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How to recover your G Suite?

May 18, 2015/in Cloud to cloud backup Solutions, CloudAlly, Gmail /by Avi Katz

Lost and found part 2: How to recover your Gmail/Google Apps drive, contacts and calendar.

This is our 2nd article on how to recover lost online data on Gmail/Google Apps. On the 1st part of “Lost and found” we discussed recovering lost Gmail/Google app emails. In this second and last part we will explain how to recover lost online data in your Drive, lost contacts and deleted calendar events.

Let’s get to it!

As before – first ask your self: When did you delete it? If it hasn’t been that long (no more than 30 days) follow the next instructions.

How To Recover Gmail Contacts

Google has a built-in system that saves older versions of contacts for some time to help recover any contact data that is lost accidentally. Here is how you can use this feature to recover your Google contacts.

Step 1: Click on “Gmail” in the top left corner of the window, then select “Contacts” in the drop down menu that appears.

Step 2: On the Google Contacts page, click on the “More” button on the top left part of the screen, and select “Restore Contacts” from the dropdown menu.

Your recently deleted contact data should be restored under a new group with the current date as the title. However, Google deletes Contacts’ data as well after 30 days, so make sure you recover contacts sooner, rather than later.

How To Recover a Deleted Calendar Event

If you accidentally delete an event, you may not be able to recover all your details, but can retrieve some information through an XML feed.

Step 1: Click on the Undo option right on top that appears as soon as you delete an event. It stays there for a few moments so you need to be quick about it, otherwise, you’ll have to recreate the calendar event.

Step 2: If you missed undo link, look for any invitations you might have sent for that event in your Gmail’s Sent folder.

If you can’t find any invitations, you’ll have to recover the data the hard way. If you’re not well versed with Google Apps or aren’t an apps administrator, it would be better to simply recreate the event.

How To Find Calendar’s Public XML Feed

Step 1: Change your domain’s calendar sharing settings in the Google Admin console to Share all information, and outsiders cannot modify calendars.

Step 2: In the list on the left, click on the drop down option of your calendar, and select calendar settings.

Step 3: Scroll down until you see Private Address column with two sections, XML, and ICAL. Click on XML.

Step 4: You should see a popup with a URL on it. Click it.

Step 5: Once clicked, add the string “?showdeleted=true&showhidden=true” to the end of URL in your browser’s address bar. You should see an XML feed with all the event details in your calendar, including the ones you just deleted.

You can see limited information about your events such as a brief description and the event title, but the invited guests’ information isn’t recoverable though.

How To Recover Deleted Files from Google Drive

Step 1: Go to your Google Drive and click on the Trash option on the left.

Step 2: Once there, select the file you want to recover and click the “Restore” button.

Step 3: In case you can’t find the files there, go to the Google Admin console and navigate to the users section.

Step 4: Find the user in the list, and then go to their account page. Once there, click on the three vertical dots on the top left corner, then select “Restore Data” in the drop down menu.

Step 5: Select the date range for when you deleted the files, and check the box for Google Drive files, then click Restore. That should do it.

If you are a Google apps user, ask your admin to recover your data. Google Apps admins can recover data from the prior 25 days.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that lost Google App data (Drive, Contacts, Calendar) you were looking for, then you must have deleted it over a month ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Google automatically erases it after 30 days.

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted data, even though it was permanently erased by Google:

Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Google account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the data type (email/drive/calendar/contacts) and date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered data to your account or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost online with CloudAlly automated backups for Google Apps. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more on “How to backup Google Apps” Here.

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How to recover Gmail/Google Apps?

May 5, 2015/in G Suite Solutions, Gmail /by Avi Katz

Lost and found part 1: How to recover your Gmail/Google Apps email?

You have thousands of emails in your Gmail inbox, which you deleted because you didn’t want to bother sorting through them all. Sounds familiar? I’m sure it does. We get so many emails each day, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it, so we simply erase what we think we don’t need. So lets discuss: how to recover your Gmail/Google Apps email?

