Data Loss and Plans for Recovery
By Russell Weiss
"One of my clients recently required a lot of bandwidth for hosting video seminars. After evaluating several companies, and touring InfoRelay's data center, the client signed with InfoRelay, and remarked that they were very grateful to me for recommending them, as they have been very happy with InfoRelay's network performance and personalized customer service."
- Jessica Piscitelli |
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On your way to work, you slowly sip hot coffee as your favorite song begins to play. Traffic’s not too bad. You have time to stop at an ATM before work. The ATM grabs hold of your card, and flashes a message that sends shivers down your spine – “ACCOUNT NOT FOUND.” You go into the branch only to encounter sheer pandemonium. The local police department has already been called in to ensure the safety of the bank tellers; people don’t react well when told that all of their account data has been lost.
The above situation is very unlikely. In addition to having very strict internal controls, banks are audited by regulatory commissions to ensure that something like this could never happen.
What about your own business? Have you stopped to consider what effect data loss – or simply losing access to your data might have on you? Whether you’re an independent consultant or you manage a multi-million dollar corporation, the effects can be more devastating than you may realize. The odds are not in your favor – human error, computer viruses and worms, and even nature, are working against you. Data loss has hit an all-time high in 20071
What would you do if you lost your list of clients, their contact information, your billing records, or all of the content for your website? If online orders placed via your website are source of revenue, have you considered what might happen to your business if your site went down for hours, days, or weeks? If the thought of such an event evokes a sinking feeling in your stomach, you may want to devote some time to developing a Disaster Recovery Plan, or “DRP.”
While this task may seem intimidating, you’re not alone – consultants and entire companies exist to assist with this task. Asking yourself the questions below will enable you to begin on your own, and consult professionals only if needed.
- Which data powers my business? Determine which data is critical to your business operations. Which data could your business not do without? Also think about the IT infrastructure that powers your business. Is your business heavily dependent on servers, or its Internet/web presence? Make a list of these items for future reference.
- What will it cost me? Spend some time evaluating how much it would cost you to lose the data or critical IT infrastructure that powers your business. Would it be possible to reproduce this data? If so, how long would it take you? Begin to think about the dollar value that you place on your time, as well as the time of your employees. How would this affect your business operations?
- What could cause me to lose data or critical IT infrastructure? Most business may fall prey to the usual culprits – computer viruses and worms, malicious data destruction and/or theft, faulty hardware, and natural disasters, such as power outages. Conversely, severe natural disasters, such as floods hurricanes, or ice storms, could wreak havoc on major power and telecommunications systems for days or weeks on end.
- What measures must I take to protect my business? Simply creating weekly backups of client and billing data and dropping them off each week at a safety deposit box may be enough. However, you may require hourly automated backups to occur off-site or complex real-time geo-redundant data replication.
If you’ve determined that your needs are complex, you may wish to consult the professionals. More specifically, if your challenges are primarily IT-related, a mission-critical hosting infrastructure provider with experience in disaster recovery planning could assist in the following ways:
- Server Co-location. By moving critical servers from your office to a mission-critical server co-location facility (like the facilities used by major banks), you can ensure maximum power and network uptime. Redundant network connections, generators, and UPS systems greatly reduce the likelihood of an outage.
- Failover Systems. By staging “hot” failover systems in redundant geographic locations (such as East Coast and West Coast locations), you increase the likelihood of your business’ survival in the event of a major catastrophe in one location. If one location were to go down, secondary and tertiary locations could be setup to automatically “take over,” keeping your website and important data online.
- Backups. By setting up a secure, encrypted, automated backup system, you can ensure that frequent snapshots are taken of your critical data. These backups could be stored remotely on disk or tape, thousands of miles from your office and your primary data center for additional geographic redundancy.
Realize that while developing and implementing a solid DRP may be costly, the overall cost to your company is likely significantly lower than the cost of reproducing lost data or IT infrastructure.
About InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1995, InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc. provides disaster recovery planning and enterprise-level managed services to businesses of all sizes. Utilizing seven data centers worldwide, InfoRelay serves over 100,000 clients through its main product lines and subsidiaries. InfoRelay's unrivaled network is powered by multiple Cisco routers, and boasts approximately 50 gigabits-per-second of network capacity. InfoRelay's staff and management combine decades of diverse experience in the fields of Information Technology, Storage, and Networking with today's best enterprise-level hardware and software technologies. By demonstrating unparalleled levels of responsiveness, concern, and overall service, InfoRelay establishes a unique trusting relationship with each client, allowing InfoRelay to act as a 24x7x365 extension of its clients' IT departments. For more information, please visit www.inforelay.com, or call (703) 485-4600.
