Security And Backups
How secure is our data?
Short answer: your data is very secure.Long answer: we use one of most reliable and secure cloud service providers. (For the primer on what is "cloud", please check this.)
Your data is protected by a firewall that has several levels of security. Only verified applications have access to the data.
It is very important that the cloud that hosts your data is located in the USA.
Cloud primary block storage in each Availability Zone runs on fully redundant clusters. Each storage cluster is multi-headed, with internally redundant arrays. All systems have redundant power supplies, network connections, HBAs, and network switches. Even though data center facilities have industry standard UPS and diesel generator systems, there are additional in-line UPSes for the storage arrays.
How is this set-up better than local storage as common for VPS providers? Our storage allows for virtual machines and disks to be hot-migrated for faster resizing, in advance of maintenance and in response to hardware failures. This translates to absolutely no downtime for you when technicians are doing scheduled hardware maintenance, and very little downtime if/when a catastrophic hardware failure occurs. All of these issues may cause downtime for typical VPS providers.
Cloud Specs / IaaS
Tell Me About Your Cloud
Our business software for inventory and asset management, tracking business events, etc. comes as a full solution that includes IaaS -- Infrastructure as a Service.We are using top cloud that is already 6 times as fast as Amazon EBS and is more dependable! Virtual machines and disks we use can be hot-migrated, allowing us to conduct hardware maintenance with zero downtime to you. This eliminates a common source of downtime for VPS hosts -- Virtual Private Server providers. Load-balanced clustering, ssh key management, and the use of private networking between nodes, assures that our cloud delivers top performance under any conditions. Having "HA" storage gives you redundancy at each and every point -- from the power and storage hardware all the way through the network to the hypervisor. The Cloud primary block storage in each Availability Zone runs on fully redundant clusters. Each storage cluster is multi-headed, with internally redundant arrays. All systems have redundant power supplies, network connections, HBAs, and network switches. Even though the data center facilities have industry standard UPS and diesel generator systems, we haveve taken things one step further with additional in-line UPSes for the storage arrays.
Primary Storage is connected to the storage network by multiple, bonded, 10GigE connections to multiple switches, in a fabric configuration. The fabric configuration means that if there is a failure of one network component in the data path, then the effective bandwidth is reduced, but there is no delay for fail-over (no spanning tree protocol). The storage network is engineered with enough bandwidth to make sure that even in a degraded state, there is plenty available for the affected host, cluster, pod, or Availability Zone.
The block storage is based on ZFS, taking advantage of all the performance features that can be added to a ZFS system. The host systems have lots of RAM and the storage arrays are configured with many mirrors. We use mirrors of S-TEC ZeusRAM for the ZIL, and many S-TEC SSDs for the L2ARC. The storage hosts run the fastest cores available in Intel's Xeon E5 series for fast compression. Compression allows for fewer IO operations and actually increases IO performance in trade for CPU power. For performance purposes, we do not de-duplicate.
What about backups? How often they are done? Can we download a back up of our data?
We run nightly backups of all databases. After backup files are created they are downloaded to two different locations and kept for a minimum of 6 months.Restoring data from a backup takes an email request and 10-15 minutes during normal business hours.
If you also would like to keep backup of your database locally, for an additional fee of $10 - $20 per month, we can configure access for you that will allow you to download your backup files daily, weekly or monthly. Please, note: in order to do that we will need to configure our firewall to allow access from your IP address. Therefore, you need to have a permanent IP address.
It is important to note, that servers running QR Inventory and QR Mobile Data are using database Master-Slave architecture model as a part of a larger solution to alleviate system failures. It serves the purpose of safeguarding data reliability allowing us to achieve up-to-the second valid copies of your databases on the Slave servers. These slave servers reside on network that is different from our main one.
Pricing Structure And QR Inventory Setup
What does setup fee include? Will you do all software setup and data import, or should we do it?
Setup fee includes creation of your account and 90 days of free technical support. Once your account is created, you will be able to easily organize everything based on the specifics of your project: create custom fields, transaction types, mobile forms for collecting information, etc. If you have a list of inventory / assets, and current inventory stock / locations, you will be able to bulk import this data into QR Inventory. QR Inventory has contextual help and demo videos to help you along the way. If you cannot find the answer to your question or something does not work for you, we are always here to help and answer your questions.If, however, you prefer to get a software completely set up for your project, we can do it for you as well. We offer an enhanced setup option, where we discuss your project with you and then set up everything based on your specific needs, as well as import your data into QR Inventory for you. This option adds $500.00 to the one-time setup fee. As a result you get your software ready to use from day one.
What is the monthly fee for?
Monthly fee includes:- Use of the software, including necessary computational resources, storage and bandwidth.
- Data protection, daily database backups that are downloaded and kept at two separate off-site locations for a minimum of 6 months
- Functional software updates, new versions of software.
