Author: IT Support

Virtualization and Server Recovery

Paragon Software is putting together a special webinar for IT Professionals, our customers and partners that are looking for more information about virtualization. The number of Virtual Servers and use of Virtual Storage is a growing at a fast pace. Are you looking into virtual infrastructures for your company?

This webinar will be great for IT Professionals of all sizes to get a better understanding of virtualization, how to manage it effectively and what Paragon Software offers as solutions to common pain points.

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Here are the details on how you can register for the free webinar by Paragon Software:

Date: May 3rd 2010 11:00 am PST

Agenda:

  • Explain virtualization as a storage and instant recovery option.

  • Drive Backup overview

  • Adaptive Restore overview

  • P2V operations for backup

  • P2V Copy for instant recovery

In addition to attending the webinar you will be gain access to two special white papers by Paragon that explain the best practices in virtualization, storage and disaster recovery.

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Paragon Partners Make More Money – Partner Training

In appreciation for all of the hard work our partners do promoting and selling Paragon Software, we are running a special promotion to help get their sales people trained on what’s new with the Paragon product line. We have a growing network of resellers and partners that have been bringing Paragon Software solutions into businesses of all sizes. We have been implemented in large data centers like Rackspace and been able to provide disaster recovery solutions to colleges like Washington State University. The company has been growing at such a good rate that we had to acquire new office space to accommodate our sales and support groups.

Our partners are the life blood of the company. Unlike some other companies that claim to be channel centric and still employ a large number of direct sales people, Paragon software has a small team of sales people that leverages our reseller network to manage all of the inbound leads we get and work with our partners on opportunities they bring us into. This special limited time promotion will make sure that the sales people working for our partners are given an  incentive to be trained by giving them extra money on deals they bring to us.

In appreciation for getting trained on a leading disaster recovery and virtualization product line, you will be given a 60% discount on your first order that you bring to Paragon. Regardless if it’s a $500 license of our software or a  $10,000 deal. If you thought 35% margins were great, 60% is amazing!

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Selling Paragon Software 60% Discount to Partners

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Storage Virtualization Helps Alleviate Virtual Server Bottlenecks

Storage virtualization is the new focus for many IT Mangers and CIOs. Paragon Software for the most part has been known for server optimization and disaster recovery in both physical and virtual environments. Our latest technologies have given us an edge in virtualization that none of our competitors have been able to replicate. The unique ability to connect to virtual machines that are dormant allows technicians to access virtual machines in ways never before possible.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Enterprise Storage Forum and got to speak about the virtualization market and what we see happening.

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Compounding the mismatch between server virtualization and storage resources is a tough economy that has brought increased pressure to maximize virtual infrastructures by increasing virtual machine density. This increased density puts additional pressure on an already strained storage infrastructure.

“IT managers are being forced to do more with their existing infrastructures with less resources being made available, and this is forcing them to look for new ways to reallocate free space on their storage to save on hardware,” said Koka Sexton, manager of business development at Paragon Software. “IT managers are learning how to analyze their virtual infrastructures more closely and implement projects of migrating data to lower-performing drives to free resources.”

Some of the key factors in choosing a storage system for a virtual environment, according to Sexton, include ensuring that storage customers possess a complete understanding of the virtual platform that they are planning to implement and that they are sure that the system can scale to meet their needs.

“In general, the more VMs you have on a host, the more NICs you’ll want,” said Sexton. “However, the network workload of these VMs is the biggest influence. For example, if VMs have light workloads, you’ll need fewer NICs; if VMs have heavier workloads, you’ll need more NICs. As a rule, you’ll probably experience other resource bottlenecks before the network becomes an issue on virtual hosts.”

There are many aspects to consider when using virtualization one of the primary things to consider is the ability to scale and use a tool that can be virtual environment independent.

What are the major concerns you have about virtualization?

What do you have to lose? Facebook Contest

It always amazes me to talk to someone that does not backup their computer on a regular basis. Most computers have some sort of factory image that can be used to make your computer look like the day your brought it home but everything you have added, saved and hold dear would be lost. I could go on and on about what I would miss most on my computer if something happened but that would be boring. I wanted to offer our exclusive Facebook readers and fans a chance to win some free backup software so I’m giving away 5 copies of Drive Backup 10 for the best answers to “What do you have to lose?”

Tell us what you have to lose and you could win a copy of Drive Backup 10.

What can’t you live without? If your computer crashed tonight what would be lost? Tell us what the most important information is on your computer and you could win a free copy of Drive Backup.

Three simple ways to get some free backup software:

http://easycaptures.com/fs/uploaded/280/thumbs/5812634334_b.jpg Step #1: Becoma a fan on Facebook and leave your answer there. Join our Facebook page by clicking on the Become a Fan button on the left. 

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Step #2: It pays to share the news. Share this

post with your friends by clicking on the Share button on the left.

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Step #3: In the comments section below, fill in your name, email address, paste the link to your Facebook profile in the URL field and tell us why you’d like to win.

Make sure to enter your real email address so that we can contact you if you win!

Winner have gotten an email. Thank you all for participating.

Andrew Ross
Fletcher Christian
Jay Presley
Andrew Lee
Diana Hill

Reviewed by Tekzilla – Backup and Recovery 10

Many thanks to Patrick Norton and Tekzilla for the great review of our Backup and Recovery 10 software. It’s been a great week of exposure for Paragon Software with the MakeUseOf giveaway coming to an end and now a blurb out of one of the most popular television networks for the internet generation. We are very appreciative!

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“One of the best backup tools available” If Tekzilla says it then you know its true!

Take complete control of your PC’s safety. Based on solid commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon, the new Backup & Recovery 10.1 Free Edition will give you a rich set of features that you can trust.