1 Etiolated Consumer\Citizen Website. Records Lost/Stolen Per Year. November 11, 2007. http://etiolated.org/statistics
Archived Articles
Katie Tallent Content management
What Is a Content Management System, and Does My Web Site Need One?
by Katie Tallent
Kate Tallent Design & Communications (KTDC) is a multidisciplinary design firm located in the heart of Washington, D.C. KTDC serves all types of organizations with award-winning solutions such as thoughtful web site design, annual reports, corporate communications, branding initiatives, exhibit design, video and more.
We welcome the opportunity to work with you. Whatever their size or mission, all our clients benefit from the same careful attention. Our foundation, international development and nonprofit clients appreciate the years of industry experience KTDC provides. KTDC offers clients stellar graphic design expertise that garners both results and awards.
Often clients come to KTDC asking for a new web site design with a content management system (CMS). We encourage clients to learn a bit more about CMS before deciding to include one. Below are some tips and questions clients find helpful.
A Content Management System (CMS) is a computer software system that allows a user (that's you) to manage content such as text, images and multimedia resources on your organization's Web site. Organizations frequently contact KTDC, inquiring about a CMS and reciting a wish list of desired features: blogs, event calendars, rss feeds, partners-management tools, moderated chat tools, staff admin tools, etc. But clients often are surprised when they review the design and CMS costs based on the lists they provided, as they had limited knowledge of the features they requested—and no idea what the costs might be.
Do you need a CMS? What can this unique tool do for your site? Before your organization signs a contract and pays a considerable sum for a CMS, consider the following:
1. What are you trying to do with the site? If you are creating an active, online community with discussion forums and lots of text or multimedia content, you will need a CMS. If you just need a few pages to advertise your company or organization (“a brochure site”), a CMS would be overkill. Know the long-term goals of your site before deciding to use a CMS.
2. How much content do you have? More complicated sites need more robust technology to support the volume of content – and are more likely to need a CMS. Greg Schnippel, associate director in the Integrated Technology Initiative at Ashoka, applies this analogy to a content-rich site: “You are writing a book.” We all know that a novel is numerous hours of writing, editing, design, layout, revisions, printing and distribution. Similar steps are involved with complex sites.
3. How often do you update your information? If the site must be updated frequently, a CMS with an upfront price may cost less over several years than the expense of going back to the designer to update the site for you.
4. Who will update the site? Some organizations employ a tech-oriented staff member who uses Adobe Dreamweaver or Contribute software to update the site. Consider: What happens if the employee leaves the organization when the site needs frequent updates? A CMS allows any designee with passwords and a modicum of tech-savvy to update the site. In fact, a typical CMS will provide a tutorial as a reference tool.
5. What is the budget? Give your budget to the firms you are considering for design and CMS. An upfront price range will assist the designer and Web developer in recommending appropriate tools. Compare the process to shopping for a house: No one retains a real estate agent without informing the agent of a price range; no good agent would show potential buyers listings that were out of their price range. The same principle applies with design and CMS.
Kate Tallent, Principal
Kate Tallent Design & Communications
1633 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20009
phone: 202.667.8993
fax: 202.797.4883
email: kate@katetallentdesign.com
http://www.katetallentdesign.com
Jacqui Olkin Social Networking
The success of such social networking sites as MySpace and Facebook has prompted member-based organizations to adopt participatory “Web 2.0” technologies as a way to engage and retain members. Here’s why online social networking could be essential to your organization’s success and survival.
Why Social Networking?
Making connections. Not every interested member can spend the time and money to travel to conferences. Online social networking enables people all over the world to connect with each other around professional specialties and topics of interest.
Relevant content. Professional social networks typically include “corporate” and user-contributed content in the form of blogs, discussion boards, wikis, video, podcasts, and documents. Allowing members to contribute and subscribe to content can help an organization learn what its members are really interested in. This knowledge can help shape future conferences, services, and publications.
Online learning. Online social networking platforms can support podcasts, video of conference sessions and speeches, and continuing education courses. Many platforms include event calendars, event registration, and e-commerce, providing a seamless sign-up process for members and revenue opportunities for the professional organization.
Advocacy. Online social networks enable professional organizations to inform their members and constituents about policy issues and motivate them to act. Advocacy tools can be integrated to make it easy for members to contact their senators and members of Congress.
