When you use computers and the Internet in your business, it's all too easy to start feeling like you're drowning in a sea of nonsense. Computer-related things tend to have a language all their own, and while you don't need to know all of it, there are many confusing words and phrases that you're going to come across sooner or later. Here's a quick primer.
Bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data that your website can send each second, as well as the amount of data that the visitor to your website can receive. If either one doesn't have enough bandwidth, then the website will appear slowly. For this reason, you should choose a host with plenty of bandwidth, as well as testing that your site doesn't take too long to download on slow connections.
Browser. A browser is the software (see below) that visitors to your site use to view it. The most popular browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows.
Cookie. Cookies are data files that your site can save on the computer of someone who visits that site, to allow it to remember who they are if they return. You will find that problems people have in ordering from you will almost inevitably be related to cookies -- they will need to have them turned on.
Download. Transferring data from a website to a computer.
Favourite. A favourite is a website that a user has stored to look at again, by choosing 'Add to Favourites' in their browser's menu.
FTP. File Transfer Protocol. This is a common method of uploading (see below) files to your website.
Javascript. A common language for writing 'scripts' on websites, which are small programs that make the site more interactive. Another common cause of problems for visitors.
JPEG. Joint Photographic Experts Group. This is the name of the most popular format for pictures on the web, named after the group that came up with it. If you want to put pictures on your website, you should save them as JPEGs.
Hardware. Hardware is computer equipment that physically exists. It is the opposite of software.
Hosting. If you've got a website out there on the Internet, then you'll be paying someone for hosting. It is the service of making your site available for people to see.
HTML. HyperText Markup Language. A kind of code used to indicate how web pages should be displayed, using a system of small 'tags'. The 'b' tag, for example, causes text to appear in bold, and the 'img' tag displays a picture.
Hyperlink. A hyperlink is when a piece of text on a website can be clicked to take you to another site, or another page on the same site. For example, if clicking your email address on your website allows someone to email you, then your email address is a hyperlink.
Programming. This is when the computer is given instructions to tell it what to do, using one of many 'programming languages'. Programming languages for the web include PHP and Perl.
Server. The server is where your website is stored, and it is the server that people are connecting to when they visit the site. If someone tells you, for example, that your server is 'down', it means that your website is inaccessible. Note that server refers both to the hardware and software of this system.
Software. Programs that run on the computer, or that make your website work. Microsoft Word is software, for example, as is Apache (the most popular web server software). Opposite of hardware.
Spider. Don't be scared if a spider visits your website! Spiders are simply programs used by search engines to scan your site and help them decide where it should appear when people search. It is good to be visited by spiders, as it means you should start appearing in search engines soon.
Upload. Uploading is when you transfer data from your own computer to your website. For example, you might upload your logo, or an article you've written. Opposite of download.
URL. Uniform Resource Locator. This is just a short way of saying 'web address', meaning what you have to type in to get to your website. Sometimes pronounced as 'Earl'.
Showing posts with label backup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label backup. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Remote Backup
Preservation of computer files is essential for the proper functioning of businesses, and therefore, remote backup is becoming a more popular option for many businesses and individuals. One crash can destroy essential files, which, if not recovered, can damage your company's reputation and its ability to function. Remote backup is a relatively inexpensive and easy way to make sure that your files never get lost. Although the best remote backup programs require an investment, in the long run, it is much cheaper and more efficient than hiring an individual to back up your files regularly. Unlike computers, individuals can forget.
The best remote backup programs are internet based, have a high level of security and a good support service. Remote backup usually works on the internet, LAN or ICP/IP network. The remote backup program sends the data to your offsite server. These files can be sent according to a schedule you set, or can be backed up automatically. If you have automatic remote backup, the job is done when the computer is not in use, perhaps in the evenings when there is no one in the office.
Your remote backup program should have version control system, which will make sure your list of file is being continually updated. If you have different versions of a file, you can select which one you want to keep or choose to backup all of them, since a good remote backup program has a lot of memory.
Security is an important concern when considering which remote backup system to chose. The highest quality systems have up to 8 cryptographic methods to conceal your information from hackers. This feature is essential if you have valuable financial information about your customers. In spite of the codes used to disguise your data, you will be able to access the information easily without confusion.
Remote backup works in two parts called the client and the server. The client chooses files to be backed up and compresses them so they can be stored more easily. The server delivers the information to the client through the internet and can use several modems at the same time while handling myriad internet connections. The client marks selected files and stores them in the proper places. These transfers occur quite quickly and the clients are mapped to certain drives, meaning that they know exactly where to send the information. It is possible to exclude some files from remote backup that are not needed, and the user can always pick and choose which files to save.
Many remote backup programs provide bigger backup for little extra cost, if needed. As you company grows, so should your backup, so it is good to know that expansion will not mean a larger priced tag. Disaster recovery systems are also commonly available with remote backup programs, and they will help your computer get up and running again after a crash.
It is a good idea to research on remote backup to decide which program is the right one for you. Perhaps you and your spouse run a small travel agency from your home; you will need smaller backup, but as your company grows, you will need to expand the amount of backup you use. The highest level of security is recommended for small businesses and banks alike, because the average computer user might be more vulnerable to hackers than larger organizations which hire technical staff who are well versed in this area.
Many remote backup programs offer free trials and demos, and it is a good idea to take full advantage of these offers before investing in the right remote backup for your home or office.
The best remote backup programs are internet based, have a high level of security and a good support service. Remote backup usually works on the internet, LAN or ICP/IP network. The remote backup program sends the data to your offsite server. These files can be sent according to a schedule you set, or can be backed up automatically. If you have automatic remote backup, the job is done when the computer is not in use, perhaps in the evenings when there is no one in the office.
Your remote backup program should have version control system, which will make sure your list of file is being continually updated. If you have different versions of a file, you can select which one you want to keep or choose to backup all of them, since a good remote backup program has a lot of memory.
Security is an important concern when considering which remote backup system to chose. The highest quality systems have up to 8 cryptographic methods to conceal your information from hackers. This feature is essential if you have valuable financial information about your customers. In spite of the codes used to disguise your data, you will be able to access the information easily without confusion.
Remote backup works in two parts called the client and the server. The client chooses files to be backed up and compresses them so they can be stored more easily. The server delivers the information to the client through the internet and can use several modems at the same time while handling myriad internet connections. The client marks selected files and stores them in the proper places. These transfers occur quite quickly and the clients are mapped to certain drives, meaning that they know exactly where to send the information. It is possible to exclude some files from remote backup that are not needed, and the user can always pick and choose which files to save.
Many remote backup programs provide bigger backup for little extra cost, if needed. As you company grows, so should your backup, so it is good to know that expansion will not mean a larger priced tag. Disaster recovery systems are also commonly available with remote backup programs, and they will help your computer get up and running again after a crash.
It is a good idea to research on remote backup to decide which program is the right one for you. Perhaps you and your spouse run a small travel agency from your home; you will need smaller backup, but as your company grows, you will need to expand the amount of backup you use. The highest level of security is recommended for small businesses and banks alike, because the average computer user might be more vulnerable to hackers than larger organizations which hire technical staff who are well versed in this area.
Many remote backup programs offer free trials and demos, and it is a good idea to take full advantage of these offers before investing in the right remote backup for your home or office.
Offsite Data Backup or Online Storage, which solution is the most suited to you
Most people still think that backing up to an offsite environment is the same solution as moving files to an online storage system. If you want to know what the differences are, so you are able to make an informed decision, please read on.
Online file storage is a means for moving your digital photos, music, movies and projects off your computer via the internet to a remote storage facility, so you can access them from anywhere, share them with friends. Online file storage works by giving you and thousands of other people storage space on large internet servers. This storage is basically used as an extension to your local storage.
A typical example of use would be anybody how has non-critical data such as MP3, MPG, JPEG files who would wish to store data remotely in case of drive failure or loss and may also wish to share said files with friends. Please note this form of data storage is for file data only and would require manual transfer via ftp. Online storage is ideal for a home user looking to secure or store data offsite.
