RatihChubby » Technology

Data Backups: The First Step in Maintaining Business Continuity

ratih_euy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:43:23 +0000

At any given moment disaster may strike. Many of us sit thinking we are safe at home, or in that cushy office chair, but the simple truth is that problems happen. Be it an earthquake, a fire, a flood, or something as simple as a power outage, disasters may come; and when they do our illusion of safety is often shattered.

When it comes to enterprise, it really surprises me how many businesses don’t have a plan to cope with problems. As simple power outage is sometimes all it takes to cause a business to close up shop for the day, and wait for someone else to provide the solution. That of course is the simplest type of problem, what happens when that same business is faced with a fire or a flood?

The truth of the matter is that planning for disaster is important to be able to maintain operations in the face of a problem. Without a proper plan in place, many businesses suddenly find themselves unable to continue when faced with disaster. The management and employees suddenly find themselves without an income, and that customer base that they worked so hard to build begins to turn elsewhere while the business works to recover. Proper planning is the most important element in maintaining business continuity when problems occur.

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY?

Before we look at how to plan for disaster let’s first define business continuity. The term itself can become rather obscure if you account for everyone’s idea of what it is. So to start let’s look at the definition.
According to the United Nations Archive and Records Management, business continuity is: Procedures to ensure an organization’s ability to continue operating outside of normal operating conditions.

Creating a continuity plan then becomes: the procedures taken, right now, to maintain your business when it is faced with problems tomorrow. It is planning for the worst, by ensuring you can continue no matter what may occur. It is ensuring that, when a problem occurs your business maintains its ability to deal with customers, suppliers, and to continue to generate revenue.

DATA BACKUPS FOR BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Most businesses today are completely reliant on their computers for day-to-day operations. So the first step in creating a continuity plan is to ensure those systems are there when you need them. Often this is as simple as backing up your data.

For a business where their systems rely on a single point of sale system, backing up is as simple as performing daily backups of that system. This will ensure that is a disaster (a fire for example) occurs; all that is required is to find another computer and restore the system.

It’s when businesses rely on networks, and interoffice networks that things tend to get more complicated (at least from the managements point of view). They look at their 23 PC’s housed in office, the two servers that those computers rely upon, and the 10 laptops that their field works use, and are overwhelmed. This is often the reason why a backup plan was never put into place.

Even for that type of enterprise situation, backing up doesn’t have to be difficult. There are software solutions, such as our own data backup software, that allow for simple backup of PC’s across the network, and even from remote locations. When a problem occurs, any computer on the network can be brought back online using a simple point-in-time restore with a few clicks of the mouse.

When it comes to enterprise having a plan to maintain business continuity is important. As a first step, a proper computer backup plan is the right way to get started. With the ability to easily restore important systems and data, you enable your business to continue while the business next door, who didn’t take the same steps, is struggling to get going again.

Internet Business Scams

ratih_euy — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:57:57 +0000

Everyone I know is interested in starting a home based Internet business, or an online business, which would bring them an extra supplementary income. However, how many of us know that for every Internet business there is, there are scams too that cause the owner to crash out? What are these, and how does one go about being careful about them?

Recently, the FBI reported that web based frauds and scams have multiplied over the past few years, and that the most targeted are those people who have invested their money in a semi automated or fully automated ‘making money from home businesses’. Scammers target work-at-home individuals, as well as home based Internet businesses, and while the former may include asking users to pay a registration fee to start ’stuffing envelopes’, or ‘assemble crafts’, so that you become an employee of the company, and the company pays you for your work, the latter involves the company offering to ‘help’ you start your home based Internet business, where you can become a networker, or a marketer.

