Downtime and Recovery in Microsoft Exchange Environments

E-mail has become the most critical tool for businesses today, and Microsoft Exchange is central, with its approximate 80 percent market share in the small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and small-to-medium enterprises (SME) e-mail markets. The outage of an Exchange server immediately puts IT managers at the center of chaos with a business imperative to recover and… Continue reading Downtime and Recovery in Microsoft Exchange Environments

Initiatives Await New Administration

The neverending campaigns, primaries, debates, interviews, parodies, commercials and elections are blessedly over. The electorate (and not the courts) has spoken and we will have a new party in the White House and a large number of new legislators taking office in January. If form holds true, we will most likely have a new Secretary… Continue reading Initiatives Await New Administration

High Availability Technology in Practice

On average, Tony’s Fine Foods delivers more than $1 million worth of products daily. In addition to the main data center at company headquarters in West Sacramento, Ca., Tony’s has three warehouses located across northern California. Beyond the applications for internal operations, Tony’s runs logistics software for its third-party partners, applications which have to be… Continue reading High Availability Technology in Practice

When Data Protection Is Not Enough

Ensuring System Accessibility with High Availability Technology A UK-based study prepared by University of Warwick in 2007 found that hourly downtime costs were as high as £350,000 (almost $682,000 at time of writing) in the retail industry and £100,000 (almost $195,000) in the finance sector. These are likely very conservative estimates as they are considerably… Continue reading When Data Protection Is Not Enough

Lessons Learned from Mock Disaster

On September 14, 2008, PPBI sponsored the mock disaster at DRJ’s Fall World in San Diego. More than 150 conference attendees were asked to respond to a public health emergency wherein an outbreak of an undiagnosed illness occurred in seven U.S. major cities on the same day. The illness impacted adults working in inner-city office… Continue reading Lessons Learned from Mock Disaster

Disaster Recovery with No Strings Attached

As the nation braces itself for hurricane season, it’s hard to forget the devastation of recent years – Andrew, Dennis, Rita, Wilma and, of course, Katrina. These names are synonymous with images of disaster and devastation that are indelibly etched in our minds. The National Hurricane Preparedness Week last May culminated in the message to… Continue reading Disaster Recovery with No Strings Attached

Issues of Diversity in Crisis Management

Our world is changing. Forces of constant change, chaos, and complexity are replacing forces of stability and permanence that prevailed over our way of life. Methods of organizing such as top-down, command and control, monocentrism of viewpoints and culture, are being challenged and are proving to be ineffective in our education, religion, politics, and government.… Continue reading Issues of Diversity in Crisis Management

Its Not Easy Being Green

As Kermit’s whimsical ballad explained, green isn’t as easy as we might have thought. The complexities and traumas of virtualization and consolidation of the production environment do indeed provide “green” savings. However, there is another significant opportunity for green savings with significantly less production impact. Data protection media is the oft neglected child of operations.… Continue reading Its Not Easy Being Green