Smart people backup; Backup & Recovery is smart backup

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Paragon Software Group on Facebook

MakeUseOf Giveaway of NTFS for Mac Software

We were contacted by Makeuseof.com about an upcoming giveaway they were going to hold. They asked if we would be interested handing out some licenses of Paragon’s NTFS for Mac software. Since we are proud of this technology and we are about to release a new version of NTFS for Mac, we jumped at the chance to spread the word. For those of you that work with Macs on a regular basis and are also in a mixed environment of Macs and PCs this is the application that can help.

Break down the barriers between Windows and Mac® OS!

Including the new MacBrowser for Windows, NTFS for Mac® OS X provides a unique complete solution and creates an effective two-way communication channel between Mac® OS X and Windows. Effectively you get two products in one: You can browse contents, read and modify files, copy and create new files and folders on both file systems with both operating systems!

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MakeUseOf had an 11 day give away where each day they handed out a new Mac application to a few lucky readers that posted comments on their Facebook wall. It was a pleasure being apart of the giveaway and I think we will be working together in the future for other promotions with Paragon Software. Thanks again to Jackson and the team at MakeUseOf.com for the opportunity to be apart of your contest.

To the winners, you should receive your software early this week. We have to put your information into our licensing engine and spit them out to you.


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Disaster Recovery in Minutes Using Virtualization

We have been seeing a trend lately with our customers regarding disaster recovery for businesses. Disk imaging is a quicker way to restore than regular file backups. The next trend of backups for businesses are being used along with virtualization technology. With servers being consolidated and migrated into virtual machines, disaster recovery is a very realistic solution and Paragon Software Drive Backup makes this a quick process.

Virtualization is no longer about consolidation. It’s about 24 by 7 by 365 application availability. It’s about simplification. It’s about massively reducing manually intensive tasks. http://storagedecisions.techtarget.com/seminars/storage_virtualization.html

How to Use Virtual Disks for Recovery in Minutes

Disaster Recovery for Servers

Protecting company information is the most important task of an IT Manager. Making sure the servers are up and running is a daily responsibility. In the event of a server crash or other disaster, having a rock solid recovery solution in place is paramount.

Drive Backup 10 Server Backup Solution

Drive Backup 10 Server is the top-level disaster recovery & system migration solution for both physical & virtual Windows® environments. Combining all of Paragon’s latest patented technologies and expertise, our newest version delivers:

  • Increased efficiency to assure business continuity
  • Significant capital cost savings
  • Enhanced IT productivity

Migrate Windows XP to a Win7 Virtual Machine

Upgrading your computers from Windows XP or Windows Vista to the latest Windows 7 operating system was not something Microsoft made very easy to accomplish.

Network World wrote an article about the Seven tips to migrate and manage Windows 7 and make the point that there will be software application issues and migrating to a virtual machine may be a better option.

5. Consider client virtualization.

The release of Windows 7 has companies considering another new technology: virtual desktops. The promise of ease of management and increased security that virtual desktop technology offers could drive customers to consider the technology when they have budget dollars for a PC refresh.

For its part, Microsoft offers two products that take advantage of virtualization and could be considered a means to managing a migration to or ongoing deployment of Windows 7. Microsoft Application Virtualization, the company says, helps reduce downtime for customers by turning Windows applications into “centrally managing virtual services that are delivered to any licensed Windows desktop or laptop.” And Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization allows desktop administrators to create, deliver and centrally manage a virtual Windows XP or 2000 environment (based on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007) and run legacy applications on Windows Vista desktops, the vendor says.

But Microsoft isn’t the only vendor touting virtualization as an option. VMware and Citrix also boast virtual desktop infrastructure and could provide viable alternatives to a full-blown Windows 7 migration, industry watchers say.

“IT managers would be able to go with a virtualization solution as well. If you are doing desktop virtualization, you can deploy your virtual container for the new desktop environment down to each one of the client endpoints. It would be as simple as setting one up and deploying it out to many,” Brasen says. “Microsoft, VMware and Citrix would all have options for customers here.”

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Two of the more useful features are the ability to convert a Paragon image to the .vhd format (which you can mount or run under Windows 7 natively), and the boot manager (which allows you to boot to both your old operating system and Windows 7). Microsoft does provide a free downloadable utility–Disk2vhd–that can copy a partition to .vhd. If you install Window 7 to partition other than the one your current OS resides on, Disk2vhd creates a dual-boot menu for you automatically. Paragon’s versions, however, are a bit slicker.

Paragon Software also has a Virtual Migration software that can simplify the process of moving a server or desktop into a virtual drive on your Windows 7 PC.

From the feedback from our partners, this is the best option when having to migrate applications and data. The alternative of starting from scratch and reinstalling all of your applications.

ChannelWeb 2010 Storage Channel Chief Award

Paragon Software Group (PSG), the technology leader in innovative data security and data management solutions, today announced that Koka Sexton, Manager, Business Development – Americas, has been named a 2010 Channel Chief by Everything Channel’s CRN.  Channel Chiefs are leaders in creating effective channel programs for solution providers and consistently defend, promote and execute effective channel partner programs and strategies.

In his role at Paragon, Sexton focuses on recruiting VAR partners, training Paragon partners on existing and new applications, building a positive partner experience, and implementing best practices for channel success.  He has more than a decade of experience in the channel and has proven his ability to adapt to the changing industry while continuing to build successful channel programs.

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“When I began at Paragon, I was excited to see they already had a channel-centric sales model in place, so I was able to step in and build upon the good work,” remarked Sexton.  “2009 was a tremendous year for Paragon, with the signing of more than 100 new partners and the introduction of many new or updated products, which lead to the growth of the average deal size for our existing partners.  I am extremely honored to receive this award and thank my co-workers and VAR partners for their hard work and support, for without them this success would not have been possible.”