- Security software updates.
- Security server and database updates.
Can we host internally to save money?
You can host internally, but you won't be saving money this way, in fact it might cost you more. Although you will not be paying monthly fees to us, you will need to have a qualified person to maintain your own server, keep up with the security, software updates, do back-ups. Whether it will be your employee or an outside consultant, it will cost you more than our monthly fees, which are very reasonable.We offer this option mostly for the large companies who already have their own servers, network and qualified IT personnel, and often have contractual obligations to keep all data inside their network for security reasons (DoD, etc.). If you are one of such companies, then self hosting is a viable option for you. Otherwise, hosting with us will serve you better and will be much less expensive and much more reliable and secure.
Do you provide training?
We do provide webinar style online training on request. The training is optional, and since QR Inventory is very intuitive and easy to use, it is likely that you will not need it. If, however, you prefer to have a formal training for your employees, it is available at any time you need it.Each training session is 1.5 - 2 hours long, and consists of us demonstrating main aspects of the software (e.g. how to enter / import inventory, how to process inventory transactions, how to create and use custom fields and properties, etc.), and answering your questions (with demonstration, if necessary). We tailor these sessions to your needs and will put an emphasis on the areas of the software you are mostly interested in. You can have as many sessions as you need. Each session costs $350.00
Learning About QR Inventory
What options do I have to learn more about QR Inventory?
We have plenty of materials for you to learn more about QR Inventory and whether it will work for your business / will effectively solve your problems. You can start with reviewing these materials on our web site:- QR Inventory product tour
- Main features of QR Inventory
- See how others use QR Inventory - case study
- QR Inventory video demo
- QR Inventory recently added features
- QR Inventory test drive / trial subscription
At any point of your review, you can e-mail us any questions and you will get a prompt response.
If you prefer to discuss your project over the phone, we can set up a conference call to review your requirements, give you recommendations and answer your questions.
Can we have an online demo?
We have a video demo that you can review. Video demo consists of several parts showing the main aspects of QR Inventory software. You can request access to the video demo here.Can I test drive QR Inventory?
We have a trial subscription option that allows you check how QR Inventory works with very limited upfront investment. If you would like to get details on the trial subscription, please fill out a form here.Can you visit us to show us a demo? Do you have local sales representative in our area?
With our pricing model that would be ineffective both for us and for you.At the moment we have clients around the world: from Canada to Australia and from Europe to South Africa. We didn't visit any of them. Instead, we concentrated on creating software that can be adapted to (almost?) any business workflow.
If you are the visual kind of person, the best way to find out what QR Inventory is and if it will work for you is to review the materials listed above, video demo and do a test drive. If you prefer to talk to a human first and run your project and ideas by him / her, we can schedule a conference call to discuss your pain points, your needs and answer your questions.
Do you have clients in my area? Can I talk to the clients / visit clients who are using QR Inventory?
We have clients in different parts of the world. However, we do not give clients' references for ready-to-go software. Paying customers don't appreciate us giving out their names and contact info to every prospect. They are real people with real business and they have hard-pressing problems every day of the week.We have plenty of materials on the website, we answer as many questions as you might have and we offer test drive -- the ability to use a real software. This should be enough for every able-minded person to make an informed decision.
Technical Support
Will you come to my location to install the software?
QR Inventory is a cloud-based software, so if you plan on hosting with us you do not need a "software installation". We will create your account within one to two business days after the sale is finalized, and you will be able to start using software right away.If you would like to purchase QR Inventory for installation on your network, we will install QR Inventory (and optionally other required software) on your server using remote access.
What kind of technical support comes with QR Inventory?
QR Inventory comes with 90 days of free technical support. If you need technical support after that, you can either purchase a monthly retainer package at $35.00/hour, or on as needed basis at $85.00/hour.What is included in technical support?
Technical support includes answering your specific questions on the software and addressing your problems. As a rule technical support is done via e-mail, although if you have a simple general question that does not require us to review what is happening in your specific account we can answer it over the phone.What is NOT included in the technical support?
Webinar style walkthrough sessions are not a part of the technical support. We provide one walkthrough session free of charge in the first week of your trial or sign up. If you want more walkthrough sessions, these sessions can be purchased at $85.00 per one hour session. You can order as many sessions as you need.Do you provide technical support over the phone?
If you have a brief question that does not require us to log into your account and see what is going on, we can answer this over the phone. If you have a questions on how to do something in your specific account / setup, or have a problem, we will ask you to e-mail us the exact question or step-by-step description of the problem, preferably with the screenshots.Why can't you give me all answers over the phone?
In case of a question we will provide you step by step instructions that you will be able to refer to later, so it works much better than answering questions over the phone.In case of the problem, we will need to investigate what is going on - not something that can be done while you are waiting on the phone, it will simply be a waste of your time.