What We Do

Software > Third Party Software

ST-FOUR have a wealth of knowledge working with Novell installations of all shapes and sizes and along the way we have come across a number of rather nifty 3rd party products that can help meet specific business needs.

Our 3rd party products can help you in a variety of areas:

Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM)

Now today’s data usage is fast outstripping single tape drives and full backup windows are often taking a weekend instead of working overnight there is a growing need to sift out all the old, unused and "illegal" data from file systems.

Using HSM to migrate this data from expensive server and SAN systems to cheaper SATA arrays, second line servers and tape media can deliver a number of benefits:

• Shorter backup windows meaning less chance of backup error and less money spent on media
• Decreased emergency restore times of volume data and therefore decreased business cost due to downtime
• Decreased cost of maintenance to support ever expanding data storage and therefore less downtime and a decrease in hardware expenditure
• User data can remain in one place without having to add more drive letters for new storage pools
• Users can still retrieve their old files on the fly as stub files remain on the main file server that point back to the migrated data

GroupWise Archiving

Due to a number of factors including the freedom of information act, the data protection act and users inability to delete old emails archiving of GroupWise email systems is becoming a hot topic.

ST-FOUR can provide a solution to the problem through archiving products that can interface directly with GroupWise 5.5 and above to archive emails, calendar items and folder items to second tier storage. Benefits include:

• With GroupWise 6.0 and above this process can be automated at the MTA level so that users mail will be archived regardless of if they log in or not.
• The second tier storage provides a number of extra benefits as well by allowing specified users to search all archived email for all users in once instance, very handy for the Freedom of Information and Data Protection acts.
• The GroupWise system will run more effectively with smaller post office sizes
• Backup times will decrease on the system due to smaller post office sizes
• Less downtime when performing an emergency post office restore or GWCheck

Hand-Held Synchronisation

The plethora of hand-held devices on the market today from Windows CE devices to Palm and Java phones offers organisations a wide variety of choices for remote data access however many organisations find that rather than control of these devices is not standardised allowing the classic scenario of users buying their hand-held device of choice and expecting them to work with existing IT systems.

ST-FOUR offer a number of solutions that work on nearly all hand-held devices to synchronise any part of the GroupWise user mailbox (not just mail and calendar), allow hand-held users to use GroupWise Messenger, backup files to central IT systems and Secure hand-held devices against intrusion in case they are lost or stolen.

IT Border Security

Internet usage and more importantly mis-usage is at an all time high, most organisations do not realise that it is their legal responsibility to ensure that their users cannot access illegal Internet sites or send out illegal emails.

ST-FOUR offer a number of 3rd party solutions that tie directly in with eDirectory to offer flexible and customisable Internet security polices including restricting access to illegal sites or sites that do not directly meet your business needs, blocking file sharing protocols, blocking chat protocols, blocking SPAM and abusive emails and basically making the work environment safer for all. Benefits include:

• Legally protecting you and your organisation
• Reducing the amount of unnecessary Internet traffic and increasing Internet access speed
• Blocking SPAM, viruses and abusive emails before they reach your system
• Increasing employee productivity (greater benefits can be achieved by removing solitare as well!)
• Reducing management overheads by not needing to create duplicate user security accounts as all our products tie directly into eDirectory.