Hi Mike,
Sorry for the delay in responding, it is tax season and our software generates 1099s so my time for forums and this list is very limited. I'm glad I took a quick break and saw this today.
Yes, I'm a partner at Forward Thinking Software along with Frank Perez. We started building it in late 2014, and went public at Southwest Fox 2015 by showing our beta version and getting feedback from other developers. It went into production in January 2016 and has been rolling for the last year. It has already saved several customers from multiple ransomware attacks, and many others from the normal common hardware failures and power problems, and of course protects from theft, fire and other natural disasters.
SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested
We built this product out of a need to protect our vertical market and custom software customers who do not have an IT person or do not do a good job at backups. It is something we have needed for several years, especially with the advent of the ransomware discussed. It turns out the process of doing the backups was not difficult (time consuming, yes), but the management of the backups, scheduling, monitoring, and reoccurring billing are not trivial.
CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done multiple times a day, week, or month. All it requires is Windows XP and better, and an Internet connection. Management of the backups is done via the Web-based management console either by the customer, their IT people, or you as the developer if given permission by the customer. Naturally it keeps a history of backups in the cloud, and even the local computer depending on how you configure it. Mostly it is a management of the gigabytes allotted. On-the-fly backups can also be initiated via the Web site.
Monitoring can be done via the Web site. Emails are configurable upon success, failure or missing (in the case when the user shuts down the computer over the scheduled time). If backup is missed, the backup is performed soon after reboot once the service gets loaded and connects to the Web server.
Restores can be initiated from the Web to copy the ZIP file down to the computer. You can also use the System Tray applet to download backups. Someone has to decompress the file from there.
Frank also built a REST API for developers who want to interact with the data on the backend of our system too. We have sample code for VFP developers to interact with the API. All the data returned from the API shows up in cursors. The API is documented on the CleverFoxBackup.com site.
Plans start as low as US$9.95 a month per device (normally the computer where the data resides). The lowest level works for most customers just fine as VFP data compresses with high efficiency.
One side benefit we did not consider when we first put this together is the ability to use the backups to restore to a test folder, or bring down for diagnostics when the software is having a problem and it is related to data. I'm using this feature this morning to set up a test environment for a customer.
I'm not just a partner, I am a user. We have this on our own servers, we have it on numerous customer servers and workstations, and several other developers are using it for their customers.
We handle all the billing automatically on a monthly basis, and share revenue with partners who are referring their customers to use the software. Give me a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530.
SET MARKETING OFF
Rick White Light Computing, Inc.
www.whitelightcomputing.com
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of mbsoftwaresolutions@mbsoftwaresolutions.com Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 10:23 To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: CleverFox Backup
Rick's snippet from from my last thread:
Ransomware is probably the number one reason we get new subscriptions to CleverFox Backup these days. People get hit, find giant hole in their disaster recovery plan, and then get on with solid, scheduled offsite backups.
Rick -- This is the first I'm hearing about this software...sounds great! I'd love to recommend this to my few DBF clients. Is this your company? When did you start it?
--Mike
[excessive quoting removed by server]
That sounds brilliant, Rick! I've had several customers get hit with Ransomware over the last couple of years and the recovery process at the smaller locations has been painful.
--
rk -----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Rick Schummer Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2017 11:54 AM To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: RE: CleverFox Backup
Hi Mike,
Sorry for the delay in responding, it is tax season and our software generates 1099s so my time for forums and this list is very limited. I'm glad I took a quick break and saw this today.
Yes, I'm a partner at Forward Thinking Software along with Frank Perez. We started building it in late 2014, and went public at Southwest Fox 2015 by showing our beta version and getting feedback from other developers. It went into production in January 2016 and has been rolling for the last year. It has already saved several customers from multiple ransomware attacks, and many others from the normal common hardware failures and power problems, and of course protects from theft, fire and other natural disasters.
SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested
We built this product out of a need to protect our vertical market and custom software customers who do not have an IT person or do not do a good job at backups. It is something we have needed for several years, especially with the advent of the ransomware discussed. It turns out the process of doing the backups was not difficult (time consuming, yes), but the management of the backups, scheduling, monitoring, and reoccurring billing are not trivial.
CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done multiple times a day, week, or month. All it requires is Windows XP and better, and an Internet connection. Management of the backups is done via the Web-based management console either by the customer, their IT people, or you as the developer if given permission by the customer. Naturally it keeps a history of backups in the cloud, and even the local computer depending on how you configure it. Mostly it is a management of the gigabytes allotted. On-the-fly backups can also be initiated via the Web site.
Monitoring can be done via the Web site. Emails are configurable upon success, failure or missing (in the case when the user shuts down the computer over the scheduled time). If backup is missed, the backup is performed soon after reboot once the service gets loaded and connects to the Web server.
Restores can be initiated from the Web to copy the ZIP file down to the computer. You can also use the System Tray applet to download backups. Someone has to decompress the file from there.
Frank also built a REST API for developers who want to interact with the data on the backend of our system too. We have sample code for VFP developers to interact with the API. All the data returned from the API shows up in cursors. The API is documented on the CleverFoxBackup.com site.
