Looking for the perfect home computing or electronic gift?  Here’s a  selection of Insight’s best Christmas technology gadget and gift ideas…and spend online until 10th December for your chance to win a LG 26″ LCD TV

Games Consoles from £117 – All the latest must-have Games Consoles including Sony Playstation 3, Sony PSP’s, Nintendo Wii, Ninendo DSI, and Microsoft XBOX Elite – Have fun this Christmas! View Game Console Deals

Laptops & Netbooks from £199 – Choose from the latest technology Laptops and Netbooks from Sony, HP, Lenovo, Apple and more! From the ultra-portable and lightweight HP Mini 110c to the powerful Apple MacBook Pro there is something to suit all requirements and budgets! View Laptop Deals

Gadgets from £5.99 – Love the latest Gadgets?  Insight has a great selection of webcams, digital books, satellite navigation systems, smartphones, digital photo frames and much more! View Gadgets

LCD TV’s from £167 – Keep the whole family entertained this Christmas with the latest HD Widescreen LCD TV’s from Samsung, LG & more! View Deals

Digital Cameras & Camcorders from £69 – Ultra slim with the latest  scene and face detection technology, Insight has hundreds of digital camera’s and camcorders to choose from! 10 – 14 megapixel cameras, many with free memory cards, batteries and camera cases. View Camera & Camcorder Deals

Christmas Bundles from £16.99 – Get everything you need to accessories your Laptop or Netbook with fantastic notebook accessory bundles which include keyboards, mice and notebook cases! View Bundle Deals

iPods Digital Players from £40 – Whatever your style choose from our great selection of Apple iPod’s including Shuffles, Touch, Nano & the iPod Classic! Flash based storage up to 16GB and available in a variety of colours  View iPod Deals

Printers from £31 -All in one, colour inkjets, colour laser and photo printers from top brands including HP, Canon & Epson, some with great cash back offers and free ink bundles! View printer deals

DVD and Blu-Ray Players from £33 – Great deals on the latest Blu-Ray players, dvd players & recorders and portable DVD players from Sony, Toshiba & Panasonic. View DVD & Blu Ray Deals

View all Christmas Deals

Keith Bates, Chairman of ESG answers your SaaS questions..

With Software as a Service (SaaS) and similar managed IT models continuing to gain momentum and more and more potential services and suppliers looking to capitalise, telling the men from the boys can be difficult. Keith Bates, Chairman of managed services provider, ESG, suggests 10 key questions to ask potential providers – and their suppliers – before you sign up.

Datacentre location?

Datacentre costs vary hugely, so it’s important to understand rack space and connectivity costs. In Docklands, for example, rack space cost is high but connectivity is widely available at competitive rates. Alternative locations may offer less expensive rack space but more limited connectivity options, which may prove more expensive and may limit key resilience requirements, such as SAN replication.

How easy is it to move between datacentres?

If opting for an ISP-provided datacentre, beware being tied to a specific IP address range – it can be expensive and complex to provision a new range of addresses. ‘Carrier-free’ datacentres that support connectivity from a variety of telcos offer much greater flexibility.

How secure is the data?

Third party datacentres tend to offer far greater levels of data security than on-premise systems – with well ventilated, well fireproofed facilities secured with multi-factor, leading-edge security technologies. Look for ISO270001 data security standard accreditation and providers willing to submit to penetration tests.

How long will data be saved?

Do your homework on your legal and regulatory responsibilities as regards data retention – remember, you remain ultimately responsible for your data – and look for secure, flexible solutions to suit.

Is hosting really an option for smaller organisations?

Cloud-based ‘white label’ solutions can give you access to the kind of technology infrastructure a FTSE 100 company would aspire to achieve and put an organisation on a far broader competitive plain.

Are all your datacentres virtualised?

Most datacentres are still based on physical solutions – upgrades need planning and are expensive. Virtual technology enables providers to offer upgrades overnight, as required, critical if your need demands a solution that can scale up flexibly. Look also for providers able to migrate your service between datacentres, without interruption, as required.

