Category: ‘Server administration’

How to Chose the best server backup service?

March 9, 2013 Posted by

As online trading and exchange established in a swift pace, servers were used to meet the increasing demand for smooth request handling. However it led to a condition in which it became a solitary point of impact as well. A server breakdown or downtime results in serious loss of data and thereby adversely affecting the commerce. Invasion of hackers added to the threat involved.

Outcome of data loss was quite enormous, that organizations had to use competent server backup strategies for the server management. Well there are certain points to be noted down while making a choice out of the various online server backup services accessible, that is the cost efficiency, viability features, storage capacity and business ratings.

The number of machines supported by the backup service has to equal your requirements. Let’s say if you only have a network consisting of 10 computers, there is no requisite to pay for a backup service which supports up to 99 computers or more. Therefore a thorough analysis of your necessity should be done prior to selecting the server backup service.

The different platforms or operating systems that the service supports should match your computers operating system. You may have Windows machines and Linux machines, which imply that the backup solution should be compatible with both operating systems. Understanding the requirement i.e. whether it’s for free, personal use, family use or business use determines the type of backup utility to be selected. Features and capabilities of the service are also determined by what you are using the service for.

Online backup services has quite a few software features ranging from automatic back up, data compression, data archiving, file synch and sharing, scheduled backups, network backup, timeline storing, versioning and more. Make sure to select software with the most wanted feature suiting your business requirement. Concentrate on products that have features that are most significant for your business.

It is significant to be aware of the storage requirement of your business server. When you need a space less than 10 GB, don’t go for plans with limitless storage. Analyze your business requirement thoroughly before making a choice. As the competency increased among the various backup services available in the industry, ratings by customers of these services became key to such choice. Ratings of such products are obtainable through online or offline business magazines including CNET, PCMag and so forth. It would be worth if a good preparation and market research is done before making a choice.

In an online server backup service, the information from the server is transmitted via internet and stored in an offsite professional data center or with the service provider to whom the server administration is outsourced. The expenditure and risk involved in server data administration is thus distributed. Benefit of having such an online server backup solution would be that your data is safe from theft, flood, fire or any such natural calamities.

Read more: Open source server backup software

open source server backup software
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Categories: Server administration

What Is Meant By Remote Tech Support?

January 24, 2013 Posted by

Technical support is the back bone of any product or service offered by the organization. Marketing a product with 24/7 support is much easier. As the world grew up to a computerized civilization, the need to solving computer issues easily became a requirement. The various means of technical support offered include phone support, chat support, email support, support in person and remote tech support. Out of all the various support systems in place, remote technical support via internet is the most favored one by the customers.

Remote tech support or remote support solutions involves connecting to the problem computer via internet, diagnosing the problem, experimenting with possible solution steps, fix the issue and verify the solution consistency. There is quite a lot of desktop sharing software available in the industry with lot many inbuilt features. The support engineer uses the desktop sharing software to gain access to the problem computer. The software enables you to take control of the remote computer and can synch the support engineers mouse clicks and key strokes with the problem computer. To the customer, it might look like his computer having activity when he is doing nothing.;

Earlier it used to be a tiresome job to carry your machine to the local support store to fix a software issue. Now it takes less than half an hour to fix a software issue with the help of remote support solutions. The limitations of other means of support are very much rectified by remote tech support. Unavailability of internet connection would be the only circumstance in which one cannot avail remote support for a software issue with the computer. Health check of the system, virus removal, mail client troubles, scanning for spyware, software upgrades and new application installations are some of the most commonly handled issues in such service.

The cost involved in getting a support person on the site is saved with the help of remote technical support, which is one of the prime reasons for its popularization. In phone, chat or email support, if the customer is not a technical person, it would be a tough time to fix an issue. The support engineer would have to put it in the simplest manner and even then it’s not necessary that the customer would be able to perform the steps described. Remote technical support it makes the process run in a much smoother way rather than spending hours on the phone or chat. Email support system has always been condemned about the turnaround time. The description given initially by the customer will not be enough for the engineer to diagnose the issue. Therefore another set of questions would be send back to the customer which will give some insight about the issue faced by the customer. Even then it would take a lot time to make the customer perform the required technical steps to resolve the issue faced. In remote support solutions, all this hassles are overcome as the engineer has direct access to the problem computer and perform the required solution steps either in the customer’s presence or absence.