You may think, how can these Internet business scams be so successful? Why would anyone fall for these scams? The truth is that these scammers target specific groups, like for example, the elderly and the retired, stay at home moms, families with no incomes, and individuals who want to ‘make money quick’. Take for example the Internet business of crafts assembly. The user pays a fee, gets his kit, and he makes dolls and toys at home. However, when he sends it to the company, he is told that the product does not meet their specifications. This is nothing but a scam! Another clear home Internet business scam is that of ‘typing at home and making good money’. After you pay the fee, you receive a CD, and a set of instructions telling you how to place these same adverts, so that someone else falls into the scam, just like you did! Yet another Internet business scam is that of the famed MLM, or the so called ‘Multi Level Marketing’. Although it may be true that some legitimate companies do use this, others concentrate efforts on ladder climbing alone, and not on the actual marketing of products and services. What is even worse about this particular scam is that the Federal Trade Commission may find you, yes, you, guilty of committing fraud, and award you a hefty fine. Sending and receiving chain letters is yet another scam. This involves sending an email, and also some small amount of money to all the names on the top of the list that you have received, and then putting your own name at the bottom of the list. The promise is that one day, you will receive the money, and become a millionaire! Not only is this illegal, but it has also been banned, and you could be arrested for fraud. The envelope stuffing scam is one of the worst scams of all, and it has probably been around from the 1920’s onwards! You register with the company, send them the money, and you start stuffing envelopes. You are guaranteed a payment of $1 to 2 for every envelope you stuff. You receive form the company an envelope stuffed with flyers that you have to put up, advertising an Internet, home based business. When people respond, they send you $2 in an envelope, and on and on it goes. Not only is this illegal, it is also a crime.

The next time, please pay careful heed to all the scams that I have listed out for you, and only then, get into any home based, making money online, or an Internet based scheme, guaranteed to bring you fast bucks! Beware, or you could end up losing a lot of money, and also being fined for fraud and scam.

Internet And Business Online – The Act Of Interdependence

ratih_euy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:44:31 +0000

The best role of business online is that of interdependency. We’ve all heard the old saying, “No man is an island.” When it comes to online business this is especially true.

If a business owner who takes their business into the online world determines they will be self reliant and never accept the help of anyone then that individual will not be in business long enough to change their minds.

It is accepted fact that the greatest tool for long-term exposure to your website is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Without it potential customers can’t find you. It is unreasonable to expect that you can adequately develop a website without optimizing your website for the best possible search engine ranking.

Search engines also place a high value on sites that have links placed on existing sites. These ‘backlinks’ demonstrate to search engines that others trust your site. By placing your link on their website these other businesses indicate a trust and recommendation for your site.

In effect the two strategies listed above rely exclusively on what others can do for you when it comes to your online business.

Shirley Temple once proclaimed in her movie Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, “I’m very self-reliant.” American westerns are filled with lines dealing with pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and holding down the fort. Many of us have grown up to believe if we want something done right we have to do it ourselves.

This thinking is in opposition to the rules associated with an online business.

The online world can only exist because people share. Individuals share technology, but the also share links, reviews, blogs, forums and a wide range of other marketing strategies that find a commingling of interdependency.

In online business you are as dependent on others as they may be on you. Unlike the word ‘dependent’, the term interdependent indicates a mutual dependency. In other words you are depending on others to help provide links back to your site while they are equally dependent on you (or others) for the success of their business.

Have you really taken a proactive approach to networking? It’s possible you are reading this today and you’ve never considered asking someone else to place a link to your site on his or her online business site.

It can feel awkward depending on others to achieve online success especially if you’ve been lead to believe reliance on others is also a sign of imposing on their otherwise brilliant generosity.

I suppose it could be a deep-seated sense of pride that makes it hard to consider the need to ask others for help. However, the truth is depending on others is really what has made the Internet possible. The growth of this online world is comprised of a link of computers, networks and servers that are connected in a way that provides the maximum benefit for all.

Building an online business can feel a bit like trying to build a house of cards. Without the ability to rely on the other ‘cards’ around you it is virtually impossible to build.

Alternative Sources of Standby Back-up Power Protection

ratih_euy — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:14:07 +0000

In today’s ‘energy-challenged’ business environments where demand is beginning to outweigh supply and costs are rising ever higher, heads of business are looking for alternative sources of standby back-up power protection to reinforce uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and provide a continuous source of electricity during mains power failures.