Virtual datacentres also enable just the data to be mirrored to a secondary site rather than replicating the entire environment.

How resilient is the Disaster Recovery (DR) strategy?

Look for providers offering regular DR rehearsal options. Be wary of inter-ISP agreements that can mean connectivity purchased from different providers actually comes from one source, undermining resilience. Look for providers with

‘RIPE’ accreditation to demonstrate IP-Address and connectivity independence.

Are all datacentre contracts on auto-renewal?

Look out for the auto-renew contract that allows cancellation only in the last quarter of what is typically a three-year deal. Failure to cancel during that period can result in the organisation finding itself committed to a contract extension.

Why is the application not performing?

Connectivity is key here. Look for a free performance test before signing up and consider a ‘one stop shop’ option to avoid the datacentre and comms providers passing the buck between one another.

What about design? DO SaaS applications need to be designed differently?

Specialist cloud computing networking and software expertise can transform application performance. To double-check a provider’s capabilities, ask about the availability of contractual ‘get-out’ for non-performance.

Confessedly never the most sparkling of the stars in the data management firmament, Backup has tired of its dowdy reputation just lately and decided to go all webby and onlinified. We asked Brett Raynes MD at Backup Direct to talk us through the makeover

Online who?
Online backup – also commonly referred to as Internet backup, remote backup, or web-based backup – is pretty much what it says on the tin.

It is a data backup process that involves tranferring your files and folders over the Internet for storage in a secure offsite datacentre or datacentres rather than on traditional onsite storage media.

Ok, so what’s in it for me?
Looking after corporate information has always been a key part of business operations – from the days of handwritten books to the era of filing cabinet, to early mainframe and tape systems – and these days that means backing it up and securing it on a regular basis. Online backup is a natural evolutionary step forward – especially from tape-based storage – and has multiple advantages.

Compared to the monotony of tape-based backup processes, online backup tends to be cheaper, faster, more streamlined, more efficient and, probably most crucially of all from a business-case perspective, it’s automated. Let’s face it, there’s nearly always something else most of us would rather be doing – like watching vinyl matt drying – than manually backing up our data.

How does it work exactly? Do I have to back all my data up or can I pick and choose?
Like the man said, it’s basically as simple as choosing the data you want to backup and then securely transferring the files in question to the specified secure datacentre across the Internet via a software interface. Just select the documents or apps you want to backup – you can backup your whole hard drive or just the odd file or folder and fire away.

But I’ve already got a backup solution, why do I need a new one? And why online?
Backup – especially tape-based backup – is to varying degrees a manual process carried ouit by a particular individual at regular intervals. This isn’t perceived as an issue for many businesses; that’s what you pay your IT department for right?

Well, not necessarily. What if the process isn’t, for some reason, being carried out sufficiently regularly or reliably? What if the backup administrator goes off sick or on holiday? What if they really ought to be doing something more productive or mission critical? What if, like lots of smaller businesses, you don’t have a dedicated backup specialist and instead rely on someone somewhere finding the time once in a blue moon?

Online backup, in comparison, can be set as an automated process, taking the hassle out of the procedure and making sure the responsibility doesn’t lie at any one person’s door.

What about security? Isn’t my data at major risk out there in the er, “Cloud”?
This is fast becoming one of technology’s great myths. There is a certain amount of stigma attached to the word “cloud” but it really isn’t as though your data is “floating around” in the ether somewhere. In fact, if you’ve ever sent an email or used Internet banking you’ve used the “cloud”.

You must, of course, shop around, but with most online backup solutions the data is encrypted before it’s sent, while it’s in transit, and after it arrives. Typically it is also stored in two (or sometimes more) monitored, controlled locations. Nobody but the owner – who holds the required encryption key – will ever be able to see that data in its original form.

Another myth is that data is somehow more intrinsically secure if it’s onsite and you can “see” and “touch” it. Keeping it onsite doesn’t make it secure. Tape, for instance, is rarely kept encrypted, is often left unattended, and is always vulnerable to things like fire or water damage too.

