malware infects your computer sometimes to the point of having to reset the entire system.

Malware began with the dawn of the internet. In the past, software creators of this nature were a few high school computer gurus blowing off steam and playing pranks on unsuspecting visitors. However, criminals who are looking for ways to make easy money engineer today’s malicious software.

Some ways malware infects your computer are:

• Visiting an infected website
• Clicking on an infected pop-up
• Opening an unknown, infected email attachment
• Visiting an infected link sent via email
• Downloading files off the internet without running an antivirus scan on them first

A new virus, known as ransomware, locks users out of their systems entirely. Once locked out the infected party must either pay the infector a fee to resume use of their computer or completely reset the drive, a complete reset results in loss of all data and applications that were not initially on the unit at the time of purchase. Failure to pay the ransom results in the same damage.

Adware

Adware is slightly different. While benign in comparison to other malware, this software can still be an annoying leech on your computer’s resources.

Companies across the globe use Adware to track your movements online and display ads that are relevant to your browsing experience. In most cases, adware will not do any damage to your computer nor will it steal personal information. It is merely a tool used by marketing consultants to put relevant ads where you see them.

In most cases, adware works with your knowledge. Most sites alert you to the fact they are collecting information about your interests for this purpose. However, on occasion, sites install this software without your knowledge. When this happens, the benign software has crossed into malware territory and leaves you vulnerable to further attacks.

Programmers sometimes use adware to fund their program development. They bundle ads with free software and deactivate the advertisements once the user purchases or registers the title. Use of ads is standard practice for free mobile applications.

Adware is tricky to remove. As most titles are only marketing tools, antivirus software sometimes overlooks these programs.

Spyware

A type of malware, spyware is far more insidious than most other types. While viruses and trojans are problematic and can shut down your system, spyware tracks your every move. Each keystroke and mouse click is then relayed back to a third-party without your knowledge.

The big problem with spyware is the fact it is hard to detect. Anti-virus software may be able to stop installation or remove already installed versions. However, if your anti-virus does not have an anti-spyware bundled with, it may overlook these programs.

Spyware can infect your computer many ways. In some cases, it is installed by visiting an infected website or opening an infected link or attachment sent via email. Most spyware comes from downloading software from file-sharing sites. Hackers who put free movies or music files on these websites bundle their spyware alongside so you do not know it is downloading.

Indicators that your system has a spyware infection include:

• Searches redirect you to a different search engine
• Random error messages during routine operations that previously worked
• Unidentifiable or new icons appearing on the taskbar

Spyware allows the third-party owner not only to see what you are doing, but gain access to your usernames, passwords, and bank and credit card account numbers.

What You Can Do to Protect Yourself – Malware Protection !

Companies often have several layers of protection to keep malicious files out using firewalls and anti-virus software. However, from time to time, an email or website can get through the company shielding allowing malicious software through.

The first step for both large and small businesses is to educate employees on the different methods a malware, spyware, or adware infection occurs. Employees need to know how to spot a suspicious email and whom to contact within IT to prevent future attacks.

In addition to education, your company should have backup redundancies in place to protect sensitive data. Having a backup of essential files allows IT technicians to reset infected computers without worrying about losing information.

Storing files locally is one option. However, the local backups must be kept off the internal network to prevent potential corruption or infection from malicious attacks. The use of cloud storage helps protect documents while keeping them off local network which could potentially be damaged through a single computer infection. When choosing a cloud service provider, check for their security protocol to ensure the safety of your data from hackers who may use rants somewhere to attack your company in this manner.

It is also a good idea to back up your backups. If you store items locally, you should also store them in the cloud. Cloud providers should also be backed up using services such as offered by CloudAlly. Our service allows you to backup files stored in OneDrive, Box, and Google Drive. It also enables you to backup sensitive emails for those using G Suite or Office 365.

Education, protective software, and backups are essential to protecting your company from malicious attacks.

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How to Recover An Office 365 Account

Deleting accounts is a necessary part of doing business from time to time. Employees leave for other jobs, and you need to get rid of their accounts and close off access. However, even the best intentions can sometimes go awry. An administrator selects the wrong user account and deletes it before realizing the mistake, which is why its necessary to know how to recover an Office 365 Account !

Office 365 offers a way to restore deleted users. However, the restoration only works if you discover the error within 30 days of deletion. If an employee leaves the company, the administrator deletes the account, and then the employee returns after this 30-day period, you must create a new account.

Before beginning, double check the Office 365 license is still available to assign to the account. The following procedures are for business users not using Active Directory for their Office 365 accounts.