One day, you are looking for an important email and you just can’t find it. Suddenly, you realize that you probably deleted it, and end up scratching your head with panic, wondering how you can recover that data!

So – don’t panic we’re here to explain how you can recover your lost emails.

First is first: Ask your self, when did you delete it? if it hasn’t been that long (no more than 30 days) follow the next steps:

Step 1: Type in the keyword, preferably a long-tail one, related to your email in the search box.

In order to find and recover lost emails, you need to know some relevant keywords related to those emails, as with the dates they were sent or received. This will help narrow down the search.

Step 2: If you don’t find the email you’re looking for, scroll down to the bottom and look for the deleted message link.

Step 3: Click on “View It” and it will show you all the messages related to your keyword in the trash

Step 4: If you’ve found the email you were looking for, make sure you move it to the inbox as Google automatically empties the trash folder, after 30 days.

All you need to do is click on the check box for the email, and then click the “Move to Inbox” button. You can also go directly to the Trash folder to search for and move emails to the inbox.

Step 5: If you still didn’t find what you’re looking for, click on the spam folder on the left-hand side of Gmail and search with the same keyword in that folder.

Step 6: If you find the email you were searching for, make sure you click on the corresponding checkbox and mark it “Not Spam” to move it back to the inbox.

Step 7: If you still can’t find the email, try looking through your custom labels, if you’ve created any. If you still can’t find it, chances are, your email was deleted by Google permanently.

If you are a Google apps user, ask your admin to recover your data. Google Apps admins can recover data from the prior 25 days.

If you took all the actions above and still can’t find that email you were looking for, then you must have deleted your email over a month ago, and them you can’t recover it, since Google automatically erases it after 30 days.

If you are using CloudAlly, then you can easily recover your deleted email, even though it was permanently erased by Google:

step 8: Recover your deleted email with CloudAlly

a. Log in to your account in CloudAlly dashboard

b. Go to the Google account you would like to restore and click on it

c. Search for the email/date you want to recover

d. Click on restore/export

c. Get your recovered email to your inbox or desktop

It’s really simple and easy to restore lost emails with CloudAlly automated backups for Google Apps. Next time, if you are using CloudAlly, you can skip all those steps, log in to CloudAlly and recover your lost data. As simple as a click.

Read more on “How to backup Google Apps” Here.

Read the second part of how to recover Google Apps: Deleted Contacts, Calendar and Google Drive!

Backup strategy for business continuity

April 24, 2015/in Cloud to cloud backup Solutions /by Avi Katz

Backup strategy for your business continuity

The importance of backing up your data dates back to the earliest days of technology. Yet you might be surprised to learn that, according to the World Backup Day Website, even in our technology and gadget-driven world, about 30% of people have NEVER backed up their data. Sure, that number probably includes some of us who want to backup our data and simply don’t know how, but it also most definitely includes a large percentage of individuals and small-to-medium size businesses who simply don’t understand why backing up their data is necessary! Perhaps they see backups as something more suitable for the accident-prone, the forgetful and the technically challenged. What is your IT backup strategy for your business continuity?

But data loss is much more common than you think.

According to the World Backup Day Website:

29% of backup-related disasters are caused by accident
Over 100 phones are lost or stolen every day
1 in 10 computers are infected with viruses every month

Here at CloudAlly, we also know that over 45% of data loss is caused due to user deletion. Let’s face it – those are some scary statistics! Even the most responsible, organized and tech-savvy among us could, in an instant, find ourselves without access to some of our most valuable digital media and critical online data. Even if we are able to piece together some of our information from the USB stick attached to our keys or an old email account, the restoration process of our data is often incredibly time-consuming and expensive. At the end of the day most are left with extensive amounts of data that is lost forever.