Offsite Backup is a commercial offering, originally used buy large corporate organizations who could afford high bandwidth connections ensuring their data is backed up to third party locations with highest emphasis placed upon security. As the cost of internet connectivity has greatly reduced, offsite secure backup services have become available to smaller businesses. I am sure you can appreciate, if a company, business or organization was to lose data, it would not know who its customers are, who owes money to whom, therefore creating many more challenges than a home user losing their MP3 collection would face.
It is not just an issue of moving file data to a remote location, there are many other factors a company has to address, such as:
What type of data has to be backed up – most companies will have a database in one form or another such as, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Oracle or Lotus Notes which will be running 24 hours a day. A backup solution must contain agents for backing up the databases in question whilst the database is running and must support multiple operating systems, such as Windows, Novel, Linux and Unix etc.
Security – The data to be backed up is “sensitive” and you would certainly not wish to share this data. Before data is backed up it must be encrypted to the highest levels possible, levels used by your bank or the military for example. Your data must be stored whilst still in the encrypted state ensuring only you have access.
Data Backup can create a large manpower overhead, so your offsite solution must be totally automated requiring no human intervention, set and forget.
The hardware must be dedicated for backup and resilient as possible with no single points of failure and then for good measure this whole infrastructure must be replicated in real time to a second datacenter.
All the above factors will ensure your business data is backed up and available for restore regardless of data disaster.
In summary, online storage, great for home users storing MP3, Video and file data. Offsite data backup is a must for business use.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Online file storage is a means for moving your digital photos, music, movies and projects off your computer via the internet to a remote storage facility, so you can access them from anywhere, share them with friends. Online file storage works by giving you and thousands of other people storage space on large internet servers. This storage is basically used as an extension to your local storage.
A typical example of use would be anybody how has non-critical data such as MP3, MPG, JPEG files who would wish to store data remotely in case of drive failure or loss and may also wish to share said files with friends. Please note this form of data storage is for file data only and would require manual transfer via ftp. Online storage is ideal for a home user looking to secure or store data offsite.
Offsite Backup is a commercial offering, originally used buy large corporate organizations who could afford high bandwidth connections ensuring their data is backed up to third party locations with highest emphasis placed upon security. As the cost of internet connectivity has greatly reduced, offsite secure backup services have become available to smaller businesses. I am sure you can appreciate, if a company, business or organization was to lose data, it would not know who its customers are, who owes money to whom, therefore creating many more challenges than a home user losing their MP3 collection would face.
It is not just an issue of moving file data to a remote location, there are many other factors a company has to address, such as:
What type of data has to be backed up – most companies will have a database in one form or another such as, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, Oracle or Lotus Notes which will be running 24 hours a day. A backup solution must contain agents for backing up the databases in question whilst the database is running and must support multiple operating systems, such as Windows, Novel, Linux and Unix etc.
Security – The data to be backed up is “sensitive” and you would certainly not wish to share this data. Before data is backed up it must be encrypted to the highest levels possible, levels used by your bank or the military for example. Your data must be stored whilst still in the encrypted state ensuring only you have access.
Data Backup can create a large manpower overhead, so your offsite solution must be totally automated requiring no human intervention, set and forget.
The hardware must be dedicated for backup and resilient as possible with no single points of failure and then for good measure this whole infrastructure must be replicated in real time to a second datacenter.
All the above factors will ensure your business data is backed up and available for restore regardless of data disaster.
In summary, online storage, great for home users storing MP3, Video and file data. Offsite data backup is a must for business use.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Offsite Data Backup Exposes Potential Threats of Traditional Tape Backup
Tape backup is notorious for its inadequacy. It is unreliable, as its properties are dependable on human errors and technologically failures. Tapes are prone to mechanical, thermal and other kind of physical intervention, which can reduce their quality. The data recovery from tapes is only 60% true, as most information is lost due to the technical disadvantages. Tape backups can have slower recovery time than any other off-site backup driver. The potential threats that tapes can bring to the extraction of data is stronger than in any types of information containers. So, the next logical question to be posed here is why should rational businessmen or data admins depend on the inadequate tape systems? Offsite backup is much more reliable, faster and efficient, in comparison to the slow and old-fashioned tape backup.
Tapes have a technical annual failure in score of 1 to 12 percent. Due to this technical drawback, you should provide more tapes for containing information, as you can never be sure if they would work or would crack down. The multiple tapes that you will need for storing all the information will gradually ruin your budget, that’s why tape backup is often more expensive than offside backup, but it resumes its inadequate and slow working features nevertheless. The number of tapes that fail from either technical or administrative mistakes is estimated around 60 %. Just imagine the total budget for restoring the lost information: it will be enough to make your bankrupt!
But even more astonishingly, tape backups are still used today in many organizations, which are storing all their valuable files on mere tapes. The span that tapes are reliable is about a year: they tend to gradually decay and lose the stored information. Literally every user has experienced a tape deterioration when storing some files. Many end users are seriously disappointed when this happens to them , and start searching for other ways to protect their data. Some companies acquire daily backup regime, which is time and money consuming. Although it serves the requirements put by tape backups, it is highly stressing and can impede the daily regime of the enterprise. Tape backups are likely to have drawbacks, the same as disk . Using both methods is probably the best way to have your data protected.
Recovery procedures in the organizations cost a lot of time and money. You should think of all the things that can cause a disaster, and try to prevent them. You should either hire a security specialist, or make sure your network is protected, or even do both. A disaster recovery planning of a company can be a nerve racking experience for the new employees. The larger you organization is, the more data are likely to vanish into thin air (or network gaps). That’s’ why you should protect the system mainly from hackers , as well as from your own mistakes in file storage.
Offsite backup helps you eliminate the threats posed by ordinary tape backup. You eliminate manual intervention, thus reducing any possible human mistakes that can occur. You make everything works in an automatic and simple way, thus saving a lot of precious time for dealing with other tasks. By automating the entire process, you save installation failures, technical breaks, or property loss. Tape needs physical handling, which surely means MISTAKES: people often make mistakes when dealing with important data. By computizing the whole storing, you can easily reach the expected results, rather than shout at your managers and employers for making something wrong. This whole operation reduces the risks of malfunction up to 20 %: more than a double off the risky percent in tape backup.
Maybe the one and only advantage that tape backup has over digital stores, is that it is removable: it can be moved everywhere, and read everywhere, if you have the proper technology. This is a plus, though, it may soon become a minus: the mobility of the tape backups can also lead to someone taking over your information files. Perhaps it is better if you make an offsite backup.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Tapes have a technical annual failure in score of 1 to 12 percent. Due to this technical drawback, you should provide more tapes for containing information, as you can never be sure if they would work or would crack down. The multiple tapes that you will need for storing all the information will gradually ruin your budget, that’s why tape backup is often more expensive than offside backup, but it resumes its inadequate and slow working features nevertheless. The number of tapes that fail from either technical or administrative mistakes is estimated around 60 %. Just imagine the total budget for restoring the lost information: it will be enough to make your bankrupt!
But even more astonishingly, tape backups are still used today in many organizations, which are storing all their valuable files on mere tapes. The span that tapes are reliable is about a year: they tend to gradually decay and lose the stored information. Literally every user has experienced a tape deterioration when storing some files. Many end users are seriously disappointed when this happens to them , and start searching for other ways to protect their data. Some companies acquire daily backup regime, which is time and money consuming. Although it serves the requirements put by tape backups, it is highly stressing and can impede the daily regime of the enterprise. Tape backups are likely to have drawbacks, the same as disk . Using both methods is probably the best way to have your data protected.
Recovery procedures in the organizations cost a lot of time and money. You should think of all the things that can cause a disaster, and try to prevent them. You should either hire a security specialist, or make sure your network is protected, or even do both. A disaster recovery planning of a company can be a nerve racking experience for the new employees. The larger you organization is, the more data are likely to vanish into thin air (or network gaps). That’s’ why you should protect the system mainly from hackers , as well as from your own mistakes in file storage.