Plans start as low as US$9.95 a month per device (normally the computer where the data resides). The lowest level works for most customers just fine as VFP data compresses with high efficiency.
One side benefit we did not consider when we first put this together is the ability to use the backups to restore to a test folder, or bring down for diagnostics when the software is having a problem and it is related to data. I'm using this feature this morning to set up a test environment for a customer.
I'm not just a partner, I am a user. We have this on our own servers, we have it on numerous customer servers and workstations, and several other developers are using it for their customers.
We handle all the billing automatically on a monthly basis, and share revenue with partners who are referring their customers to use the software. Give me a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530.
SET MARKETING OFF
Rick White Light Computing, Inc.
www.whitelightcomputing.com
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of mbsoftwaresolutions@mbsoftwaresolutions.com Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 10:23 To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: CleverFox Backup
Rick's snippet from from my last thread:
Ransomware is probably the number one reason we get new subscriptions to CleverFox Backup these days. People get hit, find giant hole in their disaster recovery plan, and then get on with solid, scheduled offsite backups.
Rick -- This is the first I'm hearing about this software...sounds great! I'd love to recommend this to my few DBF clients. Is this your company? When did you start it?
--Mike
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Always wrote our own Foxpro routines to backup and/or do data transfer (sometimes using external data compression programs) .... It's not that complicated. :)
On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 12:54 AM, Rick Schummer profox@whitelightcomputing.com wrote:
SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested
CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done
a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530.
.... SET MARKETING OFF
On 2017-01-27 06:02, Man-wai Chang wrote:
Always wrote our own Foxpro routines to backup and/or do data transfer (sometimes using external data compression programs) .... It's not that complicated. :)
On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 12:54 AM, Rick Schummer profox@whitelightcomputing.com wrote:
SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested
CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done
a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530.
.... SET MARKETING OFF
Can't you just do a FLOCK() and then SELECT * from Source into table c:\backup\Target ?
The thing is, with a database that is shared over many DBF files unless you can exclusively lock each one at a given point and then back them all up before unlocking you will never be sure you have a valid snapshot in time.
Of course you are right Alan, if the data is open and in use. We naturally recommend backing up off hours, but we can also take a snapshot in the middle of the workday and use this if we need something better than last night. Any backup with a little bit of data missing is better than not having any data at all, which is something we run into all too often.
Rick White Light Computing, Inc.
www.whitelightcomputing.com
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of Alan Bourke Sent: Friday, January 27, 2017 02:22 To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: CleverFox Backup
The thing is, with a database that is shared over many DBF files unless you can exclusively lock each one at a given point and then back them all up before unlocking you will never be sure you have a valid snapshot in time.
-- Alan Bourke alanpbourke (at) fastmail (dot) fm
On Fri, 27 Jan 2017, at 06:54 PM, mbsoftwaresolutions@mbsoftwaresolutions.com wrote:
On 2017-01-27 06:02, Man-wai Chang wrote:
Always wrote our own Foxpro routines to backup and/or do data transfer (sometimes using external data compression programs) .... It's not that complicated. :)
On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 12:54 AM, Rick Schummer profox@whitelightcomputing.com wrote:
SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested
CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done
a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530.
.... SET MARKETING OFF
Can't you just do a FLOCK() and then SELECT * from Source into table c:\backup\Target ?
[excessive quoting removed by server]
On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 1:54 PM, mbsoftwaresolutions@mbsoftwaresolutions.com wrote:
Can't you just do a FLOCK() and then SELECT * from Source into table c:\backup\Target ?
Well, sure. What happens if FLOCK fails because someone left their machine on all night?
And how do you grab all the indexes, including that new one you added last week?
And the free tables as well as the ones in the DBC.
And don't forget the captions and stored procedures in the DBC.
I mean, how hard can it be?
Selling utilities to programmers is hard, because they all COULD do it. And after a dozen revisions or so, including some teed-off customers, they will have ironed out most of the bugs.
Until the next one.
Or you could pay someone else to do it for you, mark it up and charge it to the customer.
On 2017-01-27 14:25, Ted Roche wrote:
Or you could pay someone else to do it for you, mark it up and charge it to the customer.
Oh I definitely think they've got what sounds like a great product, and I only wish I had lots of Fox databases out there so that I *could* become a reseller...but alas, I don't. I've been using MySQL as my preferred backend of choice since 2004. FabMate Lite Classic, though (from 2003) still uses DBFs. I have 2 clients using that. I will probably recommend Rick's utility to them.
+1
-----Mensaje original----- De: ProFox [mailto:profox-bounces@leafe.com] En nombre de mbsoftwaresolutions@mbsoftwaresolutions.com Enviado el: domingo, 29 de enero de 2017 5:37 Para: ProFox Email List Asunto: Re: CleverFox Backup
On 2017-01-27 14:25, Ted Roche wrote:
Or you could pay someone else to do it for you, mark it up and charge it to the customer.
Oh I definitely think they've got what sounds like a great product, and I only wish I had lots of Fox databases out there so that I *could* become a reseller...but alas, I don't. I've been using MySQL as my preferred backend of choice since 2004. FabMate Lite Classic, though (from 2003) still uses DBFs. I have 2 clients using that. I will probably recommend Rick's utility to them.