The primary criteria in deciding which alternative to choose are usually: space constraints, location, cost, load types and application. Diesel generators, in particular, require dedicated space away from protected loads and primary work areas, plus room for fuel storage. They are often housed in purpose-built enclosures for which planning permission must be granted and sometimes this can be a challenge in primary urban areas where building and planning restrictions may exist. The issue of cost can often preclude up-coming alternatives like fuel cells, which can overcome some of the difficulties associated with diesel generators but at a price. Load types, too, can be a challenge in terms of how they draw voltage waveform and its effect on standby power generation equipment. However, the following are alternatives that are commercially available:

Diesel Generators: a generator is a mechanical device capable of providing a source of ac electrical power on-demand or as an alternative to mains power supply. In an uninterruptible power supply scenario a generator is used as a standby source of three or single-phase ac power to supplement the runtime provided by the UPS battery set or alternative source of dc power. It may also directly power essential loads such as alarms, air-conditioning or emergency lighting in the event of a power cut.

A generator typically takes up to a minute before it can deliver a suitable supply on start-up, which is why an uninterruptible power supply sits between it and the source of mains power.

Generators burn fuel (diesel being the most common and cost-effective) but they emit heat, noise and exhaust gasses. Generator fuel is usually stored in what is referred to as a ‘day tank’, located on-site, which typically contains eight-hours of supply. This can be supplemented by bulk tanks, also located on-site. Fuel storage on-site introduces health & safety and environmental regulations that must be observed. Some experimentation has been done using bio-fuels but the problem is not so much in usage as in storage. Because they are comprised of organic matter bio-fuels cannot be stored.

Fuel Cells: are increasing in popularity across a number of applications due to their high-efficiency and purported ‘green’ credentials i.e.: zero exhaust emissions. A fuel cell uses a chemical reaction, which occurs when Hydrogen and Oxygen combine to produce water. It harnesses this reaction to produce electrical energy. Fuel cells have two potential UPS applications: an alternative source of ac power to mains or as support to an existing battery set.

UPS Batteries: today’s UPS batteries are typically sealed lead acid and maintenance-free with a design life of five years. As they rely on a chemical process they are prone to deterioration and the speed at which this happens is dramatically affected by room temperature and number of charge/discharge cycles the battery has to perform during its lifetime.

A ‘battery block’ is a self-contained electro-chemical device that can store electrical energy for later use. A UPS battery set comprises a number of battery blocks connected in series into a ‘string’, or number of battery strings.

Flywheels: are energy storage devices based on the principle of Kinetic energy, whereby a motor-generator is used to rotate a mass at high RPM in a vacuum on frictionless bearings inside a floor-mounted cabinet. They provide a source of short-duration dc power and can be used with large application UPS, around 60kVA upwards. As energy is discharged to the load on demand, flywheels can be used in place of a battery set to ride through the time required for generator start-up.

Gas Turbines: a descendent of the Jet engine, like generators, Gas Turbines are a combustion device with similar installation and operational issues. Advances in technology have lead to the development of commercially viable energy-saving applications and the devices are finding useful roles within power protection projects. There are two designs: single shaft (which has a turbine and compressor on the same shaft and output of which is speed controlled by the fuel supply) and two-shaft (which has a higher operating efficiency but poor response to load change). A micro-turbine operates at even higher speed, is compact in design, lighter weight and can run on a variety of fuels.

Super Capacitors: store electrical energy, which can be released on discharge. For small uninterruptible power supplies this can be used in place of a battery set or to reduce the potential for battery discharge during momentary mains power supply failures. The amount of energy that can be stored depends upon the active material used and the capacitor design.

The energy within a capacitor is quickly available. They can extend the working life of a UPS battery set (if used in conjunction) by inhibiting battery cycling for momentary or small interruptions (the majority of power interruptions last for less than five seconds). Super capacitors are also happy to operate in temperatures ranging from -30-45 degrees centigrade but they are pricey in comparison to UPS batteries.

Whilst generators remain the most popular source of standby power in uninterruptible power supply applications, there are alternatives, which may be more relevant and suitable in certain instances. Where planning permission cannot be granted for external generator housing, for example, a fuel cell may be an ideal alternative. Flywheels may also be a viable option as an alternative power protection energy source for larger uninterruptible power supplies.

Computer Network

ratih_euy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:12:28 +0000

What is a Computer Network?

