cloud based hosting

Why it is vital to have a first-class cloud-hosting services partner

The hidden pitfalls of transitioning to public cloud-hosting service environments Attracted by cost-saving opportunities at the same time as being able to improve the quality of resources, many UK businesses have transitioned from a privately hosted on-premises environment to a public cloud-hosting service. However, research by ‘415’ has revealed a range of issues that can arise from transitioning, and of the businesses surveyed, 21% advised they were considering a return to an on-premises based solution. A possible explanation for this could be that businesses often underestimate the complexities of switching to a cloud environment and find themselves dealing with issues of reliability and efficiency that are beyond their level of expertise. Working with a first-class cloud-hosting services partner can give you that depth of knowledge and technical skill that reduces risk and enables you to fully benefit from the transition. Public Cloud-Hosting– advantages vs. risks Advantages A public cloud service provider offers resources over the internet, such as software, data storage and applications. For a growing number of businesses, it makes sense to transition their on-premises environment to a public cloud-hosted environment for three main reasons: inexpensive – pay for what you use on an ongoing basis flexible – instant provisioning and on-demand access to high-quality services from any device scalable – easy to expand server base in line with business needs. Another appealing benefit is the ability to take advantage of these high-level services without facing the same set-up costs. Risks The reasons for transitioning your environment to the cloud are compelling, however, without the proper expertise to correctly configure and manage the environment, you run the risk of: uncontrolled escalation of ongoing costs confusion arising from increased complexity using the wrong tools leading to ineffectiveness inaccurate reporting and tracking of digital assets lack of proper support from the providers themselves. Choosing the right cloud-hosting services partner Working with a partner who has the right kind of knowledge and expertise can help you to develop, implement and deploy an effective plan for transitioning, as well as maintaining it properly afterwards. This would mean: costs being kept to a minimum and maintained at a predictable level solving issues of reliability and efficiency faster response times assessment of virtual machine use correct use of tools effective analysis of workloads. With over 20 years of experience in assisting UK businesses with their IT requirements, Awareness offers first-class expertise and technical skills in supporting your business migration to a cloud-hosted environment. We partner with you and your cloud service provider to maximise the advantages for your business while keeping costs at predictable levels. We can offer valuable insight into how your virtual machines are performing and help with aspects concerning efficiency, agility and flexibility. For further information on our cloud-hosting services, call us at ASL on 0345 862 0350.

ASL industry leading IT support services across Manchester, Cheshire and the UK

Wide-ranging IT support available on your doorstep. As a Manchester based IT service support provider, we are perfectly positioned to deliver industry-leading, managed IT support services to businesses around the UK. We have years of experience helping small, medium and large corporations with their IT issues, and offer an extensive range of services that deliver flexibility and value, that can be easily scaled up or down according to your business needs. 6 reasons to choose ASL Fully trained locally based IT experts – we offer first-line IT support services to businesses based anywhere in the UK by phone and email. Wide-ranging IT experience – we deliver industry-leading IT support. We are specialists in Microsoft Technologies, Microsoft Dynamics, Cloud and High Availability Systems. We offer advanced support covering a wide range of hardware and software products – including SAN’s, printers, firewalls, PCs, and SQL servers. We can help you, whatever your requirements and deliver affordable IT support so that you don’t have to pay to hire, train and manage your own IT department. Easy access to disaster recovery – outsourcing your backup and disaster recovery to us ensures your business quickly gets back up and running after a disaster, whether that’s a malicious ransomware attack, human error, power outage or weather-related disruption. With our help, you can remain operational. Onsite Surveys – we provide onsite surveys to give you the opportunity to discuss your business IT support requirements. Cost control – recruiting and training your own in-house IT support team, and keeping them up to speed with every development, can be very expensive. We constantly update our skill set, provide training and keep up to date with developments in the marketplace, so you don’t have to. Stay competitive – because your resources are not being stretched by maintaining your own IT department, you can direct your finances and expertise towards developing your business. To discuss your IT support needs, call us at ASL on 0345 862 0350.