Offsite backup helps you eliminate the threats posed by ordinary tape backup. You eliminate manual intervention, thus reducing any possible human mistakes that can occur. You make everything works in an automatic and simple way, thus saving a lot of precious time for dealing with other tasks. By automating the entire process, you save installation failures, technical breaks, or property loss. Tape needs physical handling, which surely means MISTAKES: people often make mistakes when dealing with important data. By computizing the whole storing, you can easily reach the expected results, rather than shout at your managers and employers for making something wrong. This whole operation reduces the risks of malfunction up to 20 %: more than a double off the risky percent in tape backup.
Maybe the one and only advantage that tape backup has over digital stores, is that it is removable: it can be moved everywhere, and read everywhere, if you have the proper technology. This is a plus, though, it may soon become a minus: the mobility of the tape backups can also lead to someone taking over your information files. Perhaps it is better if you make an offsite backup.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Offsite Backup Companies Store
When you create backups of your data, you must store them somewhere where they can’t be damaged or someone else can access them. For businesses, offsite backup is a well known and popular way to backup files. It offers you several different advantages when compared to other ways, such as CD, DVD, external hard drives, and even servers. One of the biggest advantages to offsite backup is the fact that the backups aren’t stored in your office or business.
Offsite backup companies store your data in state of the art safes, to protect them against fire, flood, and even prying eyes. This can be extremely beneficial if unexpected things have a habit of occurring around your office.
Another great thing about offsite backups are the fact that they can be used as stores for your data. You won’t need to rely on online space, as you can easily go to the company who is storing your data and go through it anytime you wish. You can also use online space with most companies as well. You simply upload your data to their online storage area, then go back anytime you wish and view it. This is a very handy feature, similar to a hosting company.
Another benefit of offsite backup is the fact that your data will always be protected, and you won’t have to use CD or DVDs to do it. CD and DVD storage is great for individuals, although there will be quite a bit of them for most businesses. This can get somewhat costly, but more importantly, it will use a lot of space to store the backup files. They can also become damaged or lost, unlike offsite backup storage.
Offsite storage is also great if your business is in a bad area. If Mother Nature has a habit of bashing your area with floods, fires, or hurricanes, you should look into offsite backup storage immediately. They have ways to protect your information from harm, including anything Mother Nature can dish out. There is no need to worry about natural disasters, system failures, hard drive crashes, or data failure with offsite backup storage.
Even though you may not realize it, the data will be available anytime you need it. Online backup services are available anytime, day or night, and can be accessed anywhere you are. Most are easy to set up, and offers you very impressive security measures.
When it comes to offsite backup, you can store virtually any file you need to, such as text files, e-books, contact record, pictures, music, and anything else you can think of. The storage for online backups are virtually endless, capable of storing everything you need.
Offsite backup storage is ideal for any business or corporation. You can store your data with an online offsite backup, or choose to do it physically in an offsite safe. No matter which method of offsite backup you choose - your data will always be protected, and best of all - it will always be there anytime you need it.
Offsite backup companies store your data in state of the art safes, to protect them against fire, flood, and even prying eyes. This can be extremely beneficial if unexpected things have a habit of occurring around your office.
Another great thing about offsite backups are the fact that they can be used as stores for your data. You won’t need to rely on online space, as you can easily go to the company who is storing your data and go through it anytime you wish. You can also use online space with most companies as well. You simply upload your data to their online storage area, then go back anytime you wish and view it. This is a very handy feature, similar to a hosting company.
Another benefit of offsite backup is the fact that your data will always be protected, and you won’t have to use CD or DVDs to do it. CD and DVD storage is great for individuals, although there will be quite a bit of them for most businesses. This can get somewhat costly, but more importantly, it will use a lot of space to store the backup files. They can also become damaged or lost, unlike offsite backup storage.
Offsite storage is also great if your business is in a bad area. If Mother Nature has a habit of bashing your area with floods, fires, or hurricanes, you should look into offsite backup storage immediately. They have ways to protect your information from harm, including anything Mother Nature can dish out. There is no need to worry about natural disasters, system failures, hard drive crashes, or data failure with offsite backup storage.
Even though you may not realize it, the data will be available anytime you need it. Online backup services are available anytime, day or night, and can be accessed anywhere you are. Most are easy to set up, and offers you very impressive security measures.
When it comes to offsite backup, you can store virtually any file you need to, such as text files, e-books, contact record, pictures, music, and anything else you can think of. The storage for online backups are virtually endless, capable of storing everything you need.
Offsite backup storage is ideal for any business or corporation. You can store your data with an online offsite backup, or choose to do it physically in an offsite safe. No matter which method of offsite backup you choose - your data will always be protected, and best of all - it will always be there anytime you need it.
How on Earth do Companies and Organisations lose Data?
Browsing the web I became engrossed with the concept of data backup and data loss. There is almost an almost unlimited amount of information covering subjects such as how to keep computer and server data secure, how to back-up data, how to restore data, how to replicate data, who will remove your backup tapes to an remote location, which companies can restore data from corrupt disks. With all this information and data technology available I keep asking myself the same question over and over again, how and why is data terminally lost?
Much information on one web site does tend to contradict information on another site, but after all, most companies with sites of this nature are trying to sell you their solution so you will never get an overall unbiased picture, but there is one underlying fact which we can not get away from, a fact that is stated on most sites and the following fact that I totally agree with is, “Data is the lifeline of all companies and organisations; if data is terminally lost then the chances of a company trading efficiently or even surviving after 2 years of the disaster not at all good”. There are various statistics relating to this fact, but it is accepted that 50% to 70% of companies will go out of business within 1 year if data is lost. It is also acknowledged that everything within a business can be replaced, desks, chairs, buildings, even people can be replaced, everything but the data. Imagine, you sit on a chair and it breaks, you buy another one, you get the picture but imagine the consequences of data loss, you don’t know who your customers are, you don’t know who owes you money, you don’t know who you owe money to, you don’t know what orders you have to ship or who you are supposed to be visiting. Dire times are ahead.
Taking all of the above into account I go back to the original question, if people, companies or organisations understand the true value and importance of their data, how do they manage to lose it? Data loss is totally unnecessary and unacceptable! I honestly feel most IT administrators do have the best intentions when it comes the preservation of data. In my experience data loss stems from only a few sources, human error, lack of resource or lack of planning. Total data loss should never occur when hardware fails.
Human error – I forgot to take the tapes offsite when fire or flood struck offsite tape removal company incorrectly labelled your tapes, I did not test the tape prior to backup and consequently my data was not backed up, I forgot to backup! I did not put my tapes in a secure safe and they were stolen overnight. My backup server crashed in the middle of a backup. The web is littered with stories like this; they are almost a comedy of errors. Responsibility for data backup cannot ever be placed upon the shoulders of one person or one team of people, if there is room for human error, then you have a flaw within you backup system.
Lack of resources – If you work for a corporate, your backup and restore system will have probably cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds. You will enjoy an automated disk to disk system replicated to a second remote location. Even though you are replicating to an offsite location, for added security, you will most likely use this second site to backup to tape. This replicated infrastructure is way out of budget for small to medium enterprises backup to tape is still not a cheap task, by the time you have purchased a tape drive, server to fit the drive into, tape media and the backup software you will have spent at least £3,000, plus backing up to tape in the conventional way is still prone to the same potential human errors. The humans that make the error also have to be paid, if a backup solution is not automated then you will have to employ someone to take care of this, I would prefer my staff to be carrying out more proactive, revenue generating tasks.
Lack of planning – probably a harsh way of putting it, a lack of understanding potential disasters may sound more forgiving. It all amounts to the same thing, but a lack of planning was recently highlighted in the UK when the Bunsfield oil terminal exploded. Companies who backed up to tape and secured said tapes in a fire and water proof safe were cruelly exposed when their building collapsed as a result of the explosion, backup tapes could not be recovered for weeks as they were in the safe under hundreds of tonnes of rubble. Their ability to trade was rendered impossible. Most companies feel that this situation will never happen to them, but let’s put this situation into context, Bunsfield is only the fifth largest and one of over 40 oil terminals and depots in the UK all of which are near major towns and cities, so it could happen to you. This case is one of many where buildings have been destroyed and data has been lost as a result.