A computer network refers to an interconnected group of computers. The networks may be classified according to the network layer at which they function depending upon the basic reference models. The reference models may differ from industry to industry, just like the five-layer Internet Protocol Suite model. Computer Networks are classified on the basis of various factors like scale, connection method, network relationships and protocol.

Type of Computer Networking

The common types of computer networks are:

Personal Area Network ( PAN )
Local Area Network (LAN)
Campus Area Network (CAN)
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
Wide Area Network (WAN)
Global Area Network (GAN)
Internet work - intranet, extranet and internet

Importance of Computer Network Solutions in Organizations:

With the boom of technology and e-commerce, most of the small and large businesses today are driven by the use of internet. The Internet and the influence that it has on e-commerce and business has in more than one ways become the “great equalizer” of small business and the larger corporate giants.

Especially in the case of small business, it is very important to maintain their computer network solutions so as to keep working properly and efficiently. A whole package of computer networking solutions complete with routine maintenance, regular updates, upgrades and support can help an organization ensure that its investment is well protected and that it can survive and thrive online.

Here are some of the important computer network solutions and services that can help your organization runs smoothly and efficiently:

Updating and upgrading software – This helps in ensuring the longevity and integrity of the online portion of your business. By installing regular software updates, you can ensure that you have the newest, safest and most efficient software for your organization’s needs.
Maintenance of systems using computer network support - It is advisable to find a trusted technician in your area whom you can call in to save valuable time in the event of an unexpected technical problem.
Routine maintenance - This helps in protecting your computers and networks from viruses and spy ware. Installing an effective virus protection software program in your system can ensure the longevity of your computer network by helping to keep it free from dangerous viruses that can threaten your information and software. Moreover the spy ware prevention software can also help keep unwanted hackers out of your systems to ensure that your sensitive information is kept secure.

E -Computer Network Solutions Providers:

There are many organizations that provide online computer network solutions for small, medium and large organizations. They provide cost effective and high performance computer networking solutions to build Local Area Network, Wide Area Network and Wireless LAN to access internet and share data between the computers. Some of the companies providing computer Networking Solutions online are:

CSS Infotech Ltd.
JMPro Networking Solutions
VIP PowerNet
The Computer Company

What is 3D Animation? How is it Different From 2D Animation?

ratih_euy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:36:43 +0000

What is that extra 3rd dimension?
Take a piece of paper and sketch a simple figure on it (a cat, a dog or anything that comes to your head). Lets say it is a cat and it is facing you from that sheet of paper. So you have the front view of the cat in front of you. Suppose if you feel that you want to see the cat from a side, will it help if you rotate the paper or flip it? No. Why? It is simply because the sketch you have drawn has the 3rd dimension missing.

Every real world object that you see around has a 3rd dimension and that is the reason why you can take it and rotate it to watch it from different angles. The sketch you have drawn had a length and a width, since the paper you used to draw also had a length and a width. But it lacks a thickness (3rd dimension) and hence your sketch also didnt have that extra dimension.

Suppose instead of sketching your imagination down on the piece of paper, you decided to sculpt it on a handful of clay. Since the medium you used (clay) had volume, you had to define the cats shape from all angles during the sculpting. Hence you unknowingly added that 3rd dimension to it and that is the reason you have the freedom to rotate it any way you want.

How conventional 2D animation works:

Before computers started playing their indispensible roles in the animation industry, everything was done manually by animators, who were essentially artists. They would create a series of slides having images on it, where each slides image is the continuation of the previous one in the sequence. For example if an animator wanted to simulate a ball falling down, they would create a sequence of slides where first slide would portray the ball at the top. The next slide will show the ball, may be 1 cm lower than that in the first slide. In the next one, again lower and so on, till the last slide shows the ball hitting the ground. When the whole sequence of slides are shown in front of the viewer in a fast rate, it creates the feeling of the ball falling down.

The whole process was tedious and time consuming. When computers came into play, the frame redrawing works had been minimised since, copying and pasting duplicate elements between successive frames was very easy with the computers aid. The artist has to make only the necessary changes that should exist between successive frames. As technology advanced, softwares evolved that again minimised the work of a 2d animator, in such a way that several things started getting automated. Using motion tweening and other techniques, an animator can set the initial position or shape of an object and then its final position and shape and the computer would generate the intermediate frames automatically. The artist even has the freedom to make corrections to that.