Remote technical support can be used to fix software related issues, server management, etc only if internet is available. If there is any hardware issues, the computer either has to be carried on to the support store or an engineer has to be scheduled for a site visit. Unavailability of internet being the only limitation, remote technical support is more favored owing to its reduced time and cost, and easiness and hassle free features.

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Categories: Server administration

Why Do You Need Remote Server Monitoring Services

September 10, 2012 Posted by

Have you heard about Remote Server Monitoring Services? If not, then let us just give you a brief idea of why you need it and what exactly it does for your business. Your servers sometimes have a mind of their own which just refuses to comply with your commands. This is the time when you need experts to attend to it in order to resolve the issue. But having this assistance team of specialists attend to you every single time would mean they have to be sourced at the same office. This means they have to be employed in your company’s payroll and thereby result in escalating expenses in your budget. Sometimes the service would be needed just occasionally and hence maintaining dedicated staff for it would prove to be very expensive in the long run.

As such remote services can definitely to cut down on expenses considerably. So what exactly is remote server monitoring? Simply it is handling and managing of a server situated in a geographically different place from that of the professional tracking the server. This server monitoring assistance allows experts to control and observe your server and thereby leaving you and your team relaxed and spared off all the specialized and technical complexities that would have aroused if you were to do it in-house. This assistance in particular benefits those organizations whose primary business is not IT and hence it gives them time and human resources to focus on their key business designs while professional IT employees from another place attend to the issues in their server.

A server is something no big or small enterprise can ignore today if they want all their activities and business deals streamlined and hence the need for server monitoring service in companies becomes even more imminent. It makes sure that disrupted server operations are brought up back in no time without causing major slowdowns and service denials. This proves vital in a client centric business wherein failure to render timely customer service can ruin the entire business. Besides, having IT specialists look into the matter allows your other business activities to be carried out smoothly as your staff need not devote their time and attention to server repair or maintenance.

Using experienced IT experts in a non IT atmosphere will have its own problems besides payrolls and other financial costs for your company and hence the need for remote services to such tasks is highly appreciated. The organizations that provide a distant server tracking assistance is assured to provide professional experts and they would have the necessary software and hardware facilities to make sure that your server problems are fixed as fast as possible with little or no impact to other business services.

So now that you have understood the importance of remote server monitoring services, it is wise to opt for one especially if you want to cut down on expenses so that your budget can be used in other key areas.

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Some Important Techniques for Linux Server Support and Monitoring

May 22, 2012 Posted by

Linux is one of the most preferred server operating system. It often outperforms Windows and many other UNIX based operating system and thus considered to be a less expensive alternative to windows servers. This open source system is known for its hardware support properties as well. Linux server is widely used in web hosting technologies thereby paving way to a support system for Linux server.

Linux server administration and monitoring involves various techniques and procedures. Security of the web server is one of the most important tasks. Keeping all the services current will help to defend threats online. Leaving a loop hole with an outdated service will result in huge loss due to data compromise. It is better to keep the server services up-to-date so that the server is efficient enough to fight the latest threats online or offline.

It is always recommended to keep only one type of network service per machine in all possible scenarios. Network services are usually used to carry sensitive information like usernames and passwords, to any computer which claims to be within the domain. Certain network services transfer the information unencrypted which increases the risk of interception. Carefully planned network design can prevent the risk involved to an extent.

Use of secure protocols is yet another security measure which can be established. TCP wrapper service is one of the secure protocol measure applied in Linux server system. Most network services like SSH and Telnet make use of the TCP wrapper service to defend against any arriving request and a requested service. Such a wrapper service can be used to build bullying banners along with a service requested which alerts the hacker that the system administrator is watchful.

