Disaster Recovery
by Ian Cutler
"SMBs will go out of business if they cannot get to their data in the first 24 hours after a crisis." - Gartner
You would be surprised at how many small and medium businesses do not take Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity seriously. I think I can safely assume most, if not all, businesses are taking backups of some description, if not now is a good time to start! A backup is all well and good but there are additional factors to take into account which are often overlooked:
1 What data does the backup contain? Is it just a daily backup of company and user data?
2 Is the backup schedule set up to get the most effective snapshot of your system?
3 Is the backup being taken offsite?
4 How quickly can the systems be back-up and running?
5 Can you be sure of a full recovery?
Having a backup is only a small part of a Disaster Recovery plan.
The Scary Bit
Disaster Recovery Statistics* 43% will never re-open * Less than 50% of all organisations have a business continuity plan |
The Disaster Recovery statistics do not take into account the costs involved while your systems are down.
Downtime Costs
Source: Information Age |
Coupling the costs incurred during the downtime of a disaster with the possibility of never being able to recover and restore all the data then this can be a costly exercise to a business - especially if a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan is not in place.
The Disaster Recovery Plan
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity should not be confused with each other. Disaster Recovery usually relates to the IT infrastructure, systems and data and is a part of the Business Continuity plan. Business Continuity is usually the term given to a company’s overall survival strategy in the event of a disaster. Although separate they are not mutually exclusive and the Disaster Recovery plan should be worked on in parallel with any Business Continuity plan.
As mentioned earlier it is not enough to just have a backup, a business needs to know the importance of the data being backed up, the priority of the data, the cost of downtime and the cost of data loss. A Disaster Recovery Plan will not only address all the details but will save your company money should the unthinkable happen. It is better to be pro-active and not reactive.
1. Get to know what it is that keeps your business going.
The first stage of the Disaster Recovery Plan is to look at what data your company houses and prioritise it’s importance to your business. Are emails the top of your list? Users and company work on a file server? Or do you have a large database of client and financial data? The idea is to have knowledge of your company’s data, where it stored, how your business interacts with it and how you would cope without it.
2. Calculate the cost of downtime.
This part requires a look at the cost to the business of the data being unavailable for significant amount of time. The cost is not just calculated in financial loss but also in loss of business and other criteria ie employee, customer, legal, and obligations.
3. Work out what is the best backup solution and schedule for your systems.
Not all your data will have the same backup requirements. For example a weekly backup, which is fine for server System State, certainly isn’t going to be enough for a company with a large file server or business critical databases. Likewise a backup which creates a continuous mirror of data would be overkill for a weekly System State snapshot. An appropriate schedule and backup solution needs to be implemented to make sure all avenues are covered.
Businesses running 7x24x365, such as hotels, which have few opportunities for backup windows should consider implementing a continuous protection replication backup solution.
4. Remove the backed up data from the building.
This may seem obvious but if there is a fire, flood or structural damage to the building there is a very good chance the backup media will be damaged along with the IT equipment. Removing the backup media offsite in rotation will certainly be of massive benefit if the business has to relocate to temporary or new premises.
There are online backup solutions available which backup systems over the Internet and allow for restoration via download. These can be very useful in recovering accidentally deleted files but a full recovery can be a very slow process.
5. Run and test the Disaster Recovery Plan.
Making sure your Disaster Recovery plan works is the final part. Keeping a watchful eye on your backups is a must as sometimes servers crash or the scheduler for whatever reason doesn’t start. It is foolish to set the backup schedule and sit back!
Evolving the Disaster Recovery plan as your business evolves and testing the solution will make sure that in the event of a disaster the cost to your business and disruptions are minimal.
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November 25, 2009 at 4:43 pm | Business Technology | No comment
Windows 7
By Ian Cutler
Out of character for Microsoft, Redmond has been less than quiet on its next operating system. In the past Microsoft has kept details of current in development products close to its chest. It appears not to be the case with Windows 7.