And yes, we really do mean FOREVER. In today’s world, service providers promise comprehensive data backup that the majority of users consider more than enough. What these individuals don’t take into consideration is all the scenarios in which they accidentally delete data, inadvertently download a computer virus, or have their phone stolen – resulting in the loss of data that no service providers or app developers can account for in their data backup policies.

The bottom-line: Backing up your data not just a recommendation, it’s a requirement. And it needs to be done in an active, comprehensive manner that enables you to quickly and easily restore all of your data, no matter what.

Now that we’ve established that data backup is a must, it’s time we provide an overview of how to backup your data: All the options you have for backing up your data and the pros and cons of each of these options.

While there are a vast number of companies and services operating in this field, data backup services generally fall into one of three categories: (1) On-Premises Backup, (2) Cloud-based Backup and (3) Cloud-to-Cloud Backup.

On – Premises Backup

An On-Premises Backup keeps a updated version of your data on a local server or external drive. The mains benefits of these types of data backup solutions include:

Maintaining complete control over all the data and related systems,
Ensuring that all corporate data is stored and handled internally
Dedicated IT staff can remain in charge of maintenance and support
The initial investment may be somewhat high (relative to cloud-based and cloud-to-cloud services) but it can be a more cost-efficient option in the long-term.

While those are some pretty convincing advantages, there are significant disadvantages that accompany on-premises backup solutions. For example, the main reasons small and medium size companies (SMBs) tend to shy away from on-premises backup plans is that they require significant in-house technical know-how, as well ongoing resources to build and maintain both the backup server infrastructure and the personnel needed to manage it. That’s why today many SMB’s tend to lean towards Cloud-based and Cloud-to-Cloud services.

Cloud – Backup

Over the past decade, Cloud-backup services have been extremely popular and accessible for both individuals and enterprises. From our experience, in the case of cloud-backup solutions there are multiple silver linings:

Easy access – Cloud backup technology approaches are convenient because the information can be easily accessed, shared, managed and retrieved. It doesn’t hurt that the service provider also takes on around-the-clock monitoring and reporting responsibilities that a small business would not find affordable within on-premises backup solutions.
Reliability – The built-in security features that accompany such services are of great value, particularly to SMBs. Such services generally include the relinquishing of responsibility for infrastructure and technology upgrades, which are often a significant burden for small businesses.
Cost-Effective and Scalable – Organizations can leverage the unlimited scalability of a third-party cloud backup solutions without investing upfront in infrastructure. With the popularity of pay-as-you-go models in this field, SMBs can significantly reduce the resources allocated for backup infrastructure and IT staff, and simultaneously plan for the costs that would accompany organizational capacity growth.
Quick Recovery Times – File recovery from cloud storage is generally faster than on-premises backups, and obviously doesn’t require being in a specific location in order to successfully recover and access your data.

While Cloud backup certainly has it’s perks, like any technology it also has its disadvantages. For example:

Original Backups and Full-Restorations can be Time-Consuming – Depending on the amount of data you and/or your company needs to backup, the first full backup and/or full recovery could prove to be quite time-consuming and negatively impact organizational activities while these backups/restorations are taking place.
Size matters – Organizations will have to take into account both the amount of data that needs to be transferred to the cloud on a daily basis and the amount of bandwidth available to complete this transfer. With companies that have extensive data, these limitations may be significant in the framework of their data backup strategy.
No Guarantees – While cloud-based backup services are generally extremely reliable, there are certain elements like the availability of bandwidth that is simply not in the provider’s control. As such they cannot provide service-level agreements (SLAs) and their services are accompanied by a certain level of risk.

