IT NOW

IT NOW is a collection of Fixed Fee services from Gulf Networks - Notebook Now, Backup Now, Hosting and Fixed Fee IT.

News Now is what happened recently - Updated 16 August 2011

A lesson on being prepared for recovery.

A failed notebook can be recovered, right? - Possibly yes, but preparation is key as we found out last weekend.

My neighbour came to me with a failed notebook and he needed access to an application urgently - the disk was fine but the main board had failed after 5 years. "Easy": I said - "we'll take a snapshot of the working disk and run up a hardware independent virtual machine on your new notebook."

Six hours later we eventually had the image running on my notebook (not his as planned) and we learned a lesson that could well mean a saving of thousands to my business customers. - Be prepared for recovery!

Virtualization, snapshots and imaging have opened the world to quick recovery, even with some promises of recovery in just a few minutes. Unless actual recovery is tested there is the potential to run into many unexpected pitfalls.

With traditional backup, the real test is the restore. With imaging, the real test is the recovery and we advise that it should be include it in your standard IT System maintenance.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY:

Dear Uli and Deon, I just wanted to thank you both for the level of service provided to our business by Gulf Networks Limited. As a growing chartered accounting business, we found that your level of service has been excellent over the six years that we have been in operation. The stability of the system that you have implemented – we have not had a major system issue in the six years that we have been in business. The services offered by Gulf Networks and Netactive compliment one another and ensure that our computing and website needs are attended to under one roof. Thank you for making our computer system hassle free.

John Phibbs (Director), Lynch Phibbs Limited