What was missing in 2D animation?

The 2D animation always lacked the essence, since all the real-world sceneries and objects are 3D and when they gets transformed to 2D, they lose their reality. Later stage cartoons started to simulate the 3D effect by using gradients, and varying highlights, but it required huge extra effort from the part of the artist.

How 3D Graphics works:

The stages in 3D animation are more in number compared to the 2D animation. The first part of 3D animation starts with character sketching and 3D modeling. In the next stage the characters are rigged for animation. In the next stage they are animated. This is in fact a too compact form of what happens in the background. Lets see each of them in a little detail.

· Character sketching:

This is the stage where an artist sketches how the character should look from various angles. Usually the sketch will be done on paper or canvas. As many variations in poses are created so that it would help the 3D Modeler to sculpt a 3D Model out of it.

· Character Modeling:
A 3D artist, who is expertised in a 3D modeling and animating tool, will examine the sketches and starts sculpting the figure using his imagination and skill. I used the word sculpting because the process is much similar to the real sculpting we do with raw materials like clay. The software tool that the artist uses provides various approaches to perform the modeling. Usually organic modeling techniques like Polygonal Modeling (a polygon is subdivided to get the desired shape), NURBS modeling (curves are arranged to create a surface flowing through them), Subdivisional Modeling (A hybrid blend between polygonal modeling and NURBS modeling) are used. In these modeling techniques, the 3D modeling artist will sculpt out the characters shape in 3D using a set of tools provided by the 3D modeling software, by following any of the above mentioned approaches.

The 3D Model obtained finally will be in an editable form and the model will be dependent on the approach used. For example a NURBS technique will yield a 3D Model in the NURBS representation (curves and surfaces). Once the modeling is complete, the artist converts it into the basic polygonal mesh (vertices alone). The polygonal mesh is nothing but a huge number of polygons that are arranged so as it forms the whole character. This conversion to polygonal mesh offers many advantages like faster rendering speed, and multi-software compatibility.

· Scene building:
In addition to the characters the animation will have an environment and related objects. The 3D modeling software provides methods to simulate the environment, model the world , sun etc. For example in the 3d modeling and animation software called Maya, the artist have a huge library of Paint effects that contains Trees, leaves etc from which he can drag and drop into a scene and customize it in accordance to needs.

· Texturing:
During this stage, all the objects in the scene are given suitable textures using the 3D animation tools specific facilities. Some tools provide only facilities for mapping an image texture on to the 3d model, whereas advanced tools even let you paint on the 3d meshs texture surface.

· Lighting and Camera setup:

This process is much like that in a real world movie making. The 3D animation software provides different types of lights which you can place in the scene in any direction you want. You can adjust the intensity, cone angle or even the shadow cast by the individual lights. Camera also is the replica of the real camera we use for shooting. We can place multiple cameras in a scene; adjust its focal length, aperture size and almost every parameter that you can find in a real camera.

· Animation:
Once the static elements have been set, the 3D artist applies motion to them. This process, called animation is performed by setting keyframes. In order to animate a ball falling, the animator would set the first key frame at say 0th second with the balls position at the initial top position. He would set the next key at say 5th second with the balls position touching the ground. The 3D animation software interpolates the balls falling action between the 0th and 5th seconds. The animator can customize the interpolation behavior using graphs or by setting intermediate keys.

In Character animation, similar principles are applied. The skeleton will be animated by the animator and the 3d mesh skinned to the skeleton gets animated automatically. Character animation is often aided by plug-in tools (e.g.: biped) that has been created specifically for creating character animation sequences like walking or running cycles. The various scene elements, cameras and lights are animated using basic key-frame animation, based on the story board requirements.

· Rendering:

Once the scenes are animated, it will undergo a process called rendering, in which the 3d representation is converted to a video format, which can be read and edited using professional video editing software.

· Editing and mixing:

The rendered scenes are imported into video editing software and edited. In the case of movies where the human characters need to interact with an animated character, proper mixing is done at this stage, though the 3D scene creation would have been done with that aim in mind, using techniques like motion tracking.

