Mercian Labels - business, open source & security label printing

Sometime ago I blogged about our purchase of a Terastation as a network attached storage device.  Well, it hasnt worked that well at all, and after very nearly loosing all our data when either 1 or 2 hard drives failed (in a RAID 10 array) resulting in 5 days of downtime, I’ve given up on this device.

My thanks to Dave and Jake from Senokian who supported us well, recovering all the data, and advising of a replacement NAS solution using FREENAS and a spare Dell server box, all in record time.

I found the Terastation to be slow, with unreliable hardware, reasonably difficult to configure network shares and ftp access on, and the lack of ssh control ability meant we couldnt do much with it if it went wrong.  For this reason, I can not recommend it for business use.

The FREENAS box however seems to have gone in a lot better.  Bizzarely it runs the operating system off a USB stick, and keeps the 2 RAID1 drives for data only, and all at a very good value price.

Further updates to come as we explore it more.

Tomorrow is Pre Budget report day in the UK, and in the midst of the economic crisis there are likely to be some significant changes to minimise the effects of the imminent recession.

We at Mercian Labels bank with the RBS Group, who today announced that they will guarantee the current lending rates and amounts to business for a year.

Fortunately we have a reasonable balance sheet and havent had short term borrowing requirements for years,  but with working capital for many businesses across the country being stretched, this is a positive step.  Lets see what the other banks do, and what tomorrow’s fiscal policy stimuli are.

Just a quick reminder to all business people that bad debt is a terrible drain on profits, and in theese uncertain times, watching your credit risk is crucial.  A cost effective way of doing this is to use a credit reference agency, and the best value one we have found is creditserve.co.uk but there are many more.  Fora  few hundred pounds a year, you can get unlimited access to UK credit reports on sole traders, partnerships, ltd and plc companies.  Worth its weight in cash if you are considering taking on a new client, or that very large job that may well keep you going, or send you bust.

This morning I met Philip Oakley from Outserve Ltd, a new midlands based consultancy working from Wolverhampton Science park solely dedicated to supporting businesses with open source software. There are so few of these companies out there that actually know and understand FOSS, that I hope that Philip gets his new business offf the ground and helps other companies do what we have done here at Mercian Labels.

Good luck to them, they seem keen and switched on to the real needs of businesses working with open source.

I upgraded by ubuntu 8.04 laptop installation to 8.10 a few weeks ago, and due to a pretty stupid move on my part (trying to move the laptop in the middle of the upgrade and losing power), I coudlnt get back into the OS and had to reformat the OS partition and do a clean install.  All my data was safe as it was intentionally stored on a seperate partition, but I had a complete waste of a day trying to reconfigure my firefox browser back to the state I am used to.

I didnt appreciate just how much I depend onit now, for saving passwords, updated scnaner ettings, bookmarks, quick links etc.  I certainly know now!

My question is this: if I had to do this again on the same machine, which directories in linux do I have to backup so that if I could recreate exectly the system I have now, armed only with the backup and a fresh ubuntu 8.10 OS CD?

Suggestions welcome pelase!

Lesson:  backup now.

BTW, I did use FEBE, but I couldnt restore from it.

Its been some time since I blogged an update on our open source migration. So in summary:

• Project start: January 2007
• Email: whole company migrated to Zimbra, starting August 2007, finished December 2007
• Web server: migrated to Ubuntu dedicated server September 2007
• CRM/MIS: Rewrite of complete new CRM/MIS in php/postgresql - started March 2007, finished August 2008
• Phone system: complete trixbox server bought and configured, ready to migrate once all desktops change to ubuntu and new SIP hard phones configured (started but incomplete)
• Windows machines: we will end up with 2, 1 for graphic design (corel, AI etc wont run on ubuntu) and 1 for SAGE accounting system - Done
• Network attached storage: migration completed to a linux driven terastation live
• DNS/DHCP server: configured and ready to migrate once all desktops change to ubuntu
• Desktops: bought, and reformating with ubuntu 8.04 started but incomplete

Its a slow process with so many other business projects ongoing, but we expect to complete the full migration by 1 January 2009.

PRESS RELEASE
17 November 2008
Cannock, Staffordshire, UK
Mercian Labels Group appoints new Chairman

Labelling specialists the Mercian Labels Group, based in Cannock UK, have recently appointed Mr Dennis Marrison as Chairman to support its next phase of expansion.

The Group is experiencing rapid domestic and export growth with the success of Label Lock, launched this year as a flagship brand of the Security Labels International division, and continued expansion of Mercian Labels, the market leader in fast-response short run labelling.

Marrison, with a background in manufacturing and the management of premier product brands, is the first board appointment from outside the business and the industry. “My work at Hamilton Acorn Ltd raised its performance to world class levels and won a Best Factory Award from Management Today and Cranfield University” he said, “and I am delighted to be able to put my business experience to use in the expansion of this innovative and dynamic company”.

Dr Adrian Steele, Managing Director, added “Dennis’s appointment adds significant strength to our board as we plan for further growth in the coming years. Despite the recession, we only see the Group continuing to build on its recent successes with another major new product launch due out shortly.”