If you are still with me you will notice I have only mentioned reasons for and ways of losing data. The rapid growth of cheap high speed internet connectivity and consequently the greatly reduced cost of highly secure, fully automated offsite backup solutions is the reason I ask “how can companies and organisations lose data?”
Offsite backup, also known as remote backup, online backup, is a solution that ticks all the boxes for a small to medium companies with limited budget and resource. Why is this the case I hear you ask? If you deal with a reputable company, remote online backup is cost effective, solutions start at around £25 per month, totally automated therefore requires no human intervention resulting in no human error and your data will always be available as it will be replicated between two data centres. To summarise you have an enterprise class backup solution at your disposal for less than the cost of a low end tape drive.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Much information on one web site does tend to contradict information on another site, but after all, most companies with sites of this nature are trying to sell you their solution so you will never get an overall unbiased picture, but there is one underlying fact which we can not get away from, a fact that is stated on most sites and the following fact that I totally agree with is, “Data is the lifeline of all companies and organisations; if data is terminally lost then the chances of a company trading efficiently or even surviving after 2 years of the disaster not at all good”. There are various statistics relating to this fact, but it is accepted that 50% to 70% of companies will go out of business within 1 year if data is lost. It is also acknowledged that everything within a business can be replaced, desks, chairs, buildings, even people can be replaced, everything but the data. Imagine, you sit on a chair and it breaks, you buy another one, you get the picture but imagine the consequences of data loss, you don’t know who your customers are, you don’t know who owes you money, you don’t know who you owe money to, you don’t know what orders you have to ship or who you are supposed to be visiting. Dire times are ahead.
Taking all of the above into account I go back to the original question, if people, companies or organisations understand the true value and importance of their data, how do they manage to lose it? Data loss is totally unnecessary and unacceptable! I honestly feel most IT administrators do have the best intentions when it comes the preservation of data. In my experience data loss stems from only a few sources, human error, lack of resource or lack of planning. Total data loss should never occur when hardware fails.
Human error – I forgot to take the tapes offsite when fire or flood struck offsite tape removal company incorrectly labelled your tapes, I did not test the tape prior to backup and consequently my data was not backed up, I forgot to backup! I did not put my tapes in a secure safe and they were stolen overnight. My backup server crashed in the middle of a backup. The web is littered with stories like this; they are almost a comedy of errors. Responsibility for data backup cannot ever be placed upon the shoulders of one person or one team of people, if there is room for human error, then you have a flaw within you backup system.
Lack of resources – If you work for a corporate, your backup and restore system will have probably cost many hundreds of thousands of pounds. You will enjoy an automated disk to disk system replicated to a second remote location. Even though you are replicating to an offsite location, for added security, you will most likely use this second site to backup to tape. This replicated infrastructure is way out of budget for small to medium enterprises backup to tape is still not a cheap task, by the time you have purchased a tape drive, server to fit the drive into, tape media and the backup software you will have spent at least £3,000, plus backing up to tape in the conventional way is still prone to the same potential human errors. The humans that make the error also have to be paid, if a backup solution is not automated then you will have to employ someone to take care of this, I would prefer my staff to be carrying out more proactive, revenue generating tasks.
Lack of planning – probably a harsh way of putting it, a lack of understanding potential disasters may sound more forgiving. It all amounts to the same thing, but a lack of planning was recently highlighted in the UK when the Bunsfield oil terminal exploded. Companies who backed up to tape and secured said tapes in a fire and water proof safe were cruelly exposed when their building collapsed as a result of the explosion, backup tapes could not be recovered for weeks as they were in the safe under hundreds of tonnes of rubble. Their ability to trade was rendered impossible. Most companies feel that this situation will never happen to them, but let’s put this situation into context, Bunsfield is only the fifth largest and one of over 40 oil terminals and depots in the UK all of which are near major towns and cities, so it could happen to you. This case is one of many where buildings have been destroyed and data has been lost as a result.
If you are still with me you will notice I have only mentioned reasons for and ways of losing data. The rapid growth of cheap high speed internet connectivity and consequently the greatly reduced cost of highly secure, fully automated offsite backup solutions is the reason I ask “how can companies and organisations lose data?”
Offsite backup, also known as remote backup, online backup, is a solution that ticks all the boxes for a small to medium companies with limited budget and resource. Why is this the case I hear you ask? If you deal with a reputable company, remote online backup is cost effective, solutions start at around £25 per month, totally automated therefore requires no human intervention resulting in no human error and your data will always be available as it will be replicated between two data centres. To summarise you have an enterprise class backup solution at your disposal for less than the cost of a low end tape drive.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Data Recovery Services: What To Do When Your Hard Drive Fails
According to most people, there are two types of hard drives: those that have failed and those that will fail. But for folks who use Data Recovery Services, there is a third type of hard drive: one that does not fail.
A hard drive is the most vulnerable part of a computer; it has moving gears and is hence prone to wear and tear. So when you need hard disk data recovery, you must deeply consider the service and practice of the various repair companies in your area. A company that has been around the block more than a few times is ideal.
But more importantly, experts that ask questions and appreciate your situation are a necessity; companies that approach your needs in an impersonal way simply cannot diagnose your computer problems properly. For example, an expert who is on hand to ask specific questions about your hard disk will know whether or not to go about repair with mere software or through more professional means.
There are a variety of problems that lead to hard drive failure. If the hard drive is part of a mirror set, mirrored stripe set, or stripe set with uniformity, then all you will need to do is replace the drive – any lost data will mechanically regenerate.
A local service company can handle all your concerns though. Fixing a hard drive yourself is a tedious process, requiring lots of time and even research. Your next-door neighbor might be a computer geek, but that doesn’t mean his or her advice is remotely accurate. After all, a computer can fail for many different reasons and they are not always easy to pinpoint.
The ideal solution is usually to replace a failed drive and re-establish your backup. This does not always work though, as many people find the necessary backup is outdated or sometimes, non-existent.
If a hard drive is beyond repair, data recovery is obviously not an option. So prepare for unexpected charges; you might have to buy a whole new drive. In this case, just be careful when replacing it, as you don’t want to lose your data.
A hard drive is the most vulnerable part of a computer; it has moving gears and is hence prone to wear and tear. So when you need hard disk data recovery, you must deeply consider the service and practice of the various repair companies in your area. A company that has been around the block more than a few times is ideal.
But more importantly, experts that ask questions and appreciate your situation are a necessity; companies that approach your needs in an impersonal way simply cannot diagnose your computer problems properly. For example, an expert who is on hand to ask specific questions about your hard disk will know whether or not to go about repair with mere software or through more professional means.
There are a variety of problems that lead to hard drive failure. If the hard drive is part of a mirror set, mirrored stripe set, or stripe set with uniformity, then all you will need to do is replace the drive – any lost data will mechanically regenerate.
A local service company can handle all your concerns though. Fixing a hard drive yourself is a tedious process, requiring lots of time and even research. Your next-door neighbor might be a computer geek, but that doesn’t mean his or her advice is remotely accurate. After all, a computer can fail for many different reasons and they are not always easy to pinpoint.
The ideal solution is usually to replace a failed drive and re-establish your backup. This does not always work though, as many people find the necessary backup is outdated or sometimes, non-existent.
If a hard drive is beyond repair, data recovery is obviously not an option. So prepare for unexpected charges; you might have to buy a whole new drive. In this case, just be careful when replacing it, as you don’t want to lose your data.
Data Recovery Procedures For Hard Drives
Your computer’s data is at risk. Whether you use a Mac or a PC, viruses, power surges, hackers, human error, natural disasters, hardware failures, and more are real everyday threats. To keep your data safe and sound, you will first need to back up your files on a regular basis. Secondly, when hard drive failure does occur, data recovery is the only solution.
Of course it is ideal to back up data and avoid the complicated process that is data recovery altogether, but even when you take the necessary steps to prepare for hard drive damage, you might run into problems.
Here are some procedures to follow if you experience trouble.
