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Post by RichS on Sept 2, 2016 12:00:45 GMT
Now planning to move to other data centre! You couldn't make it up! Where have they said this??
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Post by RichS on Sept 2, 2016 12:01:57 GMT
Just told me. I asked why this not done a week ago and they said following advice from HP
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Post by Sean on Sept 2, 2016 12:07:08 GMT
We understand on the Grapevine that is could be Wednesday/Thursday before we are back online again ....
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Post by Itsajoke!!! on Sept 2, 2016 12:18:09 GMT
Second data centre ensures speedy data recovery.
SSP has two data centres, one located in southern England, the second in the midlands. Our disaster recovery options include the ability to copy all your data between the two data centres every fifteen minutes via a dedicated high-speed connection. Each data centre acts as a backup for the other, ensuring that if one data centre is unavailable the other can take over.
SSP’s hosting and managed services – top 10 benefits 1.Your data is backed up every fifteen minutes, ensuring speedy recovery if the need arises. 2.Your data is accessible from any internet connection for easy access when you need it. 3.Scalability with your business. State of the art infrastructure that can grow with your business. 4.Managed firewall and software offers protection from hacking, virus and malware attacks. 5.All your hosted software and hardware upgrades and repairs are handled by us for no extra charge. 6.ISO27001 compliance ensures data protection. 7.24/7 on-call UK-based support for web services and core infrastructure. 8.Experience - 18 years of hosting in the industry. 9.Tried and tested - 7000 users across the UK. 10.Established partnerships with other leading software providers - Microsoft Gold partner.
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Post by M3 User on Sept 2, 2016 12:19:25 GMT
We were pressured into moving to Pure a couple of years ago and signed up and attended the training sessions etc. We had a demo system to play with and it quickly became clear that Pure did not do all that was claimed so we cancelled the agreement and have stuck with M3. SSP made claims about Pure that were simply untrue or they were work in progress and I can clearly remember them confirming that a failure at their data centre would not be noticed by the user as the mirror site would seamlessly take over. Although I am very relieved I do feel very sorry for all you poor Pure users and I think SSP has let you down very badly indeed. When the time comes that we have to change this issue will be a major factor in our decision over which system to move to.
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Post by Anthony - Eastside on Sept 2, 2016 12:29:01 GMT
I own Hayes Parsons, an £11n gwp commercial broker based in Bristol. I can only echo the comments of people worried over data loss, and lack of mirror site use. Plus the horrendous lack of communication. They are simply not being open with us and this is our livelihoods. I only bought the system because of the data security and back up/mirror site aspects. Certainly wasn't for the reliability. I have found Aviva and Axa most helpful so far. No one has been particularly unhelpful aside from BIBA and SSP. If and when we are back up I am certainly interested in negotiating and potentially seeking legal advice as a group. However for now what we really require is absolute assurance on data and a realistic timescale on business to let us manage our clients and business James Agree with your sentiments fully. Suggest we all stay in touch after symtems are repaired and seek legal advice.
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Post by Ben Mott on Sept 2, 2016 12:32:14 GMT
We were pressured into moving to Pure a couple of years ago and signed up and attended the training sessions etc. We had a demo system to play with and it quickly became clear that Pure did not do all that was claimed so we cancelled the agreement and have stuck with M3. SSP made claims about Pure that were simply untrue or they were work in progress and I can clearly remember them confirming that a failure at their data centre would not be noticed by the user as the mirror site would seamlessly take over. Although I am very relieved I do feel very sorry for all you poor Pure users and I think SSP has let you down very badly indeed. When the time comes that we have to change this issue will be a major factor in our decision over which system to move to. Hi, we had the same pressure about a year ago. Reluctantly changed to Pure and since then we really have not got on with it. We would love to go back to M3 but have been told we cant. As I mentioned before I appreciate that technology moves on and M3 will eventually be phased out which is a real shame because in my opinion its a much better platform.
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gary
New Member
Posts: 4
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Post by gary on Sept 2, 2016 12:40:19 GMT
M3 is a better system in nearly every way, you go to training for pure and are told its all bells and whistles, but it really is just an un-user-friendly pile of garbage. I am relieved everyone feels the same.
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Post by ExSSPUser on Sept 2, 2016 12:47:03 GMT
The other thing that swayed us was the advances Acturis had made over a 5 year period, particularly in the user friendly front end vs the virtual standstill with development of Pure.
They're badly hamstrung by needing to re-write all the SSP Pure code into .net language & they can't attract decent talent because the whole system's written in outdated languages that no one wants to learn/have on their CV anymore.
I would be amazed if there has been proper testing of their Disaster Recovery 'policy' in this time, there is no way a simple power cut/surge should affect a professional IT company in this manner.