The advantages of 3D animation:

You might have wondered why we should go after the 3D animation, when the whole process itself takes a number of stages and appears to be very complex. Apart from the complexities involved, it does offer a lot of advantages. Once the modeling process is completed, the 3D software allows very flexible control over the scene and animation. You can rotate the model in any angle you want (unlike 2D). 3D animation software also gives a rich collection of tools that aid the process of modeling and animation. You can choose from a wide variety of modeling techniques based on your requirement. Lighting and camera setup is the exact replica of a real world movie shooting environment. Apart from all these, the ultra realism offered by the 3D rendered scenes makes 3D graphics the best solution for the emerging animation industry.

Wireless LAN

ratih_euy — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:34:53 +0000

Definition

Local area network where some or all devices (servers, clients, printers, etc.) are interconnected via microwave radio signals (usual range 130 feet) or in-line infrared beams (usual range 80 feet) instead of cables or wires. Data transfer rate of WLAN is impeded by walls and electromagnetic interference (EMI) by other electrical and electronic devices. Technologies such as spread spectrum can extend the range to 800 feet and beyond, and may overcome the limitations imposed by EMI.

Wireless LAN’s allow greater flexibility and portability than the traditional wired LAN, that the wired LAN requires a wire to connect a user’s computer to a network

But the WLAN connects computer to a network using an access point devices. This access point communicates with devices equipped with wireless network adaptors and it connects to a wired Ethernet LAN. This access point devices have a coverage area up to 300 feet (approximately 100 meters).

WIRELESS LAN COMPONENTS:

A Wireless LAN comprises two types of equipments.

1) A wireless station

2) Access point

A wireless stations are equipped with wireless networks interface card (NIC).Access points are base station for the wireless networks, they transmit and receive radio frequency to communicate with wireless devices. Wireless clients can be mobile device such as laptops, personal digital assistants, I phones and fixed devices such as desktops and workstation that are equipped with the wireless network interface (NIC).

Nowadays WLAN are becoming popular in more wide range of business customers. For example:

Hospitals, Universities, Hotels, retail shops are using this wireless technology to conduct their daily business operations.

BENEFITS: Wireless LAN’s offer five primary benefits

USER MOBILITY: Users can access files, network resources and internet without physically connected network to the wires.

RAPID INSTALLATION:The installation time is very less because the network connection can be made without adding wires, or pulling it through walls or ceiling, or making modification to the infrastructure cable plant.

REDUCED COSTS:

The initial investment of wireless LAN is little higher than the wired LAN, but there is no need of installation charges and the wiring charges.

SCALABILITY:
WLAN network topologies can easily be configured to meet specific application and installation needs and to scale from small peer to peer network to very large enterprise network that enable roaming over a broad area.

FLEXIBILITY:
Users can quickly install a small WLAN for temporary needs such as a conference, tradeshow or in the meetings. It is flexible so we can take WLAN in our necessary locations.

So Wireless LAN’s is best to fit your computers or devices to communicate over a network.

Does Online Dating Really Work??

ratih_euy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:19:15 +0000

Online dating use to be perceived as a dangerous place to meet the opposite sex, many afraid they could encounter a so called “fatal” attraction or creepy. However, since it took off almost a decade ago, online dating has moved forward so much that it is now very common. You may have even heard of close friends finding their spouse through online dating.

I believe there is still a lot of fear out there that people worry about what they see on the net doesn”t turn out to be exactly what they perceived. There are occasions that the photo they post is perhaps several years old and much more better looking than they currently are, but fact is most internet sites are truthful so what you see is usually what you get.

The advantage of online dating is that you can do it all from the comfort of your own home without the fear of possible introductions, conversations and rejections hurting your ego since they are all done electronically. Again, practice is the name of the game. And I”m not just talking about the internet site but practicing your moves on the internet and it is one of the best ways to find out what women like about you and what you also like about them. It allows you to explore your inner feelings and emotions without the fear of getting hurt publicly. The best way to approach online dating is to pretty much provide a lot of information about yourself. It then allows for a much higher percentage of matching you up with someone successfully.