If a program is not functioning well on your computer, turn the computer off! This may seem a simple task, but shutting down a computer at the moment you notice your hard drive to be working overtime – perhaps you hear unusual sounds (like “cleaning”) – can prevent damage to the disk and data loss. If you let a failed hard drive run, it will eventually self-destruct. Damage to your disk is inevitable in this scenario.
If this is the case, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, don’t fix your computer yourself. Professional expertise is not a luxury in this situation – it is a must. Data recovery is a difficult and sensitive process requiring special tools and a clean environment. Not only will it be tremendously challenging to repair a hard drive on your own, but you might actually make matters worse and ensure irreversible data loss.
There is “do-it-yourself” data recovery software, but be cautious of things like this. With most computer problems of this nature, at-home instructions can be more dangerous than useful. Even if a company boasts that its products and instructions will handle your vulnerable data properly, it is important to be a skeptical consumer.
A local service provider is the average solution. Repair can happen on your own premises and you can be assured that your computer is in good hands. However, there is always the possibility that your hard drive is beyond repair – even for expert technicians – so be prepared to buy a new hard drive altogether; data recovery may not be an option any more.
Of course it is ideal to back up data and avoid the complicated process that is data recovery altogether, but even when you take the necessary steps to prepare for hard drive damage, you might run into problems.
Here are some procedures to follow if you experience trouble.
If a program is not functioning well on your computer, turn the computer off! This may seem a simple task, but shutting down a computer at the moment you notice your hard drive to be working overtime – perhaps you hear unusual sounds (like “cleaning”) – can prevent damage to the disk and data loss. If you let a failed hard drive run, it will eventually self-destruct. Damage to your disk is inevitable in this scenario.
If this is the case, unless you know exactly what you’re doing, don’t fix your computer yourself. Professional expertise is not a luxury in this situation – it is a must. Data recovery is a difficult and sensitive process requiring special tools and a clean environment. Not only will it be tremendously challenging to repair a hard drive on your own, but you might actually make matters worse and ensure irreversible data loss.
There is “do-it-yourself” data recovery software, but be cautious of things like this. With most computer problems of this nature, at-home instructions can be more dangerous than useful. Even if a company boasts that its products and instructions will handle your vulnerable data properly, it is important to be a skeptical consumer.
A local service provider is the average solution. Repair can happen on your own premises and you can be assured that your computer is in good hands. However, there is always the possibility that your hard drive is beyond repair – even for expert technicians – so be prepared to buy a new hard drive altogether; data recovery may not be an option any more.
Data Backup - Do you have a backup and data recovery plan in place
Data backup is rarely a part of a home computer user’s or business IT administrator’s plans, we all say it will never happen to me or my company, but in reality we are just mentally preparing for the time we lose our data. Its like trying to stop smoking, we all know we should do it but will find every excuse not to. So be honest with yourself and ask yourself the question, do you have a backup plan for your data, or more importantly, do you have a restore plan which will protect your business should something go wrong? All business leaders and owners will now tell you that computers are way past being a useful part of our lives, but now they are an absolute necessity. We acknowledge the data which resides on our computer infrastructure is the most important asset of any organization. I ask again, what would happen if you lost your data and what are you doing to protect it?
The reasons for data loss are endless, human intervention, hardware failure, software failure, natural disaster, loss, theft, we can go on, but we can be sure of one thing, as time goes by the list will get longer and longer.
Ever had anything stolen or lost anything before?
I have been in the IT industry for some 25 years now, and as you can imagine, I have heard some bizarre stories of how computers and servers have been stolen. Laptops stolen from back seats of cars (data lost), a colleague forgot he left his laptop on the roof of his car; problem is he realized when he was 160 miles down the road (lost data). My friend’s office was broken in twice in two nights, first time resulted in loss of desktop computers and totally trashed alarm system (some data loss), and second night was to take the servers along with the backup device and media! Apparently the heavy stuff was stolen the second night as the thief’s had more time due to the alarm not being repaired quickly enough (total data loss and company ceased trading within 8 months). Save yourself money; prevent data loss in the first place by implementing a data backup plan.
Hardware Failure
If you have managed to never lose your laptop or have you whole IT infrastructure stolen then well done, so now let’s prepare ourselves for hardware failure. There are mainly only three mechanical parts within a laptop, computer or server; 1) hard drive, 2) backup drive 3) CD or DVD. Hard drives do fail and if it has not happen yet it will. Don’t get me wrong, if you take a failed drive to an expert, they will probably get most of your data back (phew) but expect to pay in excess of £5000 for the pleasure (not phew). Save yourself money; prevent data loss in the first place by implementing a data backup plan.
Fire or Disaster (natural or not).
I live in the UK, it’s a lovely place as we don’t have issues with forest fires, earth quakes, and hurricanes etc. so there will never be any large natural disaster which will wipe out the majority of a city. This is what I thought until the Bunsfield oil refinery blew up and flattened everything within a 3 mile radius. There are a million and one reasons and scenarios I can give you illustrating why you should backup your business data. We all know the practice of data backup is nothing more than good common sense. Mission critical or sensitive data you don't want or can not afford to lose should be secured. PROTECT YOUR DATA! If you honestly think you do not need to backup your data because you will never lose it, please stop reading this article now and go and do something less boring.
Let’s talk about the various ways of securing your data and other backup services. If you take the following on board you will be able to find the solution which will best suit you or your company.
Backup to CD solution.
To backup your file data to CD is easy, it may be time consuming to do this every night and you will have to be disciplined to put up to an hour aside to carry out this task every night. To backup data to a CD drive is not an automated process and we all know people get busy. Once you have backed your data to CD please always verify that the data is actually on the CD and then take it home with you. There is no point leaving it to be stolen or destroyed by fire along with your hardware.
Please do not us a CD to archive data (safe documents for a long time) as I would not expect this form of media to remain stable for more than 2 years.
Backing up to CD has many limitations but it is certainly better than not backing up your data at all.
RAID – Not backup but will protect your server disks.
All servers should be given every opportunity to stay alive, running a RAID configuration will help prevent data loss due to hard drive failure. If you have 3 drives running in a RAID 5 configuration, your server will tolerate a single drive failure. RAID will not protect you from fire, flood, theft or any other disaster waiting to happen, but does offer business continuity.
This solution doesn't usually protect you from theft as the extra hard drives for RAID storage are usually installed in your computer or in other equipment on site. It usually won't protect you from fire either so this method does have its limitations.
Secure Offsite Data Backup and Recovery via a third party organization.
Offsite Backup or Backing up via the Internet methods are usually associated with larger enterprise companies. In the past the high cost of high speed connectivity has been prohibitive to smaller companies.
This method of data backup is now become totally accepted and is gaining momentum around the globe. The main reason for such grown is because the price of high speed internet connections has greatly reduced, virtually every business and home is connected to the internet via a minimum 2MB pipe as a result it is now possible to backup high volumes of data to a secure offsite data centre.
For me, the best element of an offsite backup solution is not the high encryption security levels in place, the price or the purpose designed replicated infrastructure where your data is stored, but it is the fact that an offsite backup solution is a totally automated process. Set and forget, once you have set the software to backup your data at a certain time of every day you can just forget it and let it get on with its job of protecting your data.
If I controlled your backup process, I would implement all three of the options mentioned. A RAID system for business continuity, offsite backup to securely protect all my business data, and to enable a quick restore, a CD backup of just my mission critical data which will keep my business running.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
The reasons for data loss are endless, human intervention, hardware failure, software failure, natural disaster, loss, theft, we can go on, but we can be sure of one thing, as time goes by the list will get longer and longer.
Ever had anything stolen or lost anything before?
I have been in the IT industry for some 25 years now, and as you can imagine, I have heard some bizarre stories of how computers and servers have been stolen. Laptops stolen from back seats of cars (data lost), a colleague forgot he left his laptop on the roof of his car; problem is he realized when he was 160 miles down the road (lost data). My friend’s office was broken in twice in two nights, first time resulted in loss of desktop computers and totally trashed alarm system (some data loss), and second night was to take the servers along with the backup device and media! Apparently the heavy stuff was stolen the second night as the thief’s had more time due to the alarm not being repaired quickly enough (total data loss and company ceased trading within 8 months). Save yourself money; prevent data loss in the first place by implementing a data backup plan.