Constant server monitoring for any suspicious activity is another recommended practice. Since Linux servers are widely used in web hosting, it is important to monitor the server for uptimes. Also, the services including SSH, Telnet, FTP, HTTP, SSL, SMTP and so forth has to be working correctly to ensure that the customer don’t have any difficulty in accessing required information online. TCP/IP traffic has to be monitored to ensure congestion free information retrieval. Scheduled tasks including back-up and restoration, rebooting and shut down of the server has to be in precise schedule.

As the cost involved in server administration and monitoring rose due to increased number of services supported, outsourcing became a rewarding solution. The service providers work in a 24/7 environment which in turn helps in providing support to clients globally irrespective of the time zone barriers. Outsourcing is found to be the most cost effective solution forserver administration and monitoring. The outlay involved in hiring human resource with matching skill set, providing infrastructure required to work and managing human resource are all saved with the help of outsourcing.

Availability of skilled personal is yet another advantage of outsourcing server support. Service providers usually have dedicated work group who are passionate enough for the job they do and willing to work in shifts to match the time zone differences. It’s often quite hard to find resident professionals who have the true attitude to work in such an atmosphere. More over the dealings would be of more quality since you are the client to the service providers.

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Why do companies outsource their server management activities?

April 5, 2012 Posted by

Information technology has been making transforming advancements. With these rapid developments, maintenance of the IT infrastructure has become double the cost. The expense include providing required infrastructure support to manage the servers, hiring qualified professionals , providing them with ample work environment, managing human resource and other back office work handling.

Outsourcing became an effective solution to these constraints associated with managing the servers. The western business world is more interested in outsourcing their linux server management with the Asian countries. The reason behind is the huge difference in currency exchange rates which adds to their profit. Server management is quite expensive as well as risky. Business organizations that have a greater focus on outcome rather than procedures choose to outsource their server management. There are several advantages of remote server administration.

Remote server administration is found to be the most time saving practice. Outsourcing offers around the clock support as the teams usually work in a 24/7 work environment.Server monitoring, maintenance and repair all tasks are outsourced usually. You get the advantage of full time monitoring of the server, maintenance and repair performed during the off peak times due to the time zone difference of the server users and the outsourced teams. Time saved can be utilized for other core business development activities. The uptimes and availability are all ensured by the outsourced offshore team. Getting quality service at the best price is the main advantage of outsourcing.

Availability of human resource with matching skill set is yet another advantage of outsourced team, when compared to native resources. The cost involved in hiring skilled personal, providing them with training on remote server administration tools and techniques, creating the required work environment and managing their payment and other requirements are all saved by outsourcing the remote server administration.Technology advancements are rapid, and it’s quite expensive to implement changes to the infrastructure as and when required. This cost is also rectified by outsourcing.

After all, the expertise of the outsourced team would be immense. So an average turnaround time for a normal question would be very less compared to a new native engineer. The knowledge base available with such an experienced team would be huge, that the usual queries would be answered in no time. All this experience and knowledge comes to your business with no additional charges.

Server monitoring, maintenance and repair is a full time job and requires professionals who are that passionate about server administration. Servers are required to run even when the client offices are not working. There for outsourcing server administration to network operation centers that work on a 24/7 atmosphere adds value to the system. It’s often quite difficult to find native professionals who have the right attitude to work in such an environment. Operational risk involved in outsourcing is less or distributed. Even during the event of resource unavailability.

Moreover, since you are the client to the outsourced team, the deal would be even better. It rather turns out to be their requirement in ensuring the smooth run.The customer satisfaction rate will go high because of the strong and professional support received from the helpdesk. It’s quite important to ensure the quality and trustworthiness of the outsourced team. Supportpro is a group of enthusiastic support engineers working from a network operation centre located in India. They offer 24/7 transparent webhosting support and remote server administration.

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