Barracuda launches Software-as-a-Service

Barracuda is expanding on its existing flexible options for businesses to manage their data protection and disaster recovery needs. Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Barracuda’s new SaaS backup option, provides customers with the ability to replicate data from supported cloud environments into Barracuda’s Cloud Storage. Barracuda Backup now provides customers with additional options for long-term data retention and physical-to-virtual portability.

“As IDC’s worldwide unit leader in Integrated Purpose Built Backup Appliances, extending the value we provide to our customers is always our top priority, which includes giving them flexible options for protecting their data and restoring services quickly in the event of a disaster,” said Rod Mathews, GM Storage, Barracuda. “As businesses continue to move their infrastructures to the cloud with the adoption of SaaS applications, providing the same level of protection for physical servers, virtual servers, and cloud services is crucial. The new options for Barracuda Backup, including Cloud-to-Cloud Backup for SaaS applications, will offer customers additional flexibility for data protection and disaster recovery.”

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Backup

Barracuda's new Cloud-to-Cloud Backup currently supports Microsoft Office 365 including Exchange Online and OneDrive for Business. IT administrators concerned about protecting Microsoft Office 365 environments will be able to replicate data over a secure connection to be stored in Barracuda Cloud Storage. Lost data can be more easily searched for and retrieved. Administrators can download or restore data directly back to Microsoft’s hosted applications from Barracuda Cloud Control - a centralized web-based administration console, accessible from anywhere. Benefits include:

· Protection against accidental or malicious data loss

· Customizable retention policies and granular selection

· Automated or manual backups

· Search, multi-selection restores, or downloads

· Barracuda Cloud Storage can be deployed in geographically distributed, enterprise-grade data centers

· Data encrypted with HTTPS/SSL in transit and AES 265-bit encryption at rest

Flexible Options for Long-Term Data Retention

For businesses looking to meet extended retention requirements, Barracuda Backup customers can leverage Offsite Vaulting to store historical revisions in Barracuda’s Cloud Storage or an offsite Barracuda Backup appliance. Barracuda Backup is extending its functionality to include export options for historical revisions to external media such as disk or tape. Benefits include:

· Export individual files, folders, or databases – both scheduled or on-demand – to disk, tape drives, autoloaders, and robotic libraries

· Automatic scheduling and media rotation, data encryption and compression, and alerting of backup completion or errors

Physical-to-Virtual Portability

Barracuda Backup’s innovative LiveBoot feature provides a rapid recovery option for virtual environments during disasters and will now add physical-to-virtual (P2V) portability. For physical servers that are not yet end of life, IT admins will be able to restore these systems into a virtual server hosted in VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. Benefits include:

· Simplified migration from legacy physical servers into virtual environments

· Reduced time-to-recovery in the event of a disaster by enabling recovery of physical servers to a virtual infrastructure

“Barracuda Backup has always provided us with the flexibility to back up our data in a way that makes the most sense for our business,” said Craig Sauvigne, System Administrator, Winthrop University. “It’s easy to buy and set up, is highly scalable and keeps improving with each update – Barracuda Backup is a great long-term solution for backup and recovery.”

Barracuda Backup is part of the company’s Data Protection Plus strategic initiative, aimed at helping customers access, retain and share critical data from anywhere and any device. For more information about Data Protection Plus, please visit:http://cuda.co/dppreview.

Pricing and Availability

Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup for Microsoft Office 365 is expected to be available in the next 60 days. It will be included for the first year at no additional charge for new and existing customers with subscriptions to Barracuda Backup Unlimited Cloud Storage. It will also be available as a standalone service. For more information on the pricing and availability of Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, please visit http://cuda.co/direct2cloud.

The latest version of Barracuda Backup is expected to be available in the next 60 days. It will be included at no additional charge to existing customers on current appliance platforms with an active Energize Updates subscription. The Barracuda Backup list price starts at $999 USD for the all-in-one appliance, with a list price of $199 USD for the annual Energize Updates subscription. An optional Instant Replacement service featuring priority replacement of failed hardware and a complimentary hardware refresh every four years is available starting at a list price of $219 USD per year. A one-year subscription to Unlimited Cloud Storage starts at $499 USD.

Barracuda Backup is also available as a comprehensive annual subscription including the appliance, Energize Updates, Instant Replacement, and Unlimited Cloud Storage starting at a list price of $1199 per year.

International pricing and availability vary by region.


Resources
For more information about Barracuda Backup, please visit http://cuda.co/bkup.
IDC Worldwide Quarterly Purpose Built Backup Appliance Tracker, CQ4, March 2015.

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Microsoft Launches Office 365 University for Higher-Education Students

 

New Delhi (Business Wire India) -- Microsoft announced the availability of Office 365 University for full-time and part-time students studying in accredited colleges and universities in India. Students can now subscribe to Office 365 University which includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications and works across 2 PCs or Macs, comes with Office on Demand and an additional 20 GB Premium SkyDrive Storage-all for Rs. 4,199 for a 4-year subscription. Office 365 University will empower students to study better resulting in future jobs and provide them a winning edge in the young and competitive Indian job market.

"Office 365 University is in a class by itself and university students will love the capabilities of new Office," said Ramkumar Pichai, GM - Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft India. "Office 365 University will be a trusted and integral part of students' everyday always-on, always-connected life, taking full advantage of the cloud and touch capabilities, all at the best price. The special pricing for students will help provide them with opportunities and empower them to develop the necessary skills to be successful in the fast-paced campus environment, making them future ready as they join the workforce of tomorrow."

