diff --git a/website/blog/2023-3-06-fonicom.md b/website/blog/2023-3-06-fonicom.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5c8cbe6e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/website/blog/2023-3-06-fonicom.md @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +--- +slug: fonicom +title: "How Corso helps Fonicom deliver a more reliable experience for internal backups" +description: "Corso, an open-source tool for backing up Microsoft 365 Data, was lucky to have Kias Hanifa from Fonicom take a look at our tool. He was kind enough to write this guest post." +authors: kias +tags: [corso, microsoft 365, backups, MSP] +date: 2023-3-06 +image: ./images/servers.png +--- + +![media server By Victor Grigas/Wikimedia Foundation, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44043618](./images/servers.png) + + +*Corso, an open-source tool for backing up Microsoft 365 Data, was lucky to have +Kias Hanifa, CTO at Fonicom, extensively test it. He was kind enough to write +this guest post* + +I’d like to tell the story of how Corso is helping us build +a more reliable experience for our clients. To start with, a word about my company: + +[Fonicom](https://www.fonicom.com/about/#) is a multi-disciplinary ICT solutions company specializing in systems +integration and software development. Our systems integration expertise covers +networking, security, virtualisation, mobility, storage, Linux, Open-source +technologies, public and private cloud solutions, business continuity, +productivity, unified communications and collaboration, amongst others. + +## From open source to public cloud + +Originally, our main differentiator was our knowledge of open-source tools. We +were open-source enthusiasts, and it had a strong business case as one of our +key offerings. As we’ve grown, and as a SaaS/open-source hybrid approach has +gotten more standard, we’ve now got AWS Partner, Dell Titanium Partner, Google, +and Microsoft Partner status. + +There was a time when people mainly looked to managed service providers to give +expertise in tools that had no other support. In the last several years though +everyone acknowledges the need for public cloud expertise. + +As we got into cloud offerings, we found things like Microsoft Office 365 and +AWS S3 to offer market-leading solutions to our customers. I further identified +that Microsoft 365 backups were a key area where people wanted better tools. +This led me to discover Corso. + +## The most important part of any open-source project + +When I first explored Corso I knew right away that they had the most important +feature for any open-source project, or any software project: clear +documentation. + + +Corso is a tool for bridging two public clouds: creating backups of Microsoft +Office 365 and sending them to object storage such as AWS S3. That means setup +is relatively simple and involves connecting the two systems to each other. +The documentation was straightforward to understand and follow +and I got started almost right away. + + +## What it means to be a Managed Service Provider + +We serve a lot of blue chip companies and Fortune 500 companies at Fonicom, and +it’s reasonable to ask: what's the most central benefit they get from our +managed services? + +Fundamentally, what Fonicom gives its clients is peace of mind. When a team +elects to use a managed service provider they’re giving a strong signal that +they don’t want to be running into the limits of our platform. They don’t want +unexpected errors and they don’t want to discover that they’re experiencing an +edge case leading to unexpected failure. + +While evaluating Corso I really tried to put the tool through its paces, since I +knew my clients would have high expectations of any backup offering. You can +test a hundred scenarios in your own process, but, as an MSP, if the client +finds even a small glitch, they will quickly get in touch to complain. This is +where we were impressed by how well the Corso team addressed our requirements +and how well the Corso-based backups worked with the complex and large Microsoft +365 setups found in our environments. + +## The second most important part of any open-source project + +Corso is a new project, and it’s not yet at v1. While testing it out, I +ran into cases that the tool couldn’t handle. That was when I joined the Corso +Discord and interacted directly with the team. I felt a lot more confident in +using Corso, because wow, this team really knows what they’re doing! + +In the course of our testing, as our team tested Corso extensively for large +backups, not only did the team work hard to understand the problem, but new +releases in direct response to our bugs quickly resolved any issues we ran into. + +One example that stands out is an error caused by a user having two calendars +with identical names. Naming two calendars the same isn’t supported in Office +365 and can only happen as part of a merge or migration. This is the kind of +edge case that could really affect my clients! When I discussed the problem with +the Corso team, they were able to release a fix soon after. + +## Giving back to the open-source community + +It feels great to get to offer my feedback and my support to this free and +open-source community. I’ve long been a supporter of open-source tools, and it’s +so gratifying to see new solutions for longstanding problems + +--- + +### A word from Corso + + +We’re immensely grateful to Kias and all our early users for being generous with +their time and attention as it has rapidly improved Corso's stability and robustness. +It’s a great feeling, being the only free and +open-source tool to back up Microsoft Office 365 data. If you’d like to give us +a try please take a look a the +[quickstart guide](https://corsobackup.io/docs/quickstart/), then join Kias and others +on [the Corso discord](https://discord.gg/63DTTSnuhT) to tell us what you think! + diff --git a/website/blog/authors.yml b/website/blog/authors.yml index 27cc17348..963ef0764 100644 --- a/website/blog/authors.yml +++ b/website/blog/authors.yml @@ -9,3 +9,9 @@ nica: title: Head of Developer Advocacy url: https://github.com/serverless-mom image_url: https://github.com/serverless-mom.png + +kias: + name: Kias Hanifa + title: CTO at Fonicom + url: https://www.fonicom.com/about/# + image_url: ./images/kias.png \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/website/blog/images/kias.png b/website/blog/images/kias.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..534bbe636 Binary files /dev/null and b/website/blog/images/kias.png differ diff --git a/website/blog/images/servers.png b/website/blog/images/servers.png new file mode 100644 index 000000000..adbcd9560 Binary files /dev/null and b/website/blog/images/servers.png differ diff --git a/website/styles/Vocab/Base/accept.txt b/website/styles/Vocab/Base/accept.txt index 55ec251cd..6588a21bb 100644 --- a/website/styles/Vocab/Base/accept.txt +++ b/website/styles/Vocab/Base/accept.txt @@ -44,4 +44,6 @@ subfolder Nica gif MSP -MSPs \ No newline at end of file +MSPs +npm +Fonicom \ No newline at end of file