ASL implements a backup and recovery solution for Boutinot Wines

Ensuring business continuity during head-office relocation. An effective and up-to-date backup and recovery solution is vital to ensuring business continuity. Failing to restore data can have far-reaching consequences, which is why we at ASL design and implement backup and recovery solutions that minimise service disruption and quickly get you back to work. We have 20 years of experience and have helped many UK businesses plan for disaster, which proved to be crucial during Boutinot’s office move. Customer– Boutinot wines Established in 1980, Boutinot is one of the leading UK-based distributors of quality wines from around the world. Distributing more than 1400 wine varieties, totalling 44 million bottles each year to UK and International retailers, restaurateurs and wholesalers. Boutinot’s requirement is for an IT infrastructure that is as robust as its supply chain. Having worked with Boutinot since 2015, ASL were engaged to help manage the IT systems relocation; when the company moved to a new head office in Cheadle Point, Manchester. The ASL approach A major hardware upgrade and virtualisation project was planned to coincide with the move. By upgrading at the same time as relocating, we could resolve any issues that arose using the new platform, which would minimise disruption. Our approach was to ensure the Boutinot back-up and disaster recovery environment was 100% up to date. We commenced work at 6pm on Friday evening, making sure everything was powered down and prepared for the move. After Boutinot’s IT infrastructure was professionally moved to their new site, it was then our job to rebuild the server environment in the new location. We re-attended site at 8am on Saturday, and within a matter of hours, we had all of Boutinot’s servers back online, with one critical exception. The critical issue – during transit damage had occurred which prevented a server from booting up. The ASL solution – using our powerful Backup and DR solution, we were able to export a brand new virtual copy of the server onto Boutinot’s new hardware platform. This was completed in under 2 hours, and all system functionality was fully restored. The benefits – the new hardware platform has enabled Boutinot to embark on a series of Windows Domain upgrades, Exchange upgrades, remote desktop services upgrades and SQL server upgrades, which are all built on their highly available platform. Within 3 weeks of the office move, we had successfully migrated all Boutinot servers onto their new hardware platform. In addition, we also implemented our managed network monitoring solution, to actively inform Boutinot about all aspects of their IT infrastructure, hardware and networking. Had our Network monitoring solution been in place, it would have identified the issue with the failed server before the move. If you would like to discuss implementing or upgrading your disaster recovery solution speak to us at ASL. Call ASL today on 0345 862 0350 and let us help your business to remain up and running.

ASL private Cloud hosting solutions for ERP vendors

Taking a flexible approach to hosting ERP solutions Many claims are made about cloud computing, in particular – cloud-based solutions are faster, easier, and cheaper to implement than traditional ‘on-premises’ alternatives. While the cloud certainly requires less upfront capital investment and alleviates some technical complexity, the claims made don’t always match reality. As an ERP vendor, it’s likely that your customers and prospects (heavily influenced by software giants such as Microsoft), are expecting you to offer a cloud-based alternative to your traditional ‘on-premises’ ERP solution. With so much hype, it’s not surprising that your customers are being persuaded that the future belongs to the cloud. Overcoming the complexity of ERP hosting. Unfortunately, ERP in the cloud is not quite as simple as the hype would have you believe. ERP is often complex, customer specific and must be capable of changing to meet differing business demands. The one size fits all philosophy doesn’t apply, and that has implications for the cloud deployment of solutions where: customisation is the norm integrating with third-party ‘on-premises’ solutions is essential exporting data is a daily occurrence 24/7 access to the entire operating environment is non-negotiable adding to existing IT resources needs to be fast, efficient and cost effective multiple environments are necessary for testing and upgrades. Where companies are able to standardise their business processes, it may be true that cloud-based ERP software, on platforms such as Microsoft Azure, are faster to implement than traditional ‘on-premises’ solutions. However, in reality, it’s often the case that standard packaged solutions fail to meet the needs of many businesses, which is particularly true within the manufacturing and distribution sector. These businesses need: package software that can be modified to meet their specific requirements IT environments that can adapt quickly to a change in market conditions freedom to change software to gain competitive advantage immediate access to systems during unexpected emergencies a flexible charging structure to reflect the uncertainties of complex ERP implementations pricing models that are transparent and allow reliable budgets to be set throughout the lifetime of the project. The implications for independent software vendors (ISVs) are clear: project delays, resourcing issues, capacity planning, shifting goal posts and bespoke software can be costly and inefficient under a restrictive cloud model. A flexible approach to hosting is therefore required for ERP vendors. Why ASL’s private Cloud ERP hosting is the right way to go. Our Private Cloud Hosting Solution for ERP vendors overcomes the challenges of ERP hosting. Our pragmatic approach enables ISVs to work with professionals who understand the challenges of implementing ERP solutions. We come from an ERP background and have more than 20 years of experience providing robust hardware and infrastructure solutions that truly accommodate the needs of fast-paced, high transactional manufacturing and distribution businesses. We’ve taken everything we know about robust on-premises deployments of ERP solutions and made certain that our cloud solutions follow the same principles. Our ISV partners can confidently promote the cloud without worrying about the restrictions and pricing uncertainty that typifies the big cloud providers. The following table identifies key points of difference between ASL and Microsoft Azure: Requirement(s) Azure ASL Hosting Availability requirements with SLAs âœ“ âœ“ Ability to respond quickly to incidents *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Incident escalation *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Disaster recovery and business continuity *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Ease of integration with third party in cloud and on premise solutions *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Speed of deployment âœ“ âœ“ System performance âœ“ âœ“ Proactive system monitoring âœ“ âœ“ Moving out of the cloud to on-premise *Refer to MS guides âœ“ Easy management of the system *Refer to MS guides âœ“ WAN Integration (e.g. MPLS) âœ— âœ“ No in-house IT Knowledge required âœ— âœ“ Pricing clarity âœ— âœ“ Working with ASL, you can be confident that your customers’ cloud deployment will be straightforward, expertly managed and delivered on time with no hidden or unforeseen costs. To learn how your business can deliver ERP cloud solutions that work in the real world, call 0345 862 0350 to discuss partnering with ASL or email sales@aware-soft.co.uk