"Office 365 University will make my life much easier as I can now study, work and enjoy on the move, can edit and share documents/notes in real-time and store more on the cloud. As students, we are always looking for cutting-edge technology at the best price to learn and collaborate, and this makes a real impact on our student life. I can now move from the house to college to the playground across devices and manage my day-to-day assignments and tasks anywhere anytime," said Shaurya Mittal, a student of Sri Venkateswara College, New Delhi.

Purchase Process

Students need to go online at www.office.com/verify to verify their eligibility in order to activate Office. During the verification process, students will need to fill out their university credentials, or international student identity card (ISIC) details. Alternatively, they can submit documentation through the manual verification process. The academic verification process is completed online; post which students can purchase Office 365 University from the online Microsoft store.

Eligibility and Verification Process

Apart from full-time and part-time enrolled university and college students, faculty and staff in accredited institutions are also eligible to purchase an Office 365 University subscription.

Microsoft Office 365 University is built on the company's philosophy of empowering youth to imagine and realize their full potential by connecting them with greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship by:

1. helping them strengthen education and expand digital inclusion
2. giving them inspiration and tools to imagine new opportunities; and
3. helping youth realize new opportunities of employability and entrepreneurship

About Office 365 University

Office 365 University will be offered online and at retail locations in 52 markets worldwide. Features include:

• The latest and most complete set of Office applications - Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
• Office on Demand
• Additional 20 GB Premium SkyDrive Storage and default save to SkyDrive
• Install Office on up to two PCs or Macs, for use by a single person
• To know more about Office 365 University, click here.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Ltd is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in nine cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune

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Bharti Airtel and Microsoft partner to address the growing ICT needs of SMB segment

Press Release

New Delhi, August 28, 2012 — Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, today announced that it will deliver Microsoft’s cloud based Office 365 business productivity solutions to Small and Medium Businesses by provisioning the service through its cloud platform.

Under the agreement, Airtel will be able to power SMBs with access to Microsoft Office 365, addressing their connectivity and productivity requirements while allowing them to focus on their core business activities. Office 365 along with Airtel’s DSL and Internet Leased Ports/Lines (ILP) services will empower SMBs with the option to create a public facing website with their own domain name, access to the latest releases from Office 365, state-of-the art anti-virus & anti-spam solutions, and most importantly anytime, anywhere access to documents and emails, with best experience delivered on smart phones using Airtel’s network.


Announcing the partnership, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to partner with Microsoft to address the growing ICT needs of the SMB segment. The partnership will allow us to become a virtual CIO for our SMB customers. According to industry estimates there is a growing affinity towards technology adoption in this segment and their IT spending is surging at a rate of 15% per year. SMB segment has shown a high adoption of Cloud computing especially SaaS - which contributes more than 50% to the overall cloud market. With our superior network experience and Microsoft’s dependable technology suite we will be able to offer cost effective and secure cloud services in a high growth SaaS market.”

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India said, “We are pleased that Bharti Airtel will offer our world-class cloud productivity solution to SMBs in India. Agility, focus and cost are the key reasons why businesses are moving to a cloud and hence Microsoft’s partnership will allow Bharti Airtel’s customers to continue to stay ahead of the curve through solutions that truly fit their needs. The agreement will enable SMBs to take advantage of a secure cloud computing environment at an opex model based pricing.”

Office 365 poses to be the next leap of productivity for businesses in India, especially SMBs and puts the world-class collaboration tools at their doorstep:

· World class solution: It provides leading collaboration tools with enterprise-class security and a financially-backed Service Level Agreement. In the past, world-class collaboration tools were simply out of reach for most SMBs in India. Today, Office 365 provides productivity and collaboration solutions to the SMBs which were only available to larger enterprises earlier.

· Affordability: SMBs prefer a scalable environment and to meet their expanding needs, Office 365 offers an affordable and predictable monthly cost.

· Ease of Management: Office 365 provides ease of management, because it is a product ready to use. It eliminates the hassle of managing an IT team and helps SMBs cut down their IT expenditure heavily.

· Commitment to Privacy, Security and Compliance: Office 365 provides industry leading privacy and security controls that are independently certified and audited by third parties. Office 365 is the first major business productivity public cloud service to have implemented the rigorous set of physical, logical, process and management controls defined by ISO 27001. The Microsoft Trust Center (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/trust-center.aspx) contains up-to-date disclosures relating to Office 365 Security, Privacy, Regulatory Compliance, Audits and Certifications.

For more information, customers can visit www.airtel.in/office365

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 5 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G services, fixed line, high speed broadband through DSL, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G mobile services. Bharti Airtel had over 262 million customers across its operations at the end of July 2012. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Ltd is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in nine cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

About Microsoft Office 365

Microsoft Office 365 is commercial software plus services offering a set of products from Microsoft. It includes the Microsoft Office suite of desktop applications and hosted versions of Microsoft's Server products (including Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync Server), delivered and accessed over the Internet, in effect, the next version of Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

For more information, press only:
Bharti Airtel
Media relations
Gayatri Doda:
gayatri.doda@in.airtel.com

Microsoft 
Corporate Communications
Tushar Makkar: tmakkar@microsoft.com

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