Hardware Failure
If you have managed to never lose your laptop or have you whole IT infrastructure stolen then well done, so now let’s prepare ourselves for hardware failure. There are mainly only three mechanical parts within a laptop, computer or server; 1) hard drive, 2) backup drive 3) CD or DVD. Hard drives do fail and if it has not happen yet it will. Don’t get me wrong, if you take a failed drive to an expert, they will probably get most of your data back (phew) but expect to pay in excess of £5000 for the pleasure (not phew). Save yourself money; prevent data loss in the first place by implementing a data backup plan.
Fire or Disaster (natural or not).
I live in the UK, it’s a lovely place as we don’t have issues with forest fires, earth quakes, and hurricanes etc. so there will never be any large natural disaster which will wipe out the majority of a city. This is what I thought until the Bunsfield oil refinery blew up and flattened everything within a 3 mile radius. There are a million and one reasons and scenarios I can give you illustrating why you should backup your business data. We all know the practice of data backup is nothing more than good common sense. Mission critical or sensitive data you don't want or can not afford to lose should be secured. PROTECT YOUR DATA! If you honestly think you do not need to backup your data because you will never lose it, please stop reading this article now and go and do something less boring.
Let’s talk about the various ways of securing your data and other backup services. If you take the following on board you will be able to find the solution which will best suit you or your company.
Backup to CD solution.
To backup your file data to CD is easy, it may be time consuming to do this every night and you will have to be disciplined to put up to an hour aside to carry out this task every night. To backup data to a CD drive is not an automated process and we all know people get busy. Once you have backed your data to CD please always verify that the data is actually on the CD and then take it home with you. There is no point leaving it to be stolen or destroyed by fire along with your hardware.
Please do not us a CD to archive data (safe documents for a long time) as I would not expect this form of media to remain stable for more than 2 years.
Backing up to CD has many limitations but it is certainly better than not backing up your data at all.
RAID – Not backup but will protect your server disks.
All servers should be given every opportunity to stay alive, running a RAID configuration will help prevent data loss due to hard drive failure. If you have 3 drives running in a RAID 5 configuration, your server will tolerate a single drive failure. RAID will not protect you from fire, flood, theft or any other disaster waiting to happen, but does offer business continuity.
This solution doesn't usually protect you from theft as the extra hard drives for RAID storage are usually installed in your computer or in other equipment on site. It usually won't protect you from fire either so this method does have its limitations.
Secure Offsite Data Backup and Recovery via a third party organization.
Offsite Backup or Backing up via the Internet methods are usually associated with larger enterprise companies. In the past the high cost of high speed connectivity has been prohibitive to smaller companies.
This method of data backup is now become totally accepted and is gaining momentum around the globe. The main reason for such grown is because the price of high speed internet connections has greatly reduced, virtually every business and home is connected to the internet via a minimum 2MB pipe as a result it is now possible to backup high volumes of data to a secure offsite data centre.
For me, the best element of an offsite backup solution is not the high encryption security levels in place, the price or the purpose designed replicated infrastructure where your data is stored, but it is the fact that an offsite backup solution is a totally automated process. Set and forget, once you have set the software to backup your data at a certain time of every day you can just forget it and let it get on with its job of protecting your data.
If I controlled your backup process, I would implement all three of the options mentioned. A RAID system for business continuity, offsite backup to securely protect all my business data, and to enable a quick restore, a CD backup of just my mission critical data which will keep my business running.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Consequences of data loss and Why should Offsite Backup be used
There is a calculated trend in all business corporations and firms: when the enterprise is getting bigger, its support of data increases its complexity, volume and value. The larger your enterprise is, the more significant your data files become. The traditional tape backup can no longer produce in-depth data information about all the important features of your business. That’s why many people get acknowledged to a more adequate file protection. A secure offsite backup system can be the possible solution. Business owners and offices managers have got it straight: if the business is to flourish, precise data information storage should be used.
Offsite backup systems offer something, which no other data store can do: they protect to the greatest extent all your files. But why should they do that, you may ask. Imagine you are a business owner. You have your own office computer, which is crammed up with all the valuable info. Well, what if the computer gets stolen, or a short-cut puts it out of practice? What will happen to your enterprise? If you are still not convinced enough to the rational extent, let’s consider the following statistic data. 1 in every 4 computer users suffers a critical data loss every year. Last years over 500,000 were stolen. Disk and other hardware failures are so numerous that major disk and computer manufacturers/resellers are reducing their warranties to 12 months. Over 25% of data loss is a result of computer program errors, software viruses and natural disasters (factors completely out of your control). 50% of businesses that lose their data never open their doors again. Of those businesses that do manage to stay open, 90% end up failing within two years. Data loss will cost business an estimated £12 Billion this year.
Still not believing? Consider the following fact: computer experts say that once data is lost, it can no longer be recovered to the full. Some data that contains pieces of valuable information will be forever lost in the digital space, with no hope of getting it back. Disaster recovery planning (DV) often fails to extract the lost files in the similar way as they were before the disaster struck. This happens because of the various regulations and compliance, which occur during the recovery process.
Data loss can happen to anyone, no matter how good the tape protection system is. There is no tape backup that can comprise all the valuable information without omitting some precious stuff. Text documents, financial records, contact records, address books, email messages and databases that you have created on your computer or servers may disappear forever unless you take a serious action to prevent it. The lost files are hard to recover, and it takes a lot of precious time and nerve-racking to recover even to the approximate extent the ruined system as it was before the disaster. The value of data highly exceed the mere cost of your computer or server, as you have to pay a great amount of money for reproducing the whole information as it was before the crack down. So, the most reasonable thing to do, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money afterwards, is to re-ensure your system using secure online backups.
Even though that is the sacred truth, most people avoid taking backup precautions. They leave their data files unprotected, and thus expose their business on the danger of bankrupt. Why do people do it? Because of laziness, because they don’t want to spend additional money, or just because they think that would never happen to them. Is it so hard to take some pre-consideration and backup your data? Sooner or later, everyone gets a strike in their unprotected file systems. Then it is too late to split hairs over the lost information. You should better take the action in advance and construct a data backup system, so that your files are fully protected and your business is ensured.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions,
please visit www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Offsite backup systems offer something, which no other data store can do: they protect to the greatest extent all your files. But why should they do that, you may ask. Imagine you are a business owner. You have your own office computer, which is crammed up with all the valuable info. Well, what if the computer gets stolen, or a short-cut puts it out of practice? What will happen to your enterprise? If you are still not convinced enough to the rational extent, let’s consider the following statistic data. 1 in every 4 computer users suffers a critical data loss every year. Last years over 500,000 were stolen. Disk and other hardware failures are so numerous that major disk and computer manufacturers/resellers are reducing their warranties to 12 months. Over 25% of data loss is a result of computer program errors, software viruses and natural disasters (factors completely out of your control). 50% of businesses that lose their data never open their doors again. Of those businesses that do manage to stay open, 90% end up failing within two years. Data loss will cost business an estimated £12 Billion this year.
Still not believing? Consider the following fact: computer experts say that once data is lost, it can no longer be recovered to the full. Some data that contains pieces of valuable information will be forever lost in the digital space, with no hope of getting it back. Disaster recovery planning (DV) often fails to extract the lost files in the similar way as they were before the disaster struck. This happens because of the various regulations and compliance, which occur during the recovery process.
Data loss can happen to anyone, no matter how good the tape protection system is. There is no tape backup that can comprise all the valuable information without omitting some precious stuff. Text documents, financial records, contact records, address books, email messages and databases that you have created on your computer or servers may disappear forever unless you take a serious action to prevent it. The lost files are hard to recover, and it takes a lot of precious time and nerve-racking to recover even to the approximate extent the ruined system as it was before the disaster. The value of data highly exceed the mere cost of your computer or server, as you have to pay a great amount of money for reproducing the whole information as it was before the crack down. So, the most reasonable thing to do, if you don’t want to spend a lot of money afterwards, is to re-ensure your system using secure online backups.