Membership retention and growth. As Baby Boomers retire and Millennials take their place in the workforce, technology becomes more important for member-based organizations. Millennials are accustomed to interacting online and may not see the value of joining a professional organization that does not facilitate online interaction. Moreover, MySpace, Ning, Elgg, and other social networking tools make it possible for individuals to form professionally focused groups that threaten traditional member-based organizations. Existing member-based organizations can use social networking to retain current members and become more relevant to the younger generation.
How to Plan
Here are some things to think about when planning your online social network:
- Platform: Choose the product that meets your technical and business requirements.
- Launch strategy: Make sure the community is active and engaging before you open it up to your entire audience.
- Risk mitigation: Develop the terms of use, privacy policy, community tenets, and governance policies and procedures.
- Marketing: Promote the online community through a multiplatform marketing campaign.
For more information on planning and implementing an online social network, contact—
Jacqui Olkin
Olkin Communications Consulting
jacqui@olkincommunications.com
571-643-6020
www.olkincommunications.com
Freddi Donner Personal Health and Listening Skills
Spring….a great time for personal care.
by Freddi Donner
In our world of multi-tasking, long work hours, Blackberrys, and other “productivity tools” we are failing to do the most critical job of all: take care of our own health. We say “we are too busy”, we don’t have time, we don’t have the money. If you have said this…please keep reading!
Time…what is time really for? We only have so many hours on this earth, and we choose, over and over again, to give our time away to activities which do not support healthy lifestyles. In particular, we give it to the company we work for or to the TV. What exactly are you accomplishing by giving your time away to work and television? One answer is chronic illness. Every year, more than 7 out of 10 Americans die as a result of chronic diseases. By 2020, chronic conditions are expected to afflict 157 million people, half the U.S. population – up from 40 percent currently. The most important part of this finding is that many of these conditions are the result of poor lifestyle habits. All of which is controllable by YOU!
Sixty percent of U.S. adults are overweight. 27% of adults are obese, up from 15% 20 years ago. Obesity increases the risk of a heart disease and stroke and is the main reason for the dramatic increase in diabetes. In addition, American’s deal daily with headaches, backaches, poor sleep, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, cancer, and many other ailing conditions. While chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer are responsible for 7 out of 10 deaths in the U.S. every year (Centers for Disease Control), they are also among the most preventable through lifestyle behaviors. Being physically active is a behavior that has profound and long term impact on one's health.
Now for the money part….”I don’t have enough money”. Yes you do! If you are reading this, you probably live in Northern Virginia, one of the wealthiest regions in the United States, and you have the resources to invest in your health. Where is your money going?
In 1970 Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food while in 2000 they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. The average American spends 90% of their money on processed food, and this is part of the reason why we have an epidemic of chronic degenerative disease.
So, this spring, consider taking care of the only body you have. It is much more efficient use of your time and dollars to stay healthy, than to run to doctors and spend money on pharmaceutical drugs (with all kinds of side affects). You will have more energy, less extra weight, feel great, and be able to spend more quality tome with your loved ones. Aren’t you worth it?
PS: taking care of your health is one of the only tasks you can not outsource! Help your self TODAY!
Freddi Donner
Owner, For Health and Balance™
Herndon, VA
www.forhealthandbalance.com
703-437-9059
What You Said: What They Heard.
by Freddi Donner
Do you ever get the feeling that you repeat yourself? That you keep telling your staff what you want but they do not seem to understand?
Why does this happen? We are all speaking English, yet we often do not understand one another. What is the result? Frustration mounts…..impatience increases….then anger can sometimes develop. What are the consequences? They include loss of productive time, loss of energy and sometimes loss of good people.
Here is an important fact: About 50% of what is heard is NOT what was intended. The meaning of the communication is in the response you get…regardless of your intent!
Communicating so that others will listen and understand requires comprehension of “the other” or your audience. Communicating simply by using your natural tendencies can cost you time and dollars because without the knowledge of how “the other” is “hearing” you, you have only half of the equation needed for total understanding (that half being your intention).
How do you learn this new skill? Just like learning a new sport, it takes:
- Understanding of the ground rules. In this case, learning how language is the mirror of the mind and how the information that comes out relays multitudes of information when you know what you are looking for.
- A coach or someone who can teach you how to use your words, tone, and behavior to influence others more often.
- Finally; practice, practice, practice! Effective communicators are not born; they are developed.
If you would like more information on this subject, please contact Freddi Donner at Business Stamina or visit www.businessstamina.com.
