Nope! It’s not about a Movie

You are not the only one to think that this article is about the sequel of the Tom Hank’s block buster movie “Saving Private Ryan”. I must immediately tell you that it is not. Though the theme of this article is not different from the plot of that movie. We are trying to come up with a strategy to save the private data of companies like QNAP from the ransomware attacks.

NAS Storage Appliance Protects Your Private Data

Well, here is the thing, the data which you need to store must be kept private to you. This is the basic intent of every client when he goes for any data archive storage solution for example NAS Storage. Isn’t it completely unacceptable to you to know that someone unauthorized has got the access of your files and data? Yes, that does not sound good. It hurts the ego as well as the integrity of a company, not to mention the loss of clients and reputation in the industry. The NAS Storage solution of QNAP for example, was not as safe as the other solutions might be, but it was not the weakest and could have been backed up. There are some ways in which you can prevent or counter a ransomware attack.

Redundant Backup

In this era of frequent ransomware and other malicious software attacks, it is crucial to have a redundant copy of your back up. Yes, you read it right, your backup also needs to be backed up in case of hardware failure, malicious attack, power outage or any other incident which might make the backup data inaccessible.

Are You Updated?

Make sure you have the updated security programs, operating system and browsers so that your system remains safe from the malwares and other kinds of cybercrimes. If you don’t know much about the challenges to avoid the highly advanced and strong malwares like ransomware, you will not be able to stand a chance against them.

Get the Soldiers Acclimatized

The staff of an organization needs to be on their toes to be able to cope up with and react to the attacks like ransomware. Like the one we are talking about here, the ransomware that attacked QNAP’s NAS Storage devices. Every employee must know what to do when he or she sees the screen saying something like this “all your files are encrypted”. The first thing to do is to disconnect the systems. It will stop the malware from spreading to the rest of the systems in the company.

Your Administrator can become a facilitator

No offense with all the administrators out there, keeping the number of the employees having the administrative rights to a minimum, is the wisest thing to do. Irrespective of the fact how trustworthy your team is, it is never safe to have more people the administrative rights. Carefree downloads and installations can result in the ransomware attack.

Conclusion

If you do not provide the criminals with loop holes in your system to sneak in, you can save your data from cyber attackers by using NAS Storage and other storage solutions like SAN Storage or any. Remember, once they are in, they will move out on their terms not on yours. So, you better be careful in every minute aspect of your system. I did not want to be too technical here in this article, please do tell me if you found it informative!

Reducing Network Latency with Cache Technology: Enhancing the Storage Appliance’s Efficiency

Latency means when something is late than its expected happening or occurrence. In the world of data storage appliances and storage solutions, we use this term to refer to a situation when data storage or backup processes take more time than it should have or could have. This article will discuss latency in relation to data being shared across a network which makes processes slower.

There are so many factors which cause latency, like old and slower systems, extra load of work on the storage appliances which do not have that much capacity to handle and others elements are also there. This article is targeted to explain how latency in a network can be reduced through cache technology which is one of the ways to cope up with it.

How Cache Can Reduce Latency

Latency is occurred mostly due to the lack of storage capacity and extra work load on the NAS storage system. What can be done in this regard is to free some space for other type of data which does not need to be put in the database or main storage device.

Caching the data means to store the images, photos, files and scripts etc. on a storage appliance using a reserved space for such data. What is does is that it makes a short term or temporary memory for the user when it uses the same website or application the next time. It allows the user to get the saved data immediately without waiting for a minute. It becomes a matter of seconds or even milliseconds.

This is best used when the user is likely to open or access the same data again and again, or every day or even multiple times in a day. The storage system does not have to fetch the data from the database every time which may take long time.

Cache Becoming a familiar Term Now

The world is now understanding the true abilities of cache memory and the use of caching data has now become vast and more technical. In the past, cache memory was not used to its full. Now the enterprises have realized the importance and ability of cache technology to speed up the processes and tasks which are required for an effective and efficient storage solution to perform better and to the wishes of the clients.   

The scale out nas storage space which is reserved for the frequently used files, images and other forms of cache data, enables the storage appliance to store more mission critical data in the main storage. This is how data can be shared and used across the networks faster and quicker than before.

Conclusion

The modern world depends on the data sharing and generation across the networks as the world has become a global digital village. Data, it not shared in time can cause loss of economy and prestige for the enterprises and even businesses can be shut down. this is why there is a dire need of a technology to make sure data is stored in the data storage appliance, retrieved, accessed and shared across the network in no time, and cache technology has all what it takes to do it.  