Even though that is the sacred truth, most people avoid taking backup precautions. They leave their data files unprotected, and thus expose their business on the danger of bankrupt. Why do people do it? Because of laziness, because they don’t want to spend additional money, or just because they think that would never happen to them. Is it so hard to take some pre-consideration and backup your data? Sooner or later, everyone gets a strike in their unprotected file systems. Then it is too late to split hairs over the lost information. You should better take the action in advance and construct a data backup system, so that your files are fully protected and your business is ensured.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions,
please visit www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Companies must be prepared for data storage and backup compliance
Companies must account and deal for new legislation governing how information is stored on IT systems.
The EU is shortly to adopt many of the recommendations on corporate governance set out by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, UK firms are to be expected to deal with and manage explicit guidelines on how to store email and other documents on their IT systems. IT managers should consider the necessary procedures and technologies needed for compliance now, in order ensure technology is able to deal with the new legislation.
Regulations regarding data storage at the moment are fairly lax, but there will be a huge increase in the amount of data than must be held over the next 18 months to two years.
Email archiving, the increased use of expencive write-once read-many media, information lifecycle management and content-aware storage as a few of the technologies which firms should consider for the future, though in some cases companies will simply need to improve the way they manage existing systems.
It is anticipated that new legislations will demand that an organizations’ archiving solutions must guarantee that the information they hold has not been changed, and keep it for a specific period of time before automatically deleting it.
A survey of 493 companies in the UK has shown that compliance with regulations has a high or fairly significant impact on the data storage strategies of 87% of the organisations surveyed. Back-up and recovery was also very important to the data protection strategy of 93% of organisations.
78% of organisations future storage strategy is set to include Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape technology. This may be due to the highly affordable and flexible nature of this new technology. For example, recent deployments of disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) solutions by various companies have, on average, reduced the backup window by more than 70%, from fifteen hours to less than four, yielding significant time and cost savings in tape management.
Interestingly, product features were far more important than the brand of the product, with 82% of organisations making a decision based on product features. When it came to the decision of choosing a specialist storage supplier or a general IT provider for storage solutions there was a very slight preference for specialised storage suppliers (51%) over general IT providers (49%).
This survey shows that compliance with regulations is a key driver in companies' storage security policy and that we are likely to see more companies deploying Disk to Disk to Tape technology in the future.
All the above is fine if you are a corporate, you have an annual IT budget of £500,000 and numerous members of staff who can plan and complete such a system. Is it very easy to talk about SANs, NAS’s Virtual Tape Libaries. Organisations of this nature already have a very stable and flexible infrastructure, where it is comparably easier to implement such a system.
What about the 1000’s of smaller companies such as solicitors, accountants, medical practices and manufactures etc, which may have only 2 servers on site, but still have the same reliance on data and have to adhere to the same legislations? Backup to tape is an option, however, there is an upfront cost and a requirement for a trusted member of staff to take the tapes off site every night and store in a safe place. Can you guarantee your backup has worked, and do you really trust your long term data on magnetic media? Another option is to archive your data onto optical devices, however the cost is even more prohibitive than tape and you still need to take the disk offsite.
No doubt your data is growing quickly; recently enforced legislations makes sure of this, so why not employ a backup and archival solution which has no upfront cost, is fully automated, secure and regardless of disaster will ensure your data is always available, Offsite Backup.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
The EU is shortly to adopt many of the recommendations on corporate governance set out by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, UK firms are to be expected to deal with and manage explicit guidelines on how to store email and other documents on their IT systems. IT managers should consider the necessary procedures and technologies needed for compliance now, in order ensure technology is able to deal with the new legislation.
Regulations regarding data storage at the moment are fairly lax, but there will be a huge increase in the amount of data than must be held over the next 18 months to two years.
Email archiving, the increased use of expencive write-once read-many media, information lifecycle management and content-aware storage as a few of the technologies which firms should consider for the future, though in some cases companies will simply need to improve the way they manage existing systems.
It is anticipated that new legislations will demand that an organizations’ archiving solutions must guarantee that the information they hold has not been changed, and keep it for a specific period of time before automatically deleting it.
A survey of 493 companies in the UK has shown that compliance with regulations has a high or fairly significant impact on the data storage strategies of 87% of the organisations surveyed. Back-up and recovery was also very important to the data protection strategy of 93% of organisations.
78% of organisations future storage strategy is set to include Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape technology. This may be due to the highly affordable and flexible nature of this new technology. For example, recent deployments of disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) solutions by various companies have, on average, reduced the backup window by more than 70%, from fifteen hours to less than four, yielding significant time and cost savings in tape management.
Interestingly, product features were far more important than the brand of the product, with 82% of organisations making a decision based on product features. When it came to the decision of choosing a specialist storage supplier or a general IT provider for storage solutions there was a very slight preference for specialised storage suppliers (51%) over general IT providers (49%).
This survey shows that compliance with regulations is a key driver in companies' storage security policy and that we are likely to see more companies deploying Disk to Disk to Tape technology in the future.
All the above is fine if you are a corporate, you have an annual IT budget of £500,000 and numerous members of staff who can plan and complete such a system. Is it very easy to talk about SANs, NAS’s Virtual Tape Libaries. Organisations of this nature already have a very stable and flexible infrastructure, where it is comparably easier to implement such a system.
What about the 1000’s of smaller companies such as solicitors, accountants, medical practices and manufactures etc, which may have only 2 servers on site, but still have the same reliance on data and have to adhere to the same legislations? Backup to tape is an option, however, there is an upfront cost and a requirement for a trusted member of staff to take the tapes off site every night and store in a safe place. Can you guarantee your backup has worked, and do you really trust your long term data on magnetic media? Another option is to archive your data onto optical devices, however the cost is even more prohibitive than tape and you still need to take the disk offsite.
No doubt your data is growing quickly; recently enforced legislations makes sure of this, so why not employ a backup and archival solution which has no upfront cost, is fully automated, secure and regardless of disaster will ensure your data is always available, Offsite Backup.
To find out more information about secure offsite data backup solutions, please visit
www.perfectbackup.co.uk
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
5 Reasons For Owning A USB Flash Drive
There have been a number of wonderful inventions during the 20th and 21st century. Some of these creations have been both massive and minute. Very few of mankinds modern creations have revolutionized working life so much as the USB flash drive though. Ok now that might seem a bit much for some people but the reality remains the same - USB flash drives have made the working lives of millions of office workers, teachers, students, IT and other professionals massively more simple. If you already one (or a few) USB flash drives then you'll know just how incredibly useful they are. If you don't already own at least one USB memory stick then hopefully this article will help convince you of their absolute usefulness in both your working and personal life.
So what's so great about USB flash drives?
Small
Prior to the creation of USB flash drives all external storage devices for computers were either bulky or awkward (dozens of blank discs for example) or sometimes an annoying combination of being both bulky and awkward. USB flash drives are also called Thumb Drives because they're about the size of your thumb (although some are much smaller now) and you can easily fit several gigabytes of data in your jeans or shirt pocket thus eliminating the bulky and awkward factor straight away.
Portable
USB flash drives are about the single most portable data backup device possible. They don't require an external power source of any kind, nor do you need any cables or tools to set them up and last but not least they don't require any additional software to be installed for them to work on any modern computer (Windows XP, 2000 and Vista and most Macs) so you can quite literally pick them up and use them anywhere you want.
Reliable
Once the data is stored on a USB flash drive you can rest assured that it's going to stay there and be there when you next need it. This is totally unlike the world of floppy disks or rewriteable CD/DVD discs where they can just stop working for no apparent reason. Flash drives were built to provide consistent and reliable performance. Most of these drives come with built-in write protection to prevent you from overwriting your own important data - if you were silly enough to do so.
Tough
For years people fiddled with boxes of floppy disks and CDs/DVDs. These were bulky, easily lost and easily damaged. External hard drives also provided another method of transporting data between systems but the smallest jolt was and is enough to kill an external hard disk stone dead. USB flash drives are based on what's called Solid State Memory - this simply means that it's the same as standard computer memory in that it has no moving parts and is therefore almost impossible to damage (except for jumping up and down on it or maybe hitting it with a hammer for example. Please don't test either of these theories at home!)