Freddi Donner
Business Stamina
Communication Coaching for Business Leaders
703.450.6114 (office)
703.585.1008 (cell)
www.businessstamina.com
Ellen Jennings Fun and Useful Computer Tips
Computer Tips to Save Time & Bring a Little Fun into the Office!
by Ellen Jennings
(Note: these all assume Microsoft Office 2003, earlier versions may not work)
Use Your Scroll Wheel to Zoom
In many applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and most Web Pages) you can use your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Here's how: Hold down the CTRL key while using the scroll wheel on your mouse – up will zoom out and down will zoom in. In Word you can even zoom down to multiple pages on the screen. (This tip is great for those of us who may have a harder time seeing the screen clearly than we used to, but is useful at any age. It is also very handy if you are presenting and want to focus on a particular area of the screen.)
Focus In on Your Outlook Calendar
Most of us use our calendar in Outlook to look at either 5 day weeks, 7 day weeks or an entire month. But sometimes you really just want to focus on a 3-day period that might spam two weeks. Or, we'd really like to look at the first week in January and the last week in December. Even better, how about the last week in December and the last week in January. Follow these simple directions:
- Click on Calendar on your folder list to display the thumbnail calendar at the upper left of your screen.
- Use your mouse to click and drag over the range of dates that you would like to see displayed.
- To display a non-contiguous set of days select the first group, then hold down the CTRL key and select the next set. You can repeat this process until you've selected all the dates you need to see.
Let Excel Talk to You
Ok, there is debate about whether or not this is really worth it, but we think it is fun and can be helpful. When entering data, it can be valuable to have it either read the data back to you or read it as you type each entry. Give it a try and let us know whether you vote for useful, fun, both or possibly even neither! To turn on the speech capabilities:
- Select Tools > Speech > Show Text to Speech Toolbar To review data that has been previously entered:
- Select the cells that you would like read. Select "Read Cells" (note that you can select read by columns or read by rows)
- To review data as you enter it select "Speak on Enter"
- To stop this at any time Select "Stop Speaking".
Copying Info into a Spreadsheet
When you want to copy content into Excel you usually would like it to have the same format as the rest of the spreadsheet. Just double-click the cell before you paste the content in, and the format will be consistent.
Outlook: Save Time & Create More Informative Tasks, Emails, etc.
Outlook can create an item from any item of a different type. For example, you can drag an email to the calendar to create an item on the calendar, or you can drag a task item to an email to send information to someone about a particular task.
To create a task from an email:
- View your Inbox and click on and drag the desired email to the Tasks button in the Navigation Pane (this is the row of icons at the bottom of the left hand pane of Outlook). (The Task button looks like a clipboard with a checkmark on it - we all love checking those items off!)
- Release the mouse button and a new task then opens with the email in the body of the task.
- Fill in the rest of the information about the task, and then click Save and Close.
(Note: you can do the same thing to insert an email into a new appointment – play around and once you develop the habit of using this process you’ll save time and have more information where you want it!
Ellen Jennings
CEO, Business Engineering, Inc.
Telephone: 703-528-8300 x125
Fax: 703-276-7938
jenningse@beinetworks.com
www.beinetworks.com
Dan Banner Employment Agencies and Your Business
Don't Let an Employment Agency Take Advantage of You
by Dan Banner
If your experience with employment agencies has left you with less than a warm and fuzzy feeling, you're not alone. Even if you can't articulate the reasons you've been disappointed or disillusioned, you'd be wise to pay heed to your instincts.
In an ideal world, you can easily find several excellent candidates to consider for each opening you have. In the real world, you're inundated with resumes from people who are unqualified, over-priced, over-qualified—or totally, absolutely wrong. Assuming you have days (or weeks) to devote to the sorting and elimination process, you may find your needle in the haystack.
Employment agencies have, in our opinion, historically held the upper hand in the employment process. Meanwhile, the employer loses all his power. How do you—the employer—regain control of the employment process when using an agency to assist you with recruitment? Here are our suggestions:
- Refuse to sign an exclusive engagement with any employment agency. Instead, give your listing to more than one agency. And, always reserve the right to fill the position yourself. That way, the agencies realize they have to move quickly on your behalf.
- Refuse to pay any up-front fees or retainers. Make agencies use their own resources, not your hard-earned money.
Insist on a money-back guarantee if you hire a candidate who doesn't work out. Do not accept an offer for a "replacement" candidate or a prorated formula. And, be certain the guarantee period is sufficient for you to see how the new hire really performs; typically, 90 days is fair.
- Finally, don't agree to huge fees. We've seen naive employers believe they had to subsidize agencies' outrageous profit margins. We'd suggest you balk at fees of 30% or more.