Be proactive and positive with your descriptions always. Never criticize what you hate about woman but what you are looking for in a woman and with the focus on what activities you enjoy. And this shouldn”t include work! You will be surprised the amount of women who will also love what you do as a hobby and you both instantly find common ground! Everyone has different motives with online dating. Some are looking for a long term relationship and true romance, while others are looking for a friendship and even a one night stand. So it”s very important to state clearly what you are looking for as this avoids confusion and wasted time. There is no right or wrong answer.

Lastly, make sure you put a picture of yourself. A picture speaks a thousand words and the response is much much higher simply because without it, they have no idea what you look like and are thus more careful to even want to speak to you.

An overview of continuous data protection

ratih_euy — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:34:50 +0000

IT organizations have been caught between a rock and a hard place. Charged with protecting their company’s information, IT organizations have established aggressive service level agreements (SLAs) that impact the manner in which they implement data protection by setting recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO).

Organizations struggle with shrinking or non-existent backup windows, the need to recover quickly, often to a specific point in time, and even meeting compliance or regulatory guidelines. Backing up to tape is no longer adequate; not only is it difficult to administer for backups and recoveries, but it lacks the speed, reliability, flexibility and simplicity IT needs to meet stringent SLAs. Backing up to disk using virtual tape emulation or virtual tape libraries also falls short as the administration of the solution is tape-centric and schedule driven. Add in the explosion of data, along with the challenge of protecting remote offices, and you have the challenge facing many of today’s business–with IT sitting on the front lines of aligning business needs with today’s technology.

As a result, a growing number of IT organizations are augmenting their traditional backup and recovery strategies with continuous data protection (CDP) solutions. CDP dramatically improves RPOs and RTOs while eliminating backup windows. What’s more, CDP not only reduces the need for tape in the backup and recovery process but it also makes recovery easy enough that users can often recover their own files, without help from IT.

What is CDP?

CDP is a process that lets organizations continuously capture or track data modifications and stores changes independent of the primary data, enabling recovery points from specific points in the past. CDP systems may be block, file-, or application-based and can provide fine granularities of restorable objects to infinitely variable recovery points in time.

CDP reduces the complexity of the data protection system and eliminates the classic challenge of theing backup window because it eliminates the need for full, incremental, or differential backups by protecting data immediately and then continuously backing it up to disk. CDP is not a complete replacement for traditional backup but rather an important component of a well-rounded backup and recovery strategy.

Can CDP be leveraged for backing up and recovering email? As the predominant form of communication for business transactions, email is an application that is mission-critical to organizations of all sizes. It generates a huge amount of information that must be immediately available and protected. The loss of a single message may generate hours of unnecessary and frustrating labor for administrators and/or users and can lower productivity or affect business operations. And with the introduction of Exchange 2007, organizations need protective solutions that can support the latest offering from Microsoft.

Not surprisingly, the amount of email data requiring protection and availability is growing exponentially. IT, in turn, is faced with the challenge of backing up this critical data within the existing backup window and recovering it quickly. Moreover, they must not only be able to back up and recover whole email databases but they also require a system which enables recovery of individual mailboxes or emails. However, if administrators want to back up email databases for complete disaster recovery purposes and be able to recover individual email, folders, or mailboxes, they typically have had to do separate backups.

New granular recovery technologies have emerged that enable mail messages, mailboxes, and folders to be restored individually without having to restore an entire email database, and without separate and redundant mailbox backups. In an Exchange environment, for example, only a single-pass full or incremental backup of Exchange is required, which dramatically decreases the time required to protect all mailboxes while also reducing the backup storage requirement.

CDP significantly streamlines backup and recovery of email by completely eliminating the need to perform scheduled daily email backups, and speeding recovery, thereby delivering email continuity for businesses.

How does CDP enable end users to recover their own data?

Because CDP is a disk-based protection and recovery solution, it is possible to enable end users to retrieve their own data. Some CDP solutions provide this type of functionality; some utilizing a simple Web interface that requires no training and enables end users to retrieve previous versions of files without contacting IT. Empowering end users to retrieve their own data frees up IT to focus on other business-critical needs of the organization.

