System Automation, VTL, and Security Linked in Help/Systems, Crossroads Deal

March 1, 2010 Dan Burger

Help/Systems, one of the dominant providers of system administration and security tools for the IBM i platform, has expanded its technological reach by forming a partnership with Crossroads Systems, a company known for its data security products. Specifically, this means the Help/Systems automated operations software–primarily Robot/SAVE, but also Robot/SCHEDULE and Robot/REPORTS–will be will be matched with Crossroads’ SPHiNX virtual tape appliance.

The integration of these products offers an increase in automated and secure media management including object inventory of systems, audit trails, encryption, and optional use of tape.

Sales and marketing will be handled by Help/Systems and will be targeted at a combined customer base of more than 21,000 organizations.

As a disaster recovery option, the combination of Robot/SAVE and SPHiNX is expected to improve recovery time and increases storage capacity, while leveraging existing investments in disk and tape backup infrastructure.

The Robot/SAVE backup and recovery software provides the tape management functions for a single system (Power Systems running IBM i and its predecessors) or a data center made up of these systems. It also supports a centralized scratch pool. It supports VTL as if it is another tape drive. For companies dealing with regulatory compliance issues such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA, and PCI requirements, the management capabilities of the Robot/SAVE-SPHiNX combo simplify many of the otherwise labor-intensive tasks.

The SPHiNX virtual tape library eliminates several cost factors and workflow bottlenecks that include tape mounts (it’s disk-to-disk), third-party tape storage facilities, and in most cases will either eliminate or reduce the number of tapes required. It also allows the conversion of old tapes to modern formats. However, don’t get the wrong idea. The SPHiNX VTL supports tape drives, bringing users the speed of writing to the VTL during backups, while later writing to tape for off-site storage. This saves cycles on the Power System server(s) that would have been used for writing to tape.

In addition, users have a choice of encryption methods: software data encryption using Robot/SAVE or hardware encryption using SPHiNX.

Crossroads introduced SPHiNX for Power Systems in September 2009. Prior to that, the technology had been used in the Hewlett-Packard NonStop (formerly Tandem) server market in an HP OEM-branded version for more than six years.

Tom Huntington, vice president of technical services at Help/Systems, describes the technological marriage as a solution that “helps eliminate several backup and recovery headaches that many data center managers struggle with daily. Issues with tape mounts, replication, off-site storage, encryption, tape costs, and security are just a few of the items we can resolve with this solution set.”

Huntington is joining Glenn Haley, a senior product manager with Crossroads, in presenting an online Webinar that highlights the capabilities of this new approach to disaster recovery. That presentation is scheduled for Thursday, March 18, at noon CST. Registration is available here.

Crossroads Pushing VTL Solution to System i Customers

Help/Systems Supports Windows with i OS-Based Job Scheduler

Help/Systems Supports HP-UX with i OS Job Scheduler

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Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 19, Number 9 -- March 1, 2010

CYBER-ATTACKS ON THE RISE. PROTECT WITH THE TRIPLE PLAY.

COVID-19 has not only caused a global pandemic, but has sparked a “cyber pandemic” as well.

“Cybersecurity experts predict that in 2021, there will be a cyber-attack incident every 11 seconds. This is nearly twice what it was in 2019 (every 19 seconds), and four times the rate five years ago (every 40 seconds in 2016). It is expected that cybercrime will cost the global economy $6.1 trillion annually, making it the third-largest economy in the world, right behind those of the United States and China.”¹

Protecting an organization’s data is not a single-faceted approach, and companies need to do everything they can to both proactively prevent an attempted attack and reactively respond to a successful attack.

UCG Technologies’ VAULT400 subscription defends IBM i and Intel systems against cyber-attacks through comprehensive protection with the Triple Play Protection – Cloud Backup, DRaaS, & Enterprise Cybersecurity Training.

Cyber-attacks become more sophisticated every day. The dramatic rise of the remote workforce has accelerated this trend as cyber criminals aggressively target company employees with online social engineering attacks. It is crucial that employees have proper training on what NOT to click on. Cyber threats and social engineering are constantly evolving and UCG’s Enterprise Cybersecurity Training (powered by KnowBe4) is designed to educate employees on the current cutting-edge cyber-attacks and how to reduce and eliminate them.

A company is only as strong as its weakest link and prevention is just part of the story. Organizations need to have a quick response and actionable plan to implement should their data become compromised. This is the role of cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS).

Data is a company’s most valuable asset. UCG’s VAULT400 Cloud Backup provides 256-bit encrypted backups to two (2) remote locations for safe retrieval should a cyber-attack occur. This is a necessary component of any protection strategy. Whether a single click on a malicious link brings down the Windows environment or an infected SQL server feeds the IBM i, once the data is compromised, there is no going back unless you have your data readily available.

Recovery is not a trivial task, especially when you factor in the time sensitive nature of restoring from an active attack. This leads to the third play of the Triple Play Protection – DRaaS. Companies have myriad concerns once an attack is realized and a managed service disaster recovery allows employees to keep focus on running the business in a crisis state.

The combination of training employees with secure backup and disaster recovery offers companies the best chance at avoiding financial disruption in an age of stronger, more frequent cyber-attacks.

Reach out to UCG Technologies to discuss your company’s security needs and develop a data protection plan that fits you best.

ucgtechnologies.com/triple-play

800.211.8798 | info@ucgtechnologies.com

^{1. https://theconversation.com/cyberattacks-are-on-the-rise-amid-work-from-home-how-to-protect-your-business-151268}

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