Remember, you're in charge. If you insist on retaining control, an employment agency will not be able to take advantage of you.
Dan Banner, CEO
Banner Associates
3 Bethesda Metro Center, Suite 810
Bethesda, Maryland 20814.
www.BannerHR.com
Dan@BannerHR.com
301.986.4660
Jon-Mikel Bailey Attracting More Online Activity
10 Ways to Attract More Activity Online
by Jon-Mikel Bailey
- Create a free e-zine on your web site about topics that are important to your target audience. People will visit your web site to read the free e-books and may visit other areas of your web site including your shopping cart.
- Turn part of your web site into a member's only extranet. Instead of charging for access, use it as a free bonus for one of your products or access to information only available to them. You could offer them information before the public, client-specific documents, etc. Make sure to always link back to the main site.
- Add a free classified ad section to your web site. You could then trade banner ads with other web sites that have free classified ad sections. Be careful not to do any that may be SPAM. The best way to do this is to make sure that you have visited the site to which you are linking - make sure it is legit.
- Create two versions of your e-zine so people can choose if they want ads included with it or not. This'll attract the people who hate ads to subscribe. Another way to handle this is to link to an ad from your e-zone with a simple text link. Most people will not be put off by this and those who want to see the ad will click the link.
- Publish the full version of your e-zine only on your web site. When you send out your email newsletters, only include the topic and main headers with links back to the full article. You may have noticed that we have done this in the past. We do this for two reasons. One, so they can access a version of the article that is printable. Two, so that they visit our site and hopefully read some other newsletters, etc.
- List your own books recommendations and then become an Amazon affiliate. You can list books that you've read that you feel would be relevant to your audience. The Amazon affiliate program is set up so you get a referral when someone buys the book you've recommended.
- Offer daily or weekly visitor bonuses. This will increase your repeat traffic and sales because your visitors will visit regularly to get the visitor bonuses. Most e-commerce engines will have this functionality. If you do not sell online, offer something like a tip of the week, something useful to your audience.
- If you do produce an e-zine, make sure you list a version online. We suggest you list it as HTML, Word and PDF. Not only is this three ways for people to access your information, but it is also three ways for the search engines to access keyword rich content.
- Build up the number of people that join your free affiliate program quickly by temporally offering your product for free to the people that sign up. Again, you should be able to do this with your e-commerce engine if you sell products online. If you don't, you can switch it up a bit. Do a member of the week, or client of the week. Offer to list their name, company name and link to their web site. Note - there will be times when this will not work for some of your visitors so make sure to ask first.
- Negotiate with e-zine publishers to get free or discounted ads by letting them join your affiliate program and earn commissions on the ad you run.
Jon-Mikel Bailey
www.woodst.com
301.668.5006
Meredith Maslich Fundraising & Capacity Building
"I first got to know Meredith Maslich when she hired Capture Video for work with one of her clients, Special Olympics. I was impressed with both her efficiency on the job, as well as the way in which she facilitated the many facets of a non-profit production. I have since been introduced to others of her clients, and have seen how enthusiastic they were about the quality of her work. I would recommend her to any non-profit looking to improve the state of their fundraising."
- Jessica Piscitelli |
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Google “fundraisers” and you will find a million ways to raise money for your organization. But which – if any – are worth pursuing? The most important thing to remember is that NOT every fundraiser is right for every organization. But how to decide? Here are some simple ways to begin sorting out how to use your fundraising time and dollars.
- Categorize the fundraisers:
- Upfront costs (you have to purchase something, or subscribe to a service)
- High People Involvement (door to door sales)
- Internet/Mailing List based (requires a large, clean mailing list, or consistent traffic to your website)
- Community Involvement Required (requires donations of items, space, sponsors etc)
- Decide which categories work for your organization:
- Does your budget allow for up front costs?
- Do you have enough people to invest necessary time and energy?
- Do you have a strong relationship with your community?
- Do you have any organizational rules that would conflict stop you from undertaking any of these fundraisers (ie. Do you support door to door sales)?
- Narrow it down to the specific activity within the category:
- Community Involvement – is this getting donations for an auction, or is it getting proceeds from a monthly happy hour?
- Upfront costs – is that paying several hundred dollars to hire a company to sell coupon books, or spending $50 to purchase coupons to sell on your own?
These are just some of the points I touch on when I perform a fundraising audit for an organization. If you would like to see how a fundraising audit can shape your fundraising efforts, contact me today at mmaslich@possibilitiesconsulting.com.
To be successful, remember to pick a fundraising event based on what works for you, not what other organizations are doing.
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