The features and abilities of a data storage solution have changed drastically in the recent times. Now, more is being expected and needed form the data storage solutions. A modern NAS Storage Solution must have sometime advanced features to make it efficient, useful and beneficial for enterprises in this modern era. Let us have a brief look at what these three features are.

NAS Storage Hardware Must Be Hot-Swappable

The enterprises cannot afford to have any disruption in any regard. The data storage solutions for enterprise must have a hardware which is hot-swappable, in order to avoid any latency or disruption even if the hardware component is being replaced, repaired or upgraded.

Hot swappable nature or ability of a SAN Storage Solution hardware allows the enterprises to have the uninterrupted availability of hardware components such as power supplies. It makes sure that the business is up and running even if a power supply fails. The supply can be taken out while the system is running, and in that mean time the other power supply keeps the system on its feet.

Redundant Power Supplies Keeps a NAS Storage Alive

The redundant power supply is a quality of hardware which makes it possible for the first feature that we have just discussed above. When one power supply fails for example, had there been no redundant power supply in place, even with hot-swappable feature in place, nothing could be done to avoid disruption and latency.

The time taken for the repair of the power supply or buying and putting a new one in that place would take so much time. During the time when system was not running, it can be the end of the business for that enterprise. Millions of dollars loss is the least that may be faced as a consequence.

Redundancy in the hardware is very important in today’s world as everything is being done in the heat of the moment. The data storage solution must make sure that they have redundant components like power supplies which are the most important component to keep the system running.

NAS Storage Hardware Must Be Robust

In today’s world where more and more businesses are relying on high technological hardware equipment, more is expected and needed form the solutions.  More data generation means more operations and more work done in the infrastructure. This situation results in more risks to have systems fail on the business owners and administrators.

A modern Scale Out NAS Storage Appliance hardware must be robust enough to avoid errors, failures and mistakes which may stop them from running, had there been no robustness. NAS Storage systems are robust and can tolerate faults and failures to an extent which makes enterprises have peace of mind that their data is stored in a reliable and robust storage place.

Conclusion

If a modern NAS storage solution had a hardware with these above mentioned features, the business is likely to have a best data storage environment. These features like having a redundant, hot-swappable and robust hardware make a data storage solution meet the challenges and mitigate the risks of the modern data storage industry.         

Out of all the other alternatives an enterprise may have in the market, why would one buy or why should an enterprise buy NAS Storage is a question that you might need an answer to. This article is going to attempt answering that question.

NAS Storage Is Easy To Deploy and Run

The first point which makes NAS storage an important choice for the enterprises is that it is a relatively easy infrastructure to deploy in an enterprises’ data storage environment. This is because it is no different from a dedicated and specialized file server. If the IT staff of an enterprise has ever used a file server for the user files, there will be no difficulty in implementing and using a NAS storage.

NAS Storage Can Offer Limitless Scalability

Although it has a little bit of similarity with the file server, but it is by no means limited in terms of storage space as a file storage is. On the contrary, NAS storage is highly scalable virtually to an unlimited extent. This is what enterprises need from a storage solution in order to meet their ever growing storage space needs.

Data Sharing and Access Made Easier By NAS Storage

Another reason why NAS storage is important for enterprises is that it is very simply configured and gives an experience like all the user files are in one logical pool where searching and accessing is as simple as it can get. This is where enterprises can manage their data very well and keep it available to them all the times.

NAS Storage Proves To Be Pocket Friendly

NAS storage also proves to be cost effective as compared to other data storage solutions such as SAN. It also makes it an attractive option for the enterprises, specifically if it requires a shareable network attached storage scalability. Cost effectiveness is like icing on the top for such enterprises Cloud Storage, because at the end of the day cost saving is never undesirable.

Data Remains Secure With NAS Storage

Another aspect of importance Enterprise NAS storage has for the enterprises is the enhanced security it provides to the mission critical data. For enterprises, data is the most important thing on which their business relies to grow and progress. It is not only used for the future use when needed, but also plays an important role in enabling the decisions makers to predict and foresee the future and make adequate decisions according to the trends and patterns analyzed through the data.

NAS storage also provides the ability to manage large volumes of data files in a simpler manner. Usually the enterprise which go for NAS storage have data management easy at the top of their priority list.