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Post by Disgruntled on Sept 2, 2016 12:55:21 GMT
As SSP were so willing to provide a list of all companies that have been toubled to the FCA, I wonder if they can circulate that list to us all so we can form a class action
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Post by Dwayne - Eastide on Sept 2, 2016 13:02:29 GMT
Does anyone know any body within the SSP user group?
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Post by ITConsultant on Sept 2, 2016 13:03:18 GMT
M3 was a good system but as support for it is removed there is no option but to pick it's replacement. The SSP Pure back in the day when it was launched as Sirius was cutting edge be it with problems im sure Hayes Parsons remember being an early adopter. They fought through the issues and produced a reasonable system that a lot of brokers used. Moving it to the cloud was a good decision for a lot of brokers as it removed the demand for onsite servers and solutions and allowed the flexibility to work anywhere. They do need to update the code to .Net and move away from Citrix and maybe at some point this will happen. The Disaster recovery policy is obviously currently showing holes very large holes, i struggle to see how power issues can cause this level of down time when protected behind a UPS. Even if hardware has failed HP would source and dispatch this within a few hours and the failed hardware would be replaced allowing the system to come back on. There is more to this than people are being told, what about if the problem has occurred as there was a power failure over the weekend and the generator failed to start. This caused all servers to shut down gracefully via the UPS and then once restarted Malware infected these servers on startup and caused issues with the data which also replicated across to the DR site. This would explain why there has been no option to fail users to the other data centre. They can not restore from backups as the backups have had this Malware infection sitting dormant for days weeks months and it has only become apparent when the servers came back on line. Just my thought process not actual fact !!
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Post by M3 on Sept 2, 2016 13:33:50 GMT
M3 was a good system but as support for it is removed there is no option but to pick it's replacement. The SSP Pure back in the day when it was launched as Sirius was cutting edge be it with problems im sure Hayes Parsons remember being an early adopter. They fought through the issues and produced a reasonable system that a lot of brokers used. Moving it to the cloud was a good decision for a lot of brokers as it removed the demand for onsite servers and solutions and allowed the flexibility to work anywhere. They do need to update the code to .Net and move away from Citrix and maybe at some point this will happen. The Disaster recovery policy is obviously currently showing holes very large holes, i struggle to see how power issues can cause this level of down time when protected behind a UPS. Even if hardware has failed HP would source and dispatch this within a few hours and the failed hardware would be replaced allowing the system to come back on. There is more to this than people are being told, what about if the problem has occurred as there was a power failure over the weekend and the generator failed to start. This caused all servers to shut down gracefully via the UPS and then once restarted Malware infected these servers on startup and caused issues with the data which also replicated across to the DR site. This would explain why there has been no option to fail users to the other data centre. They can not restore from backups as the backups have had this Malware infection sitting dormant for days weeks months and it has only become apparent when the servers came back on line. Just my thought process not actual fact !! Support for M3 hasn't been removed at all. There's still developments going on for the bigger brokers and current M3 users who are reluctant to move to Pure are being given the option of upgrading to a Linux (rather than SCO) based system. Unfortunately SSP paid far too much for Sirius and had been sold a bit of a lemon. They had to make use because of investors.
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Post by M3 on Sept 2, 2016 13:34:01 GMT
M3 was a good system but as support for it is removed there is no option but to pick it's replacement. The SSP Pure back in the day when it was launched as Sirius was cutting edge be it with problems im sure Hayes Parsons remember being an early adopter. They fought through the issues and produced a reasonable system that a lot of brokers used. Moving it to the cloud was a good decision for a lot of brokers as it removed the demand for onsite servers and solutions and allowed the flexibility to work anywhere. They do need to update the code to .Net and move away from Citrix and maybe at some point this will happen. The Disaster recovery policy is obviously currently showing holes very large holes, i struggle to see how power issues can cause this level of down time when protected behind a UPS. Even if hardware has failed HP would source and dispatch this within a few hours and the failed hardware would be replaced allowing the system to come back on. There is more to this than people are being told, what about if the problem has occurred as there was a power failure over the weekend and the generator failed to start. This caused all servers to shut down gracefully via the UPS and then once restarted Malware infected these servers on startup and caused issues with the data which also replicated across to the DR site. This would explain why there has been no option to fail users to the other data centre. They can not restore from backups as the backups have had this Malware infection sitting dormant for days weeks months and it has only become apparent when the servers came back on line. Just my thought process not actual fact !!
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Post by ITConsultant on Sept 2, 2016 13:43:39 GMT
M3 Guest, yes sorry i know they have not yet removed support as yet but in my opinion this will happen as they manage to convince the bigger brokers across. It is more cost effective for SSP to support and maintain a single system. As the user base is mainly Pure it is only a matter of time before this happens and notice is issued.
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