Mass Storage
The first USB thumb drives only offered between 16MB and 64MB of storage space. The incredible popularity of these drives has driven the desire for more and more storage space to new heights every few months. Currently 8GB USB drives are becoming pretty common and it won't be long before the 12GB and 24GB models hit the market. To put this in perspective 8GB is enough to hold 2 full DVD quality movies or about 2,700 high quality MP3 files - surely this is enough for you? No?
The portability of the USB flash drive combined with reliability and the more than generous storage provided by such a tiny device make them the smart choice for anyone who needs to move files between PCs or simply just keep a second copy of their most precious data on a secure and reliable storage device.
So what's so great about USB flash drives?
Small
Prior to the creation of USB flash drives all external storage devices for computers were either bulky or awkward (dozens of blank discs for example) or sometimes an annoying combination of being both bulky and awkward. USB flash drives are also called Thumb Drives because they're about the size of your thumb (although some are much smaller now) and you can easily fit several gigabytes of data in your jeans or shirt pocket thus eliminating the bulky and awkward factor straight away.
Portable
USB flash drives are about the single most portable data backup device possible. They don't require an external power source of any kind, nor do you need any cables or tools to set them up and last but not least they don't require any additional software to be installed for them to work on any modern computer (Windows XP, 2000 and Vista and most Macs) so you can quite literally pick them up and use them anywhere you want.
Reliable
Once the data is stored on a USB flash drive you can rest assured that it's going to stay there and be there when you next need it. This is totally unlike the world of floppy disks or rewriteable CD/DVD discs where they can just stop working for no apparent reason. Flash drives were built to provide consistent and reliable performance. Most of these drives come with built-in write protection to prevent you from overwriting your own important data - if you were silly enough to do so.
Tough
For years people fiddled with boxes of floppy disks and CDs/DVDs. These were bulky, easily lost and easily damaged. External hard drives also provided another method of transporting data between systems but the smallest jolt was and is enough to kill an external hard disk stone dead. USB flash drives are based on what's called Solid State Memory - this simply means that it's the same as standard computer memory in that it has no moving parts and is therefore almost impossible to damage (except for jumping up and down on it or maybe hitting it with a hammer for example. Please don't test either of these theories at home!)
Mass Storage
The first USB thumb drives only offered between 16MB and 64MB of storage space. The incredible popularity of these drives has driven the desire for more and more storage space to new heights every few months. Currently 8GB USB drives are becoming pretty common and it won't be long before the 12GB and 24GB models hit the market. To put this in perspective 8GB is enough to hold 2 full DVD quality movies or about 2,700 high quality MP3 files - surely this is enough for you? No?
The portability of the USB flash drive combined with reliability and the more than generous storage provided by such a tiny device make them the smart choice for anyone who needs to move files between PCs or simply just keep a second copy of their most precious data on a secure and reliable storage device.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Cisco CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam Tutorial: Comparing IRDP And HSRP
To pass the BSCI exam, you need to know the difference between IRDP and HSRP. While they have the same basic function, the operation and configuration of each are totally different.
The aim of both is to allow hosts to quickly discover a standby router when the primary router fails. IRDP is commonly used by Windows DHCP clients and several Unix variations, but you do see it in Cisco routers as well. IRDP is defined in RFC 1256.
IRDP routers will multicast Hello messages that host devices hear. If a host hears from more than one IRDP router, it will choose one as its primary and will start using the other router if the primary it's chosen goes down.
HSRP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that is designed for quick cutover to a secondary router if the primary fails, but the host devices don't "see" either the primary or secondary router. The hosts use a virtual router as their default gateway. This virtual router has its own IP and MAC address! All the while, the router chosen as the primary is actually the one doing the routing. If the primary router goes down, the secondary router quickly takes over with no major interruption to network services.
The HSRP routers communicate by multicasting updates to 224.0.0.2, and its through these hellos that the HSRP routers decide which router is primary and which is secondary. HSRP is defined in RFC 2281.
The configuration of each of these will be covered in a future tutorial. In the meantime, I urge you to read the RFCs mentioned in this article, and visit www.cisco.com/univercd to read about the configurations and options available for both of these vital protocols.
The aim of both is to allow hosts to quickly discover a standby router when the primary router fails. IRDP is commonly used by Windows DHCP clients and several Unix variations, but you do see it in Cisco routers as well. IRDP is defined in RFC 1256.
IRDP routers will multicast Hello messages that host devices hear. If a host hears from more than one IRDP router, it will choose one as its primary and will start using the other router if the primary it's chosen goes down.
HSRP is a Cisco-proprietary protocol that is designed for quick cutover to a secondary router if the primary fails, but the host devices don't "see" either the primary or secondary router. The hosts use a virtual router as their default gateway. This virtual router has its own IP and MAC address! All the while, the router chosen as the primary is actually the one doing the routing. If the primary router goes down, the secondary router quickly takes over with no major interruption to network services.
The HSRP routers communicate by multicasting updates to 224.0.0.2, and its through these hellos that the HSRP routers decide which router is primary and which is secondary. HSRP is defined in RFC 2281.
The configuration of each of these will be covered in a future tutorial. In the meantime, I urge you to read the RFCs mentioned in this article, and visit www.cisco.com/univercd to read about the configurations and options available for both of these vital protocols.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Cisco CCNA Certification Exam Tutorial: OSPF Hub-And-Spoke
CCNA certification demands that you master the basics of OSPF, and for many studying for the CCNA exam, their first exposure to OSPF is a hub-and-spoke configuration. That's a tough way to get started, because a hub-and-spoke configuration built over an NBMA technology such as Frame Relay requires quite a bit of attention to detail. Let's take a quick look at several common OSPF configuration errors and how to avoid them on your CCNA test.
Make sure the hub is the designated router and that there are no backup designated routers. This is done by setting the OSPF interface priority to zero on the spoke routers. This not only ensures that the hub wins the DR election with its default OSPF interface priority of 1, but it prevents the spokes from ever having a chance to become the DR or BDR.
Configure neighbor statements on the hub. Since we're dealing with an NBMA network, the hub cannot dynamically discover its neighbors. Neighbor statements are not needed on the spokes. (They don't hurt anything, but they don't do anything, either.)
Finally, if your OSPF adjacencies do not form as expected, make sure to use your OSI model knowledge to approach the problem. The issue may actually be at Layer Two, with your Frame Relay configuration. If you don't use the "broadcast" option on your frame relay statements, OSPF hellos will not be transmitted successfully between potential neighbors. OSPF hellos are multicast, but the "broadcast" option for Frame Relay includes multicasts.
By paying special attention to these details, you're that much close to CCNA exam day success and earning your certification. I recommend that you get some experience with configuring OSPF hub-and-spoke before taking the CCNA exam, because it’s by actually performing tasks such as this that makes you supremely confident on CCNA test day.
Make sure the hub is the designated router and that there are no backup designated routers. This is done by setting the OSPF interface priority to zero on the spoke routers. This not only ensures that the hub wins the DR election with its default OSPF interface priority of 1, but it prevents the spokes from ever having a chance to become the DR or BDR.
Configure neighbor statements on the hub. Since we're dealing with an NBMA network, the hub cannot dynamically discover its neighbors. Neighbor statements are not needed on the spokes. (They don't hurt anything, but they don't do anything, either.)
Finally, if your OSPF adjacencies do not form as expected, make sure to use your OSI model knowledge to approach the problem. The issue may actually be at Layer Two, with your Frame Relay configuration. If you don't use the "broadcast" option on your frame relay statements, OSPF hellos will not be transmitted successfully between potential neighbors. OSPF hellos are multicast, but the "broadcast" option for Frame Relay includes multicasts.
By paying special attention to these details, you're that much close to CCNA exam day success and earning your certification. I recommend that you get some experience with configuring OSPF hub-and-spoke before taking the CCNA exam, because it’s by actually performing tasks such as this that makes you supremely confident on CCNA test day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