Conclusion

NAS storage solution can be a very important data storage solution for enterprises as it offers many features which are required the most by the businesses running at the enterprise level and have a scalable, reliable, fast and secure data storage.      

Cloud storage has to be the most obvious choice now-a-days for storage solutions. AWS storage Gateway technology is constantly advancing as cloud adopters are increasing. Cloud service providers are making collaborative efforts to enhance cloud user experience in terms of security and management.

In this article we discuss what makes cloud technology like cloud computing and cloud storage an obvious choice for enterprise IT requirements.

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Solutions

As far as cloud computing trends are concerned hybrid and multi-cloud solutions are becoming dominant in the cloud market. A single cloud is not a one size fits all solution as requirements vary from organization to organization.

Choosing the right environment leads to healthy experience on cloud for organizations. A hybrid cloud strategy allows organization to have the right storage for the right data and workloads.

A multi-cloud infrastructure opens up further options for companies and allows them to leverage multi-cloud resources for achieving redundancy on workloads.

Hosting and managing applications is getting popular in the cloud archiving world because of the simplicity, agility and cost-effectiveness.

Backup and Disaster Recovery with Cloud Storage Solutions

Organizations allocate a fixed budget for backup and disaster recovery. Sometimes setting up an off prem DR site exceeds that budget because of staffing and maintenance costs.

Cloud-based DR solutions make it easy to set up a fully functional, highly scalable and a high availability DR site. Public cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure, Storage Gateway AWS and Google cloud Platform make it very easy to set up a DR site at a low cost.

Cloud Security

Security is a huge advantage with cloud storage and cloud computing solutions. Organizations have to spend a lot on protecting their critical workloads. This cost is saved thanks to cloud solutions. Cloud service providers dedicate resources to ensure data protection of their customers. Cloud service providers use robust encryption standards to protect data at rest and in transit. Security on cloud is free from human error which accounts for a large number of data loss incidents.

Conclusion

As discussed above, cloud storage solutions are an obvious choice now. It takes companies years ahead of their competitors by greatly reducing time to market. Cloud storage solutions save companies millions in cash and provides a reliable, scalable solution. Hybrid and multi cloud solutions like Azure Cloud Storage and others enhance the experience on cloud by keeping the workloads well managed in the right cloud environment.

Cloud storage is gaining increasing popularity in modernistic IT enterprises. Though this is a popular choice it comes with some common pitfalls that need to be avoided in order to have a reliable storage environment.

This article discusses common pitfalls that organizations have to face and how to avoid them. Here is a list –

Cost of cloud computing, cloud backup and storage solutions

Cost structures of cloud gateway appliance service providers can be difficult to put into equation with all the required hardware software. Budgeting is a pitfall here, the managers need to have a defined cloud strategy that outlines the basic requirement for all sorts of procurements.

The strategy will help to avoid the pitfall of receiving hefty bills at the end. The pricing strategies may vary from CSP to CSP. The organization should choose what applies to them.

Cloud storage vendor lock-ins

Vender lock in is another difficulty that worries cloud adopters because it includes paying lock-in costs and switching costs if the customer wants to switch to another vendor. This is an uncomfortable experience.

Customers must have an entry and exit strategy to experiencing this discomfort. There are a lot of other solutions as well including: having a plan B vendor already in place, having other on premises solutions as well and increase portability of your workloads.

Cloud management, configurations and cloud gateways

Improper cloud management and configurations lead to a lot of problems that need to be sorted out at a cost later.

The management and configurations must be overseen by competent professionals that can efficiently configure your cloud working environments.

Having cloud storage gateways that support front-running public cloud vendors is also a very smart decision. Having the whole thing in a fully-managed deployment turns out to be more consistent.    

Cloud security

Cloud archive storage security is a very common pitfall since the data is hosted on public cloud or a shared platform the security risks are always there. To ensure proper security the organization has to include encryption to avoid breach of workload confidentiality and data exposure.

Also, organizations must sort out the access control as part of their data governance policies for a secure cloud integration. Configurable cloud gateway solutions have the ability to protect data at rest and in transit it is always recommended to have these solutions in place.

Conclusion

There are inconveniences but there are equally good solutions as well in the market. The common pitfalls include but are not limited to; cost and pricing strategies of CSPs, cloud management, cloud storage vendor lock-ins, cloud storage management and NAS Storage configurations of cloud gateways and security on the cloud.