Essential hardware & infrastructure considerations for ERP upgrades.

Why factor hardware and infrastructure into your ERP software upgrade plan? When planning an ERP upgrade, it makes sense to take time to examine the hardware and infrastructure systems underpinning your business. The reason for this is to ensure that your ERP software is supported by the right hardware and infrastructure types, to ensure long-term ERP success. When conducting a systems review, there are many factors that you and your software supplier need to consider: Does your current system meet the minimum requirements for the latest software release? Is there sufficient capacity to run both the new software and a test upgrade environment in terms of: memory resources hard disk space processor requirements If you’re considering the implementation of new hardware and infrastructure to support your ERP software upgrade, has your provider explained the options and made recommendations on best practice in relation to: physical or virtual deployment of servers scaling the deployment to cover all aspects of both the IT systems in place and new systems proposed system resilience and high availability SQL server mirroring or other protection and performance offloading deployment for a consistent experience restrictions in terms of scalability ease of backup system monitoring remote access to the application based on latest technologies Does your wider IT environment adequately support and allow for the most effective deployment of the hardware/software upgrade in terms of: internet bandwidth internal networking PCs /printers server room environment suitability power capacity Have the implications of integrating with existing 3rd party products been considered from an infrastructure point of view, particularly relating to overall system performance such as: EDI WMS BI tools Prior to implementing an ERP upgrade have you ensured that all your IT assets are up to date in relation to: security patches firmware updates expiring service contracts end of life issues and vulnerabilities Recovery point objective (RPO)* relates to the age of files to be recovered from backup storage in order to allow normal operations to resume after a network, system or computer outage due to a program, communications or hardware failure. It’s an important consideration in disaster recovery planning (DRP). RPO is expressed backward in time from the moment the failure occurred, and is specified in time units ranging from seconds up to days. Once the RPO for a given network, system or computer has been defined, the minimum backup frequency can then be determined. RPO, in conjunction with recovery time objective (RTO), enables administrators to choose optimal disaster recovery technologies and procedures. Recovery time objective (RTO)** is the maximum length of time a network, system, computer or application can be down after a failure occurs. It’s a function of the extent that the interruption disrupts normal operations, and the amount of revenue lost per unit time due to the failure. These factors both depend on the equipment and application(s) affected. RTO is measured in time units ranging from seconds up to days and is an important consideration in any disaster recovery plan. Disaster Recovery considerations In addition to making certain that both your hardware and infrastructure meet the minimum requirement for the successful deployment of an ERP upgrade, you also need to address the broader issue of your organisation’s attitude to risk. Specifically, has your organisation clearly defined what is acceptable in terms of system loss and downtime? When considering this, you must factor in: What is the acceptable Recovery Point Objective (RPO*) for critical business data? How long can critical systems be unavailable? Recovery Time Objective (RTO**). Backup and disaster recovery points to consider: If there is a system failure or ‘disaster’, what are the options for rebuilding the system and recovering data? What elements of the system are replicated (if any), and how are they replicated? How frequently is data replicated and what is the methodology? Is it onsite or off site? How reliable and secure is this methodology? How quickly and how far back can data be restored? If it’s only the data that’s replicated, what are the implications if a critical server fails, and how does that impact your RTO? What is the hardware provider’s response time, and what are the guarantees for getting engineers onsite with replacement parts? Following hardware failure, are system rebuilds reliant on the close cooperation between the ERP software provider and the hardware engineers? What is the true cost to the business of system downtime – such as the loss of productivity, time required to “catch up” and staff overtime, and has it been discussed at Board level? If you would like help in answering any questions you might have regarding ERP upgrades or you would like to discuss related hardware, infrastructure and backup & recovery considerations call us at ASL on 0345 862 0350.

