Backup Anytime

Online storage, movers, shakers, mergers and closures.

With all the talk of anticipated consolidation in the online storage market due in 2009, it is important to be aware that so far 2008 has not been bereft of position grappling.

xdrive to close (Data backup planned closure)
As detailed in an earlier post, xdrive is to close in early January. This is a planned closure by a giant parent company. This most unusual move sees clients being urged to avail of competing services before the closure date. Not good for the online backup industry. Once bitten, twice as reluctant to give scarce funds and absolute trust to another provider.

Barracuda enters the market (Online backup shaker)
Barracuda online backup will be product and service based. Unlikely to be satisfied with a nich, Barracuda Networks will need to literally change the industry to encourage clients to shell out for online backup specific devices which become client property are are only useful while the service is being used and subscription is maintained. This may sound like a big ask but Barracuda have a history of success with this approach, specifically with their excellent anti spam product and service solutions which we can recommend.

Amazon diversification continues. So does Amazon downtime. (Online storage mixed bag)
Cloud giant Amazon continue to rewrite the online storage book and bring options and confusion to the market with their multiple service offerings, transfer charges and increased interoperability of support for both simple online storage and online backup for wholesalers. Fanfare aside, Amazon downtime this year moves it outside the gold standard.

MediaMax aka The Linkup closed. (Online backup unplanned closure)
Horrible outcome. A scase of clear client data loss becoming a complicated story. If you want to know about online backup horror stories, read the Mediamax online backup failure story.
IBM, acquire Arsenal Digital Solutions. (Online backup mover)
Big blue puts a little footprint in the online backup arena. This story is actually from December 2007 and is interesting not alone because it was felt at the time that big blue would want to become the number one player but also because this didn’t happen. This acquisition may not have created the monster it was expected to but it could happen yet. IBM must want to make the cloud blue with the IBM cloud. See IBM Online Backup.

HP launched its’ online storage product last April. (Online backup mover)
The UPLINE service is based on Opelins’ Titanize and is effectively the HP cloud. UPLINE was a most unfortunate name for the service which was used to make catchy negative media headlines when it went down. See HP Upline goes down.
RBS online backup launched their consumer product for online backup providers. (Online backup mover)
This product is Amazon ready and offers low per licence costs (given large licence quantity purchases) to online backup providers wishing to enter the consumer online storage market. The RBS software backbone is the strong point of this plan. The Amazon component brings potential cost reduction based on quantity and user activity but also the potential Amazon related downtime as detailed above. RBS will continue providing and supporting their award winning online backup software for service providers which in the main is not used as part of an Amazon service. This continues to be their major offering and has grown in success despite many new entrants.
VEMBU TECHNOLOGIES cloud compatibility. (Online backup shaker)
Since we interviewed Sekar Vembu, his company Vembu Technologies which is behind Vembu StoreGrid has announced cloud compatibility for VEMBU software which increases the storage options from VEMBU clients. VEMBU pricing for service providers is based on subscription (or annual renewal) rather than perpetual licensing. Many providers shy away from this model due to concerns about a reduction in ability to reduce fixed and per user costs should the market dictate this is required. It is likely however that such circumstances would dictate a reduction in VEMBU charges which would negate this issue.

Asigra sues Robobak. The “he said, she said” of online backup.
Legal confrontation is the online storage business is not unusual. Most such cases however centre around patents, intellectual copyright, copyrights and even trade names. This case case however is based around one company taking umbrage at the marketing approach and in particular some specific claims in online backup reviews and press releases said to be made by the defendants about Asigra. We stress that this does not relate to a Backupanytime review. We did however interview Ben Puzzuoli in September of this year and found him to be a thoroughly nice fellow.

EMC remain the most respected Giant in online storage. (Online storage Whale and shaker)
EMC already had status on the world of data management. Then they bought some in the form of three significant acquisitions. These being Retrospect backup, MOZY and Iomega external drives. EMC have very cleverly managed to utilise the EMC blue chip name and these acquisitions without prostituting the EMC name or courting controversy.
http://www.backupanytime.com/blog/2008/07/17/emc-corporation-merge-acquisitons/

By the way, 2007 is not over yet. There is more to come. We will report back.

In summary.

It doesn’t matter if you consider 2007 to be pre recession or post boom. It has so far been a busy year for online storage in just about every possible way. Next year will likely see more failures, more acquisitions and lower acquisition prices. What does this spell for the consumer? A dirty mix or risk and value. The bottom line therefore is to seek value for money. Any plan to avail of the cheapest online storage or online backup service will be a short race to partner with the weakest vendor.

House of Commons data debate 12 November

This House of commons debate is quite fresh being dated 12 November 2008

I follow UK blogs and Irish blogs. A few click away from a regular UK site I read I fount the following.

Want to have your say in a house of commons debate on data management? The one I am following deals specifically with not alone the Governments handling of data but their subsequent handling of the situation arising from handling data badly. The opposition may have ulterior motives but this aside they are good at voicing public concern when it suits.

You can have a read and even join in this house of Commons data debate. You can even have your say. If your comment picks up enough following you may even end up influencing Government action. OK, that may be unlikely but is a possibility. Your post could at least tutor the opposition.

This is a far cry from watching the Irish Government dillydally late at night and hours after the event with one way communications only. Maybe someone will post explaining that a similar Irish service is running. That would be nice.

All in all, the UK Government are being forced to take data (privacy, responsibility and legislation) seriously and this has to be a good thing.

Some of the comments on the theyworkforyou site are also quite good and demonstrate a keen insight in to the importance of data management by the British public.