Cloud – to -Cloud Backup

Last but certainly not least are Cloud-to-Cloud Backup Services like CloudAlly. As more and more of our business activities and interactions occur online, we continually increase the value of all of our online data. With an ever-growing global economy, it’s no surprise that cloud-based applications such as Office 365, Google Apps and Salesforce have become the optimal answer to the needs of SMBs and Enterprise worldwide. While these services do come with certain security features, they are simply NOT built for providing the comprehensive protection against the most likely culprit: ourselves. Time and time again, we’ve seen that simple, accidental human errors can result in the loss of essential business data. We mess up, it happens. Cloud-to-Cloud Backups are specifically designed to protect us from turning those “oops” moments into more serious data-loss disasters. Clear benefits include:

Take Control – Whether you want to secure online data for your whole team or only selected users within your organization, Cloud-to-Cloud services offer quick, easy and customizable automated backup service. With only a few clicks, you can choose the archive location, backup times and frequencies that work best for you and your team.
Put Safety First – Cloud-to-Cloud backup services can implement internal controls and audits such that you can remain compliant with any and all data privacy requirements.
Quickly Backed Up, Quickly Restored – Cloud-to-Cloud backups excel in keeping files that have been accidentally deleted easily accessible. Within minutes you can find, restore and export archived data from any point in time.
Data with Unlimited Lives – No need to worry about lost or corrupted data. Whether someone inadvertently deleted a file or a virus took over your email account, cloud-to-cloud daily backup services ensure your data is not only retained, but that it remains intact and ready for use, whenever you need it.
It’s All Yours – In our dynamic global environment, your past, current and future employees are located all across the world, weaving in and out of a variety of employment opportunities. Their constant creation of new data needs to be managed and monitored to ensure that these essential company assets stay accessible to your and your team. Cloud-to-Cloud backups provide you with the control you need to retain this data stays and easily move it from one user to another.
Cost-effective Solutions – IT managers are often working with limited budgets, and are all about being as efficient as possible. The in-depth monitoring features you can access through Cloud-to-Cloud backup services make it easy to delete inactive accounts without deleting the accompanying data they generated, and simultaneously cut licensing costs and storage fees associated with these inactive accounts.

So that’s the low-down on how to backup your data. Perhaps we’re partial, but from where we stand, Cloud-to-Cloud backup services have proven time and again that they are able to provide the most comprehensive solutions without compromising on standards for safety, security or simplicity. If you want to learn more about what causes to data loss in the cloud, and how to prevent it , download our free overview.

Why Backup Online Data - FREE overview

Download our FREE overview on data loss in the cloud: what causes it and what you MUST do to prevent it.

Cloud Backup Infographics Roundup

March 24, 2015/in Cloud to cloud backup Solutions, CloudAlly, Data loss in the cloud /by Avi Katz

According to a forecast by Computerworld, 42 percent IT leaders plan to invest more on cloud computing this year. There will be an 11 percent shift of IT budget toward various cloud computing versions as a new delivery model by 2016, as per IDC predictions. That’s an impressive statistic and proof of how shiny the future of cloud is.

While the majority of enterprises plan to embrace or use cloud more, they often underrate the security part. What if the data stored in the cloud gets lost due to some virus attack, phishing, or accidental deletion. How can it be recovered? An inevitable solution to prevent data loss is back up.

In this article we are going to list the top 10 infographics that will help visualize why backups are important – be it a cloud or a cloud-to-cloud network, how it evolved, and where it stands now. Let’s get rolling then.

1. What Can Cause Data Loss?

Before, we talk about backup; we should talk about what causes data loss; viruses, phishing scams, hacking, or something else? Here is a detailed infographic about that.

2. How Data Loss Could Be Deadly for a Business

Here is an informative infographic from DSS Datacenter that depicts what data loss could cost a business. It has some shocking data loss statistics that will convince any business to implement cloud backup today.

3. Evolution of Backups

To protect a business from data loss, backups are crucial, but what brought around the concept in the first place, and how did it evolve? This infographic from Axcient explains.

4. Women Are More Unlikely to Backup Their Data Than Men – Seagate Study

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and Seagate, 30 percent of the women that participated in the survey acknowledged that they do not back up their data at all! Curious about what men do? Here is an interesting infographic with more information.