Why book an onsite IT survey?

How does an onsite IT survey improve and protect your business? For all businesses, a thorough IT site survey/assessment offers a means to appraise the current health of IT systems and assess potential future vulnerabilities. It delivers an overview of how your current technology is helping or hindering your core business efficiency and productivity. It incorporates systems and network performance reviews, software audits, technical reviews and risk management. Does your company need an IT health check? Evaluating the health of your IT environment is necessary in order to work out its vulnerabilities, and mitigate future risk. The ultimate goal of an IT assessment is to identify areas where improvements can be made that will; increase efficiency, decrease cost and reduce risk. By bringing in a ASL specialist IT assessor to identify your systems strengths and weaknesses, you are enabled to develop a blueprint to improve your technology and security. We help you to work out: The effectiveness of your technology in supporting your overall business goals. The steps you need to take to improve your overall IT environment. How to plan for an unexpected disaster. We attend site to review your: network servers and end user devices software infrastructure backup, recovery and business continuity plan What can you expect from our onsite IT assessment? After an in-depth analysis we are able to assess any weaknesses, and then come up with a plan to upgrade and improve efficiency, security and availability. We can ensure you have the right technology in place to run your business at optimum efficiency. Software issues – we can evaluate your existing software and advise on vulnerabilities, software updates, licensing issues and necessary upgrades. Security issues – we can review your security measures to ensure your data and systems are protected and safe from attack. Backup and recovery issues – we can ensure your business has IT continuity. We can devise and implement an IT disaster strategy to ensure your business can keep on running – no matter what happens to your hardware, software or vital business data resources. Network issues – we can analyse your network, leading to recommendations and the implementation of network changes to ensure your IT network is fast, resilient, free from bottlenecks and fully monitored. Hardware issues – we can identify where hardware is under specified or vulnerable to future failure or overloading. Booking an onsite IT assessment. If your business is in need of an IT assessment, contact us at ASL. Call us to discuss your requirements, and find out how we can help you discover your IT issues before they strike and lead to disaster. Call 0345 862 0350 to book an onsite IT survey.

What IT disasters should you prepare for?