Restore Office 365 Accounts in Microsoft.

To begin, an administrator must sign in using administrator credentials. Once logged in, navigate to the Admin center.

1. In the Admin center, select Users and then Deleted Users.
2. Once on the Deleted users page, choose the username, or names, to restore.
3. Select Restore.
4. Follow On screen prompt to set passwords.
5. Once restored, click the Send email and close button.

If the account does not restore, there may be a conflict with the username or proxy address. With a proxy address conflict, the restoration should remove the conflicting address and assign a new one to the restored user.

Resolving User Name Conflict

There are a couple of different reasons for a username conflict to occur in Office 365. On reason is that the user you wish to restore still has an active username within the system. To fix this, you must replace the existing account with the restored one by first deleting the active user in the account.

The other reason is a new user has a similar name to the previous user. Therefore the new user’s username is the same as the previous user. To fix this issue, you must assign a new username to the restored account.

To perform the secondary repair, first, log into your Office 365 administrator account. Once logged in, navigate to the Admin Center and begin the restoration process as you in the previous steps. After setting the password and clicking restore, however, you will see a message indicating there was a problem restoring the account.

On the message indicating there was one of the accounts, you may do one of the following,

• Cancel the restore and rename the active user, then attempt the restoration again.
• Type a new primary email address for the user and click Restore.

Choose the option that best works for your users. Review the results and then select close.

Other Options

Recovering an Office 365 account may not be to reinstate a user. Instead, you might want to recover the account of a terminated employee due to litigation such as wrongful termination. However, Microsoft deletes the account 30 days after the license has been removed so without a 3^rd party backup, that account is gone forever.

CloudAlly allows you to archive employee mailboxes and and retain those archives for as long a your internal retention policy requires. While archived, an administrator can still perform a cross-user restore to legal, HR or auditing for example, or export data in Outlook compatible .pst format for local access. Archives can be retained indefinitely or deleted once you’ve met your internal retention policy requirements.

You can try our free trial solution for 15 days. After your free trial, Office 365 backup support is an affordable $3 per month per user or $30 per year per user.

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Microsoft Office 365: Threat Intelligence and Data Governance Tools

There is a lot that’s new about Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud version of its traditional desktop software. Some of the biggest new benefits have to do with two major pillars of an enterprise strategy: first, identifying and mitigating threats in a network, and second, establishing policies and procedures for data governance. Threat Intelligence and Data Governance Tools, are significant to our work process in Microsoft Office 365.

Why do companies need good data governance and threat intelligence systems in place?

Lots of experts are looking at studies by Ponemon, one of which estimates the average cost of a data breach at around $4 million — there is also this article from writer Michael Panciroli in April that sites some troubling statistics, for example, an assertion that 45% of surveyed companies don’t have good enough data governance to protect them from serious legal and security risks.

That kind of gap is what these new cloud features of Office 365 are meant to address — to help client companies to get more effective cybersecurity in place, perform better advanced data governance, and know more about their business data assets.

Major Benefits of Microsoft Office 365 Threat Intelligence

There is a ton of functionality built into Microsoft Office 365 Threat Intelligence that’s related to foiling hackers, conquering malware, and generally keeping a network safe and clean.

One essential element is the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph — this new feature of Microsoft’s cloud security platform does two major things. One is that it’s a comprehensive data aggregation center that takes in diverse input from hundreds of different sources, along with many of the 350 billion authentications that Microsoft manages each month. The other is that it utilizes machine learning components to increase its threat mitigation power even more. (See more detail on the strengths of Microsoft’s Intelligent Security Graph from Microsoft Vice President of Enterprise Client & Mobility Brad Anderson in this testimonial video.)

In other words, part of the strength of Microsoft Office 365 Threat Intelligence tools is the amount of raw data available to a machine learning system that can work with it and make it into actionable results — for instance, offering real-time tools and alerts, isolating and dealing with content that looks suspicious, and integrating with other security information and event management tools.

Aside from the Intelligent Security Graph, the Office 365 platform also now offers a new Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) reporting interface with all sorts of dashboard views related to network activity. The ability to extend this to desktop clients, and to infiltrate areas of an enterprise network, is very useful to business leaders who need to keep an eagle eye out for disturbing warning signs of inappropriate activity. Maybe it’s a logon from a suspicious location, or activity by an employee that hasn’t been on staff for years. Another major red flag is a significant volume of file deletions, which is another real-time indicator that Microsoft Office 365 Threat Intelligence can analyze.