5. What Can Cloud Backup Do for You?

An excellent infographic and a revelation for companies that are unsure about whether they need a cloud backup solution, and how it can influence their business, by Acronis.

6. Why Companies Are Moving to Cloud Backup Solutions

Cloud backup solutions play a significant role in a company’s data recovery strategy and an increasing number of businesses have started realizing this as of late. So, why is cloud backup the toast of the town? This infographic from CloudBacko explains.

7. How to Ensure Business Continuity With Cloud Backup

Business continuity is crucial for every enterprise. Wondering how cloud backup solutions can help ensure zero downtime?

8. Is Backup Reliable?

By now, it is clear that data recovery and backup solutions are important and can’t be ignored. However, are they reliable enough so that businesses can focus on their core needs without worrying about data loss anymore? Here is an interesting infographic from Kroll On track on what you need to know.

9. The CIO’s Essential Checklist for Cloud Backup

Cloud storage and backup can bring elasticity and agility but it is critically important for CIOs to address the basics of cloud backup first, including access control, availability, data encryption, and uptime. Druva made this job easier with an excellent security checklist for CIOs.

10. Look for a Cloud pro, Not a Poser

Many cloud solution providers claim to have a stolid security system that is ideal for securing enterprise data, but the fact is, they don’t have adequate knowledge and experience required and like other industries, they are self-claimed gurus. How can a business identify the posers? Here is an interesting infographic from Autotask that can help distinguish the good from the bad.

There are many other infographics on Cloud Backup, these were our top 10 favorite ones. The awareness to Cloud Backup is enormous by now, every business has a backup, and if they didn’t migrate it to the cloud yet – they are probably considering it. What about Cloud To Cloud Backup? Do you know you must also backup your SaaS applications? If you are not familiar with it, you should read our overview “Why Backup Online Data” and learn why we all need to backup online data (YES! although it’s already in the cloud) before it’s too late.

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Anthem Security Breach – A Wake Up Call

February 8, 2015/in Cloud to cloud backup Solutions, CloudAlly, Data loss in the cloud, G Suite Solutions, Salesforce Backup Solution /by Avi Katz

Healthcare Security Breach

The security breach at Anthem is the largest health care breach to date as pointed out by Mandiant, and we believe it’s in the top 5 security breaches of all times across any industry. This and recent breaches such as Home Depot and of course Sony Pictures Entertainment, is a clear sign that even companies with extremely robust IT infrastructure are at risk of potential attacks and malicious destruction or theft of personal data, especially for healthcare security breach.

Health care data is extremely sensitive and the issue of protection is already very important and governed under HIPAA rules. The fact that so many dollars have already been invested in HIPAA compliance are proof that protecting this data has been taken very seriously. But keep in mind that today’s attack was not about health care or financial information, it was clearly aimed at getting personal data. We believe the big story here is that this represents 80 million potential identify thefts.

All of the major players including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Samsung have world class IT infrastructure and security systems firmly in place. Apple surely deserves a credit for trying to limit the use of personal information for data mining, but that really addresses the marketing and spam issues, not these types of sophisticated attacks. Unfortunately it’s a never ending battle as new systems and new features will almost always introduce new vulnerabilities that can be exploited by sophisticated hackers.

It’s unlikely that these types of attacks will stop regardless of how tight a security system is, but the key take away is that security is an ongoing process that needs to continually be refined and improved over time. Companies of all sizes need to take security seriously, have the necessary software, people and processes in place, and make sure that each employee understands these processes and their individual role in securing the company’s data. And it’s no longer just companies with large data centers that are at risk. As companies move to cloud based services such as Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce and Box, they need to ensure that the data stored in these services is secure and available for recovery in the event of accidental or malicious destruction of data.

Read CloudAlly’s comment featured on the Fast Company article about the Anthem Breach

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