The top 5 causes of IT disaster – is your business prepared? For most, the word disaster recovery conjures up images of environmental catastrophes such as earthquakes or flood, however for those businesses that have experienced an IT disaster, the reality is often far more mundane but as easily catastrophic in nature. If you’re thinking – I don’t need to plan for disaster because I don’t operate my business in a flood area, have fire prevention measures in place, and being in the UK I’m low risk for other natural disasters, think again. You’re only ever one step from disaster, and should the worst happen you need a backup and recovery plan in place to protect your business from loss, BOTH data and financial. What IT disasters should you be preparing for? You’ve ruled out an imminent earthquake and your business is fortunately located 1000s of miles from Tornado Alley, so what are the more likely disasters you will face? Computer virus Today viruses are a common occurrence that can infect or delete mission critical data, the worst of which is Ransomware. An infected machine that remains connected to your network will systematically encrypt all of the network files it has access to, making them useless. Hardware/equipment failure The most common example is the failure of a hard drive in a server. Malicious intent The most obvious perpetrator is a hacker trying to gain access and cause damage. However, not all malicious intent is from the outside, sometimes the damage can come from within. A disgruntled employee can easily delete/corrupt data to cause an IT disaster. Environmental catastrophe IT disasters can be caused by natural events such as flood; however, they can easily be caused by structural failures within the office environment. For example, a water leak from pipes above or next to where your servers are located, can easily lead to disaster. Human error Humans make mistakes, from overwriting critical files to deleting sensitive data. By regularly backing up your data and having a recovery plan in place, you can protect yourself from disaster. Can you afford downtime and financial loss? NO? Contact us at ASL for no-obligation backup and disaster recovery advice 0345 862 0350 How can you prevent permanent critical data loss? Most businesses are at risk of experiencing some form of IT disaster. The obvious thing therefore is to take the threat seriously, and plan what to do when it happens. By assessing likely risks and considering every eventuality, you can take control. Knowing what might happen can help you to plan how best to restore your critical data and services, to keep your business up and running. For advice on disaster recovery contact us at ASL. Can you afford not to have a backup and recovery plan? Any business that has experienced a disaster, will tell you that the cost and losses incurred by not having a plan in place, were far more than the cost of developing and implementing one. Downtime equals losing time, money AND customers, and this is something that no business can afford. The simple fact is customers are fickle and vote with their feet, and most businesses that experience extended outages and downtime lose custom. After all, why deal with a business that has production issues or can’t access your data, when you can go elsewhere? If disaster has already struck and you need to prevent it ever happening again, or you’re concerned about what could happen if you lost critical data, then contact us at ASL on 0345 862 0350. About ASL Disaster Recovery Services. For over 20 years we have been a specialist disaster recovery provider for SMEs across the UK. We have the expertise you need to implement a disaster and recovery solution that minimises business disruption and financial loss through downtime. ASL keeps UK businesses up and running 24/7/365. Find out more about our disaster recovery service by calling 0345 862 0350.

Why should a backup and disaster recovery plan be your top priority?

Creating a backup and disaster recovery strategy to protect your business from loss. With a solid backup and disaster recovery plan in place, your business can be protected from significant operational downtime. Planning against outages is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. With the right plan in place, you can significantly limit the financial losses that can be incurred through downtime. While the term disaster recovery might conjure images of natural disasters such as fire and flood, there are many more mundane events that you need to consider and protect yourself against, such as: Machine and hardware failure No business is entirely immune to hardware failure. Having a disaster recovery plan in place ensures that your business does not suffer interruption or data loss. By outsourcing your data backup and recovery, you can protect yourself from financial losses caused by major service interruption and downtime. Human error Humans make mistakes and are a weak link that can cause data to be lost, or incorrect data to be entered. With a disaster recovery plan a series of incremental online data backups can be made, to enable files to be quickly and easily be restored in an error-free state. Service outage Today’s customers are very demanding, and in all sectors competition is fierce. It’s vital to ensure that you safeguard against downtime and interruptions to service, because if customers can get a better service elsewhere they will. It takes a lot to earn customer loyalty, and IT disasters such as data loss or extended outage of service can quickly erode their trust. IT disasters are unacceptable to customers, and therefore it’s better to protect against this happening, rather than dealing with it after it has. ASL disaster recovery solutions All businesses are vulnerable to IT disasters, but by ensuring your data is backed up, protected and can be quickly recovered, you can keep your business up and running without significant service interruption. At ASL we are an enterprise-class backup and recovery service provider. For well over 20 years we have been keeping SMEs around the UK operating ‘business as usual’. We ensure that systems and data are rapidly restored to keep our customers doing what they do best, which is running their business. We formulate backup and disaster recovery plans to minimise service disruption, to limit the financial losses that can be incurred through downtime and outages. Reasons to outsource your backup and DRP to us: By outsourcing to us you can guarantee your business is fully prepared for disaster, we help you to ensure business continuity. We provide: virtualisation through the complete offsite replication of systems and data latest servers/hardware for disaster recovery at our secure datacentre unlimited restore capabilities scaling up and down of storage capacity as needed near-real-time daily backups increased flexibility improved performance access to engineers 24/7/365. We enable you to reduce your costs on backup software, license fees, hardware updates and man-hours wasted backing up. We free you to concentrate on running your business. For more details on the disaster backup and recovery service we provide, call us on 0345 862 0350

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