Ok, but can it dovetail with my existing disaster recovery and business continuity processes?
It can better than dovetail, it can become an integral part of it. Some online backup solutions backup not only your data, but all your systems, applications, and key processes – everything. So in the event of a disaster, there’s no need to reinstall each and every individual application and driver, Just boot up the new server, stream the data back, and you’re ready to go.

In some cases you can even remote onto the host backup server and carry on working regardless of wwhat may have happened to your infrastructure.

In other words, should the office say, get flattened by Godzilla or a stray ICBM, you can keep working (and keep the business running) from home or anywhere else you like.

And, come to that, what about my wider storage management processes?
In essence, online backup is a guarantee that data will be retrievable for many years to come. Buy a new tape drive or server and there’s no guarantee it’ll be compatible with legacy equipment. Few businesses see this as an issue, but such compatibility problems happen regularly. Online backup has no such constraints – how and where the data is stored is incidental. It’s always there and it’s always available.

Sounds a bit too good to be true… What’s the downside? What are the caveats?
Online backup – also commonly referred to as Internet backup, remote backup, or web-based backup – is pretty much what it says on the tin.

It is a data backup process that involves transferring your files and folders over the Internet for storage in a secure offsite datacentre or datacentres rather than on traditional onsite storage media.

The offsite datacentres central to the idea of online backup are, typically managed by a third-party, often offering users a range of complementary services.

The provision of employee benefits is an area given much consideration by organisations of all sizes from business to lifestyle related benefits such as pension plans or gym memberships. If your organisation offers these, have you considered providing an Employee Purchase Programme (EPP) for IT products?

Insight offers an EPP facilitating discounts on products from the worlds-leading manufacturers including HP, IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Acer, Toshiba, Canon and Adobe providing the following benefits to employees and your organisation alike.

MANAGED BY INSIGHT
Insight will manage and administrate the entire EPP on your behalf – no costs will be incurred by your organisation. We will offer online and phone support for purchases and assist you in marketing the EPP effectively to your workforce

EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER BENEFITS
Access to IT at home provides a tangible benefit to your company in terms of improved employee skill base. Insight will be happy to guide through this process should you wish to evaluate the benefits

SPECIAL PRICING LEVELS
Employee’s benefit from a competitive pricing structure based on a cost + % model. The products and their pricing will be checked monthly against other retail-based web sites to ensure that your employees obtain the best prices available

BESPOKE WEBSITE
Your EPP will be hosted on ‘MyInsight’ a web page designed specifically for your organisation. Employees are able to set up their own credit card account and purchase products at special pricing levels. The site is completely secure so all employees can order with confidence

SELECTED IT PRODUCTS
Insight will select a variety of top-selling, home computing products including hardware, software and supplies offered at discounted EPP prices. We have EDI links to all major suppliers ensuring comprehensive geographical coverage through 26 distribution points and offering £400m of stock availability to your employees available for next day delivery

CAPABILITY
Insight is a proven, dependable and capable supplier to 80,000 UK businesses and manages EPP’s for corporate, SMB and Public Sector organisations. Insight has cultivated the right blend of people and technology to deliver a consistently high quality of service to your employees

For further information regarding EPP’s or arrange a site visit to see your bespoke website demonstrated please contact us on 0800 333 333

Insight Direct continues to strengthen its presence in the UK market by announcing its partnership with Ciao, Europe’s leading shopping and consumer website.

The agreement will integrate Insight in the UK’s shopping portal www.ciao.co.uk offering a competitive range of computers, hardware and software as well as services ranging from basic configuration to advanced design implementation and financing.

Ciao customers will enjoy Insight’s enhanced technical and product support, preferential pricing, stock availability, leading brand names and the latest technology.

“We bring together expert knowledge, vendor accreditations and a full global presence, all with the aim of acting as the Trusted IT Advisor. We believe that through this partnership and Ciao’s strong distribution network, we will increase our revenue as well as reaching a lot of IT buyers in the market, said Bee Patel, PR and Marketing Manager of Insight.

There is also an exclusive introductory discount offer available to Ciao customers during November, further information can be found at: http://www.ciao.co.uk/ and https://www.uk.insight.com/