The participants (mostly male) can be bitchy but with a surprising amount of hidden and readily available ammunition. David Heathcoat-Amory hits hard. Not the type of man you want outside the tent shouting in. Being a conservative he is about as far outside the tent as people have wanted the conservatives for quite some time. So, enlighten me. What Irish service along these lines have I been missing?

I follow a few Irish politics sites and the Authors on twitter and despite a high standard I don’t know of anything with the time or resource to run at this standard.

xdrive stop charging customers

There has been much talk and speculation about X-Drive for some time now. As of one week ago they stopped charging clients and those same clients have until January 12th to remove their data.

The biggest question is: What happens to clients who do not know about or react in time to the closure?
The official xdrive answer is this.
“After January 12, 2009, you will no longer be able to access your Xdrive account. All files and data will be permanently deleted and you will no longer be able to retrieve your files.”

This is unbelievable. Need it from the horses mouth? Here, see question 3 on xdrive will delete client data.

This is hardly the level of data protection one would expect. This is not the level of data availability which would have been considered acceptable at sign-up. As for data loss, well this looks to be a future data loss story for some. Having an online store (Thinking you have an online data store) could cause recklessness at the client end and while this may be questionable from the clients responsibility viewpoint they can hardly be responsible all on their own.

An obvious and far from well though out response to the horror of this would be to say that a closing entity can not and should not keep client data. A little more client concern would surely result in at the very least a far longer zero charge period. Notice during the paying period does not equate to giving something to those clients who are inconveniencedand may be ruined by the closure. Realistically, any inability to directly communicate the details of the intended closure with verified response from every single client should be seen as of absolute importance. Logs of verified client end account closure could provide a list of accounts which have not been closed. A good communications campaign should result in a short list of accounts pertaining to uninformed or unresponsive clients. These accounts could then be kept open or at least the data retained for a far greater non billing period than two months.
After all, many providers will give a two month trial. If this can be offered to potential clients, many of whom will never pay, surely a far greater period could be given to actual clients.
This all blows smoke in the face of the real question. Why close xdrive?
The answer has obviously to do with financials but the proximatecause of this type of result generally has more to do with aggressive client acquisition through weak cost benefit analysis.

This is common in the data storage industry. You the end user are offered much space and limited functionality and support on the basis of economies of scale and guesstimates about data transport cost.

If the provider gets it wrong, ie the other clients don’t join and behave as anticipated this makes your online storage “data non gratis” and at risk of suffering the plight of the xdrive client.

The moral of the story is that you get what you pay for. If this was lucrative for AOL this would not be happening. If it was considered viable by outside entities (and this does not require it to be lucrative) it would be bought. There will however be no buyout or merger honeymoon for xdrive clients. For most it is provider divorce. For some it may be data divorce.

Bank of Ireland stolen USB key

Subscribers and regular readers will recall the Bank Of Ireland stolen laptops story. Whatever preventative measures were put in place at the time appear to have had limited effect on protecting USB keys. The use of USB keys in itself is questionable practice outside of circumstances in which data in encrypted and the key is for convenience only and not a singular or critical copy.

Even small enterprises are moving away from the use of micro devices for unencrypted data. The affordability and convenience offered by USB keys did for a time make them a data storage solution for individuals. The extent and obviousness of the risks coupled with the scale of reported incidents have removed USB key usage from the allowed list of many responsible companies.

This particular incident relates to account numbers, names and addresses (not full address but if the wrong people have a name and a partial address they can surly work out the rest in many cases) for just under 900 clients. Financial information was not breached but this will offer little comfort to the victims (customers) of this breach.

The bank have said they have no reason to believe the information has fallen in to the wrong hands. Given that the device is lost, it could fall in to anyone’s hands. Additionally, given that USB keys have a physical value (despite this being nominal) it is likely therefore that it will not be ignored when spotted.

Given the absence of adamant and repeated claims of the data being encrypted it would appear it is possible that it was not. We do not know for sure yet. If it was not encrypted this will not instill great general confidence given previous incidents and opportunities to resolve the basic but essential tenet of encrypting confidential client and third party information. If it was encrypted, there is little to worry about from the viewpoint of data privacy and  the focus can move to asset protection.

So, the question remaining is; was the data encrypted. If so, Bank Of Ireland should speak up as they have protected their clients from inevitable circumstances as device loss or theft will take place even if security and individual responsibility is managed well.

If the data was not ensrypted, B.O.I. have much explaining to do this time round.

Your date with data breach.

If you read the papers, watch the TV news, listen to radio reports, browse the Internet or simply go around with your ears open you will be aware that data breach is more than common. The Internet has brought many advantages to business. It has however changed information security from a task to an ongoing process. The continual data breach instances you hear about are just a drop in the ocean. The data loss incidents you hear about in the media are generally those of great significance to small business or any significance to big business. Every breach which makes the headlines is likely representative of thousands which don’t or may in the future.

If you do want to follow data breaches in far greater numbers then a good starting point would be to sign up for breach reports from The Breach Blog. This excellent resource is owned and managed by FRSecure. It’s focus is very much American but this does not limit it’s ability to paint a picture of what is happening worldwide.

The breach blog is regularly updated and is well presented in snippet format so you can browse through the basic stats of a wide number of data protection issues affecting numerous organisations and then focus on any specific entry which interests you. You may then see extended information regarding the breach you want to read about.

So impressed are we with this blog that we are inviting the Breach blog administrator to participate in our Who’s who in data interview series.

We await the reply eagerly and will update you on the response.