[excessive quoting removed by server]
On 27/01/2017 19:25, Ted Roche wrote:
<snip> And how do you grab all the indexes, including that new one you added last week?
And the free tables as well as the ones in the DBC.
And don't forget the captions and stored procedures in the DBC.
I mean, how hard can it be?
Selling utilities to programmers is hard, because they all COULD do it. And after a dozen revisions or so, including some teed-off customers, they will have ironed out most of the bugs.
Until the next one.
Or you could pay someone else to do it for you, mark it up and charge it to the customer.
We created our own here by having a baseline data set on a backup server and then zap each table and append from the live data. You then keep all the database properties with the stored data. You have to update the backup set if you make a structure change but it's not that difficult. As Alan says, you don't know if it is a valid backup at a point in time as it takes time to run, so you may have say stock transactions for a new stock item but no new stock item. Having said this it is MUCH better than no backup and you don't have to have everyone out to run it, so it can be run several times during the day.
Peter
This communication is intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. The contents are confidential and may be protected in law. Unauthorised use, copying or disclosure of any of it may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone or email.
www.whisperingsmith.com
Whispering Smith Ltd Head Office:61 Great Ducie Street, Manchester M3 1RR. Tel:0161 831 3700 Fax:0161 831 3715
London Office:17-19 Foley Street, London W1W 6DW Tel:0207 299 7960
On Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 7:48 AM, Peter Cushing pcushing@whisperingsmith.com wrote:
We created our own here by having a baseline data set on a backup server and then zap each table and append from the live data. You then keep all the database properties with the stored data. You have to update the backup set if you make a structure change but it's not that difficult. As Alan says, you don't know if it is a valid backup at a point in time as it takes time to run, so you may have say stock transactions for a new stock item but no new stock item. Having said this it is MUCH better than no backup and you don't have to have everyone out to run it, so it can be run several times during the day.
Peter:
I would have a concern if the backup server can be connected-to over the same network containing the primary data, you have a risk that malware on connecting machines (ransomware is the current concern, but not the only one) could contaminate both the production data and the backup.
On 30/01/2017 13:39, Ted Roche wrote:
Peter: I would have a concern if the backup server can be connected-to over the same network containing the primary data, you have a risk that malware on connecting machines (ransomware is the current concern, but not the only one) could contaminate both the production data and the backup.
The backup server is only available to IT users, so we should be ok if an ordinary user becomes infected. Yes we are at risk if an IT user gets infected but we are SO much more careful ;-)
Peter
This communication is intended for the person or organisation to whom it is addressed. The contents are confidential and may be protected in law. Unauthorised use, copying or disclosure of any of it may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by telephone or email.
www.whisperingsmith.com
Whispering Smith Ltd Head Office:61 Great Ducie Street, Manchester M3 1RR. Tel:0161 831 3700 Fax:0161 831 3715
London Office:17-19 Foley Street, London W1W 6DW Tel:0207 299 7960
On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 10:02 AM, Peter Cushing pcushing@whisperingsmith.com wrote:
The backup server is only available to IT users, so we should be ok if an ordinary user becomes infected. Yes we are at risk if an IT user gets infected but we are SO much more careful ;-)
Hahaha! Thanks for the morning laugh!
Can't you just do a FLOCK() and then SELECT * from Source into table c:\backup\Target ?<<
Yes you can, well if you want problems with users being locked out of tables "randomly" during the day, and you don't care about the metadata of the DBC, or the stored procedures, or, or, or...
<shrug>
If it was simple and easy, I would have purchased this from someone else who has done it already, plus added in all the automated billing to save hours of admin time.
I mean, who writes their own reindexing routine for Visual FoxPro data these days? (rhetorical question)
Rick White Light Computing, Inc.
www.whitelightcomputing.com
-----Original Message----- From: ProfoxTech [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com] On Behalf Of mbsoftwaresolutions@mbsoftwaresolutions.com Sent: Friday, January 27, 2017 01:54 To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: CleverFox Backup
On 2017-01-27 06:02, Man-wai Chang wrote:
Always wrote our own Foxpro routines to backup and/or do data transfer (sometimes using external data compression programs) .... It's not that complicated. :)
On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 12:54 AM, Rick Schummer profox@whitelightcomputing.com wrote:
SET MARKETING ON && for those who are not interested
CleverFox Backup backs up VFP data (DBC and/or free tables) even if they are open in shared mode, something other backups sometimes fail to do, or will only do when they table gets closed. It also can do SQL Server backups too, which is perfect for those who are using SQL Server Express, or better. All on a scheduled basis, configurable to be done
a call if you (or anyone else on the list) are interested. 586.254.2530.
.... SET MARKETING OFF
Can't you just do a FLOCK() and then SELECT * from Source into table c:\backup\Target ?
[excessive quoting removed by server]
-
Alan Bourke -
José Enrique Llopis -
Man-wai Chang -
mbsoftwaresolutions＠mbsoftwaresolutions.com -
Peter Cushing -
Richard Kaye -
Rick Schummer -
Ted Roche