News began to leak onto the Internet in 2007 with screen shots of the new look for Windows 7 appearing in the final quarter of 2008 and a Beta version available to download in January 2009. The speed with which Windows 7 has been developed seems surprising considering the development time Microsoft took with Windows Vista. Microsoft has always tried to stick to its self imposed 3-year development cycle and has usually managed to. The PR disaster that was Windows Vista has made the development of Windows 7 look supersonic.
Microsoft is still trying to squeeze every last bit of life out of Vista though and, if Vista had taken off in the way Microsoft anticipated and in the same way Windows XP did, maybe Windows 7 might not have come round so quickly or looked the way it does. Vista has become very much maligned, some criticism justified, and with XP still going strong many users have been reluctant to make the change. Maybe a new improved Windows operating system is just what Microsoft needs to win back some plaudits and to get users to finally let go of Windows XP.
Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on 14/04/2009 with updates and paid support available until 2014, Microsoft is killing off XP for good. With Vista seemingly not a viable option for most people and to stop users giving up on Windows altogether and adopting Linux or Mac, this is where Windows 7 comes in.
Windows 7 isn’t a brand new operating system. Underneath, it is basically Windows Vista with a new look and some enhancements. In essence Microsoft is putting right what users perceive is wrong with Vista and passing these corrections off as a new operating system. That’s not to say that this is a bad idea. The more cynical among us would suggest Microsoft could have corrected these issues properly in a Service Pack and still have included the new look. This may have been the case, but ultimately Microsoft has decided on a new product which could look more of a marketing move than anything else. The adage here is “if it looks new, it probably is."
Most of the bugs and major complaints with the early Vista release such as it being slow to boot and shutdown, hogging system resources were mostly dealt with in Service Pack 1. Windows Server 2007, which became Server 2008, also runs on the same underlying kernel as Vista; the release of which was delayed by a year and evidently tweaked and honed so much so that some beta users adopted Server 2008 as an improved desktop operating system to Vista.
On top of speed and performance improvements Windows 7 has a Start-up Repair and diagnostic tool which automatically loads on reboot if it fails to start up first time.
Windows 7 Desktop
Windows 7 hosts a new look desktop, just to make sure you know it's not Vista. The new Windows 7 desktop is not a major leap away from previous Windows desktops but is more 'Mac' like in the way you can 'dock' application launchers into it. Other well known Windows applications such Paint and Calc get a face-lift. Paint gaining the Ribbon interface used in Microsoft Office 2007.
The Vista sidebar has been removed. The Gadgets can still be used but placed on the desktop rather than in the resource crippling sidebar.
Other improvements are the scaling down of the despised User Account Control (UAC). If you don't know UAC or have not been affected by it, UAC is a very intrusive security measure in Vista, which irritated so much it got turned off by many users. Disabling UAC soothed nerves but made the Vista desktop security vulnerable but who wants to be asked 15 times for authorisation whilst changing the wallpaper?! In Windows 7 the UAC has a slider to adjusted the level of security/intrusion the user prefers.
Applications that require Administrator access to the system to run have also been scaled down by Microsoft. This obviously reduces the number of pop-ups and security warnings the user will be subjected to. These are welcome revisions and proof that Microsoft does sometimes take on board what its customers are saying.
One of the most interesting additions to Windows 7 is the XP Mode. XP Mode will run in Virtual PC and does require a dual-core 64-bit CPU minimum, most recent machines will meet this specification quite easily. This is the clincher which Microsoft has added to try to prise users away from their beloved XP machines. The user will be able to run older XP applications in Windows 7 without any compatibility issues. A nice inclusion and it really doesn't leave any excuses not to upgrade.
Microsoft have set October 22, 2009 as the date for a Worldwide release of Windows 7. As with Vista there a few different versions to choose from: Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate and Starter Edition, which is aimed at the Netbook market. The Starter Edition was going to be locked to only allow the user to run 3 applications simultaneously, excluding Explorer and Anti-virus software, but Microsoft has since removed this restriction. All, except Starter Edition, will be available in 32 and 64-bit.