With these self-service recovery solutions, retrieving lost, corrupted, or overwritten data is as easy as searching for and downloading a file from the Internet. There is no backup tape to locate or load and no additional information to restore to find the correct file. Best of all, these solutions do not require the installation of client software or agents on individual desktops laptops, and a familiar web paradigm requires no additional training. Users need only a standard Web browser, making data retrieval easier than ever.

Does CDP help protect against data loss or corruption resulting from security threats?

DP offers inherent security against threats by protecting data from the impact of destructive attacks from viruses, worms, Trojan horses and the like. By continuously backing up data, CDP enables organizations to retrieve the last “clean” version of data that was stored before the attack. Being able to “dial back” to just before a loss is a huge win for today’s businesses and IT.

What role does traditional tape backup play in data protection today?

For decades, tape has proven to be an effective means for data protection and recovery. Tape is an inexpensive medium for storing data, and its portable format can easily be moved offsite. IT administrators are also familiar with tape and tape backup procedures, making it a relatively simple task to perform-although only trained administrators can recover data from tape.

Tape based backup systems also lacks the flexibility and simplicity that many organizations need today in a data protection solution. Speed of recovery, most especially for individual files or emails, is also an issue with tape solutions. Proper tape media management and rotation, combined with the need to monitor and manage the health of the tape hardware are complex systems which require IT knowledgeable personnel.

Today, more and more organizations are moving to a disk-to-disk-to-tape strategy. They are leveraging the inherent speeds and reliability of disk-based backup–including continuous protection- and then migrating backed up data to tape for secondary data protection and longer term data protection or offsite storage.

Utilizing both disk-based and tape-based data protection systems and methods in the right manner will bring the greatest protection for businesses, and will help IT align its strategies to best meet business needs.

Pat Hanavan - www.symantec.com

How to Improve Your Typing Skill

ratih_euy — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:27:36 +0000

Are you a computer beginner or an experienced user with poor typing skill? Do you want to improve your typing speed and efficiency easy and enjoyably with little effort? Absolutely, the typing tutor software is the best choice of you. There are a lot of such utilities in the market today. Probably you will ask which one I should select among them. No problem! Here I will commend some popular typing tutor software to you. The most popular typing tutor software used today are: TypingTutor, GS Typing Tutor, TypingMaster Pro, Letter Chase Typing Tutor, TypeFaster etc. Following are the detailed functions presentation and features comparison of them.

TypingTutor is a program that can help us learn touch typing by following a series of exercises while monitoring our progress and tracking the results. It offers some basic instructions on finger placements and starts with a simple set of lessons to practice the basic key combinations, expanding the number of letters used as we progress through the exercises. TypingTutor offers a simple interface that requires us to frequently use our mouse in order to switch or continue lessons. But the included lessons are fairly short and lack the sophistication of other (commercial) typing products.

GS Typing Tutor is a program that will help us to learn touch typing from scratch, or develop our typing speed if we are already using the touch type method. As a beginner, no more hunt and peck and two finger typing. GS Typing Tutor will help you memorize the keyboard layout and go on to develop typing speed quickly. If we know touch typing, GS Typing Tutor can help us to acquire professional touch-typing skills.

TypingMaster Pro is an interactive typing trainer; that we can use to teach ourselves touch typing. It offers an extensive array of exercise lessons that cover all the bases from ergonomics to step-by-step lessons and interactive games to practice our skills. Unlike other products that simply provide us with a set of training lessons, TypingMaster Pro adapts to our unique needs and customizes the learning process based on our skills and progress. It keeps detailed statistics about our WPM rates, problem keys and other details, and allows us to target and improve our weak areas.

Letter Chase Typing Tutor enables us to learn touch typing with the help of on-screen instructions to learn finger placement and step-by-step training lessons that will get us started. The program includes a total of 11 lessons that cover all letters as well as numbers, symbols and punctuation. Letter Chase Typing Tutor includes statistical charts that displays our progress and we can customize some of the settings to adjust for our typing style.Other features include support for multiple users, typing games, advanced drills, speed tests and more.

TypeFaster is an Open Source typing tutor that offers a touch typing course in 15 lessons. The program can keep track of our progress with statistical charts and create custom exercises based on the errors we make during our lessons. An interactive keyboard display can assist us with finding the keys without having to look at the keyboard. Type Faster also includes spaceship-shooter typing game.