Relating Microsoft Office 365 Threat Intelligence to Advanced Data Governance

Businesses know that data governance is critically important. Many of them also understand how having access to raw data and tools to filter and refine that data adds to the threat intelligence that they benefit from in-house. But not every business understands how new Microsoft Office 365 tools can enhance data governance in concrete ways. For instance, cloud policy recommendations will help to define data that should be kept and stored in an archive, or data that can safely be discarded. That’s just one aspect of having a security and compliance portal that helps businesses to build and classify their data.

Along with having good data governance and threat intelligence software capabilities, CloudAlly’s Office 365 backup and recovery service is another important part of a fundamental cyber security system. By providing automated daily backups and the ability to restore or export data from any point in time, CloudAlly ensures ongoing business continuity in the event of data loss.

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Google Drive Down Worldwide: Averting Problems with Google Drive Backup

Here’s the scenario: you get to work, ready to pull up the spreadsheet you’ve been working on from Google Drive. But there’s a problem: Google Drive is down. You wait. Check again. Google drive is still down, and it stays down. For over an hour. What are you going to do now? The answer: keep waiting, even as you waste time. While there is certainly nothing wrong with using Google Drive to back up your G Suite apps, recent issues like this one prove that Google Drive alone is not reliable enough to be your only backup. CloudAlly’s G Suite/Google Apps Backup gives you the security that your data will be protected, even if Google Drive fails.

Right now, Google Drive aims to simplify G Suite users’ storage and file sharing in the cloud, but the program regularly has its snafus.

Case in point about Google Drive’s unreliability: on the morning of September 7, Google Drive users started receiving error messages from the file storage service. Users around the world could not load their files.

At 10:37am EST on September 7, 2017, Google announced that it was working to resolve the issue:

“We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive.” Google Drive was down for an entire hour. By 11:38am EST, the program had been restored for some users, but it was still down for others.

Google issued another message that users could “expect a resolution for all users in the near future,” but the company could not provide a concrete timeline. Only by 12:24pm EST – nearly two hours after Google started working on the problem – was Google Drive restored for all users. The tech giant apologized for the inconvenience and said that it planned to develop “continuous improvements to make our systems better.”

Sure, Google says they’re working to make Google Drive infallible, but what if they don’t deliver on their promise, like they most likely will? If Google Drive fails when you need important data, you’re stuck, waiting until Google recovers. Without a third-party program, there is nothing you can do about Google Drive’s unreliability.

You might think, Google Drive was down for a few hours. So what? The problem speaks to a common issue of unreliability with the service. Just a few days after the first issue, on September 11, nearly 3,000 people reported issues with Google Drive again.

Sure, Google Drive is helpful. But it is by no means complete.

Google Drive’s Unreliability?

Google Drive does back up your files and data. However, the protection it provides is not enough.

Take malware and ransomware. Does Google Drive protect your files from these malicious viruses?

Nope. Even if your files are stored on the Google Drive cloud, your data could be infected. Only a third-party software like CloudAlly can protect your Google Drive files from corruption or ransom.

But, you might think, at least Google Drive will be around forever, right?

Again, the answer isn’t certain. Google Drive’s future is at risk. In early September 2017, users feared that Google Drive was shutting down altogether. While this turned out to be hype, Google is shutting down its Google Drive app for Windows and Mac, replacing it with a new backup up.

Right now, though, take a breath. Google Drive is still accessible to all users through browsers on all devices, but this replacement demonstrates Google doesn’t love Google Drive enough that they’ll never change or replace it. Google Drive may not be around forever, and while Google Drive will likely not shut down without notice, it still makes sense to have a third-party software like CloudAlly to back up all your data.

CloudAlly’s G Suite/Google Apps Backup

Returning to the interruption of Google Drive on September 7.

Google Drive users without third-party backups just had to wait. And click to see if Google Drive had come back online. And wait. And click.

But if you were using CloudAlly, you could have exported critical documents instantly. You wouldn’t have wasted any time. CloudAlly lets you export your data to any and all of the programs or devices you need using efficient zip downloads. Instead of waiting for Google to repair Google Drive on September 7, you could have kept on working like nothing was wrong.

Besides, CloudAlly’s Google Apps Backup does more than protect your Google Drive files, too. It backs up all your G Suite apps, including Gmail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and chats on an automated, daily basis.

Don’t put your data safely entirely into Google’s control; take matters into your own hands! Want to see for yourself how CloudAlly is more reliable than Google Drive? Try our free backup for 15 days.

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