Pricing is expected to be £149.99 for Home Premium, £219.99 for Professional and £229.99 for Ultimate. Pricing for the retail version of Windows 7 Starter Edition has not been announced but is rumoured to be around the £50 mark. More about Windows 7 pricing can be read here: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39667236,00.htm.
Having used Windows 7 since beta and into Release Candidate I can say Microsoft has done a good job with Windows 7 and made significant strides in repairing some of the damage to their reputation caused by Vista. Even in pre-release versions the operating system crashed rarely if it all, installed easily and without compatibility or driver issues on various hardware platforms and was much more intuitive and comfortable to use than Vista. Windows 7 is probably what Vista should have been and only time will tell if users flock en masse to adopt Microsoft's new operating system/marketing ploy, however I do think Microsoft have got it right... this time.
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July 31, 2009 at 12:54 pm | Business Technology | No comment
CiceroUIWndFrame Not Responding Error
You may see this error when shutting down the computer or closing Outlook 2003. It has also been linked to problems with the normal running of Outlook 2003, although these are rare.
The problem lies with a bug in Microsoft Office 2003 and is to do with the Speech and Handwriting Recognition feature. Turning this feature off will fix the problem.
To do this:
- Click Start and select Control Panel.
- Double click Add/Remove Programs.
- Scroll down the list of installed programs until you find Microsoft Office 2003
- Click on the Change button.
- Choose the Add or Remove Featuresoption and click Next.
- Make sure the Choose advanced customization of applications box is checked.
- In the Advanced Customization window, browse the Office features until you find Office Shared Features.
- Expand Office Shared Features and from the drop down list under Alternative User Input select the Not Available option.
- Click Update to complete uninstallation of this feature.
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March 25, 2009 at 10:58 am | Business Technology | 1 comment
Dodgy domain renewal requests!
Having had one or two friends and clients fall victim of dodgy domain name renewals I thought it may be useful to give some pointers on what to look out for.
Looking after several 100 domains for myself and my clients means that I reguarly have to renew domains as they fall due. The information about when a domain is due for renewal is available in the public domain and can be found out easily by using a domain whois lookup tool along with your contact details as the owner. This unfortunately opens the door to unscrupulous operators to try and rip you off and cause chaos when the time comes for your renewal! So the following is a breakdown of the way one of the most common operators carries this out.
Using your address details from the whois lookup the first thing you receive will be an envelope like this (or maybe an email), often well before your domain is actually due for renewal:
This one is from "Domain Renewal Group" who I believe are the same company as Domain Registrar of America and Domain Registrar of Europe, all of whom I have received such missives off in the past.
Inside will be a letter looking something like the one to the right. It looks like a helpful warning to renew your domain but in actual fact by signing it you are agreeing to transfer the domain form the provider you currently manage it through to the "Domain Renewal Group". This causes some or all of the following issues:
- Often more expensive per annum than your current provider
- Your settings can often be altered
- Your current provider, if they also provide support, will be locked out from managing the domain
- In the worst case scenario your website and email system may stop working
So what to do?
If you receive an email or letter like this, then the best thing to do is to contact whoever looks after your domains and website hosting for you. They will be able to check through the details with you and ensure that your domain remains secure in your possession.
If you have responded to the letter then contact your current provider immediately as they should be able to prevent any transfer taking place ensuring that nothing effects your website.
I would really value any feedback about similar schemes which can possibly mislead users into transferring their domain names, or other related services, and I will try to update the post should I come across any others!
Currently the list stands at:
- Domain Renewal Group
- Domain Registrar of America - see details of court order
- Domain Registrar of Europe
- Domain Registry of Europe
- EU Registry Services
- Domain Listings Center
Useful article in The Register about misleading domain renewals
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October 20, 2008 at 8:34 pm | Business Technology, Design, General | 2 comments