Your Business versus Mother Nature
Business Consultants earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every year showing businesses how to improve their productivity. All business consultants in the Information Technology area agree that the biggest threat to business survival is data loss. There are many different data backup solutions available on the Internet today. Unlike years past there are not only different providers but also many different methods of data backup. Some solutions are "on-site" based methods. These include tape drives or other magnetic storage media, DVD-R and CD-R based methods and NAS (network attached storage) methods of creating local (within the LAN) backups of critical data. These methods of data backup are definitely better than nothing, and can provide protection against user error, data corruption, and in some cases even computer theft (that is if the data backup equipment itself isn't also stolen) and many of the other pitfalls associated with digital media. But what about protection against the most powerful of all forces, Mother Nature? Hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, and other natural disasters are a serious potential threat to the crucial data you have stored within your computer network. Add into the equation the collateral damage of flooding and fire that often comes along with Mother Nature's wrath and you have a recipe for some serious data loss in the unfortunate event that one of these uncommon, but critically devastating, events occur. In most cases your existing backup solution would be useless and would suffer the same peril as your original data. The answer is simple: Have a complete, up-to-date copy of your data stored at a different location. You should back up your data using an offsite data backup service. Offsite data backups allow you to store mission critical digital files in a secure, remote location. When you store data in an offsite location you are doubling the protection of your most import data files and enabling a level of security that even the best on-premises data backup solutions can't provide. Your data is encrypted and backed up over your existing internet connection to a secure server. You can set it up to perform backups at any frequency you wish. You can even set up the system to schedule backups while the office is empty on weekends and evenings, or when the computers are idle for a certain period of time (great for those systems that need to be accessed 24/7 and cannot afford the potential downtime that may be incurred due to backup procedures being run at the time). Mother Nature is a concern for the integrity of your critical data. All smart businesses understand this. Your DATA is your LIFE. Protect it! Harald Anderson is a freelance writer and webmaster for http://www.online-remote-data-backup.com an online backup service. Experience the Digital Peace of Mind that safe, secure, encrypted online data backups can offer. Online Backups
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Electronic Schematics Diagram-The Four Commonly Asked Questions
I came across quite a number of questions about electronic circuit schematics diagram.
Routing, Routed, and Non-Routable Protocols
ROUTING PROTOCOLS
A Review of Refurbished HP Laptops
HP refurbished laptops can be found on their website hpshopping.com. Just enter "refurbished laptop" into their search field and browse through the current selections. (Note that Hewlett-Packard also owns and distributes Compaq computers.) There you can purchase a quality refurbished laptop for up to 30% off the new retail price.
The Top 10 Must-Have Laptop Accessories
You've laid out good money for your laptop computer, but you're not done spending just yet.
Best DVDs for Your Personal DVD Player
When bought personal DVD player, the very next thing to do is purchasing an important DVDs collection with your favourite movies, documentaries, shows, cartoons. Here are few hints before buying.
Dell Inspiron 600m Notebook Computer
After twelve years of owning desktop computers, I finally opted for a laptop so I would no longer be chained to my desk. After months of research and weighing various makes and models, I settled on the Dell Inspiron 600m Notebook Computer. This particular model has exceeded all of my expectations and at a price that is hundreds of dollars lower than many competing brands.
Understanding Transistor Data and Replacement
If, for some reason, you can't get an exact replacement for the transistor that you want to replace, you can refer to one of the transistor substitution guides or book, and try to identify a "near replacement". Beware, however. A substitution guide will sometimes list a replacement for your part, even though the two parts are not very similar. The most commonly used transistor substitution guides is the Philips ECG semiconductors Master Replacement Guide. Selecting the right transistor parameters or specifications for the equipment you repair will avoid callbacks from customers. Callbacks or repeated repairs due to wrong transistor substitution will cost you extra money and a waste of time.
A Look at Laser Toners
Laser toner is the ink for laser printers. It is an extremely fine synthetic powder (usually plastic) packed into a cartridge. You insert the cartridge into your laser printer according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the printer goes to print a page, there are several steps to the process:
Facing DVD Software Dilemma? Its Brainlessly Simple
1. Pocket DVD Wizard
http://www.deprice.com/pocketdvdwizard.htm
What is EEPROM ?
EEPROM stands for Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory and also referred to as EPROM. As the name suggest, an EEPROM can be both erased and programmed with electrical pulses. Since it can be both electrically written into and electrically erased, the EEPROM can be rapidly programmed and erased in circuit for reprogramming without removing them from the circuit board.
The Right Way To Discharge Capacitor In Switch Mode Power Supplies
Switch mode power supply contain some large filter capacitors that can hold dangerous charges even if the unit has not been used for several days. Typical values of this type of filter capacitor are 220uf 250volt and 330uf 400volt! If you are going to work on the power supply circuits, it's a good idea to discharge that capacitor first.
Throw Away The Fax Machine ? A Guide To Online Fax
Have you ever felt like throwing the fax machine out the window? Well you may not know it but you can, but not literally please.
Sony vs. Olympus: Digital Voice Recorders
Digital voice recorders have become increasingly popular over the last few years, as they offer a relatively cheap and reliable alternative to older cassette voice recorders. Digital voice recorders use memory - much like the memory used in your personal pc - to record sound, rather than tape cassettes. Newer recorders tend to have very large memory capacities, despite their small size.
A Guide to Refurbished IBM Laptops
IBM boasts a very large array of older and newer refurbished laptops on their website ibm.com. Look for "Notebooks: IBM Certified Used Equipment." There you can buy any of dozens of models and variations, for hundreds of dollars less than new models. IBM inspects all of their returned laptops (including the batteries, as with most factory-refurbished laptops), makes sure they up and running at top speed, and repackages them for resale.
Laptop Notebook ? Inexpensive Business Laptops
Laptop Notebook ? Your Portable Office
Expansion Cards Part 3: PCI Express
In the first two installments of this series of Tech Tips, we took a look at PCI and AGP, undoubtedly the most common expansion slots in a computer today. With a few key improvements over both of these, PCI Express is destined to replace both and offer a whole new level of computer performance.
Special Events Recording in DVD Players Age
The proliferation of portable DVD players has dramatically changed the videography approach.
Ink Cartridges & Printing - Poor Print Quality Solutions
Why are there faint areas or gaps in my print out?
The Making of Energy Efficient Datacenters
The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron is a wonderful movie to watch. It is based on the book, The anatomy of greed, written by a former employee of Enron, Brian Cruver. One interesting thing that comes on our minds is the size of all power companies. They are all huge. We all depend on power for just about everything and yet very rarely do we think about conserving energy. A typical PC for example takes about 135 watts of power. A data center with about a 1000 servers should typically take about 135 x 1000 Watts or 135 Kilowatts and that would just power the computers. This does not include the air-conditioning and lighting. According to to a research paper sponsored by The California Energy Commission in a datacenter about 50% of the total energy consumed is by the servers and
about 35% is the air conditioners.
Here are some interesting research done in this field -
Feeling the heat- An interesting paper by Liebert describing the challenge
of effectively managing the heat dissipation in datacenters.
Heat-Density Trends in Data Processing, Computer Systems, and Telecommunications
Equipment- This white paper provides valuable
current data and best available insights regarding historical and
projected trends in power consumption and the resulting heat
dissipation in computer and data processing systems (servers and
workstations), storage systems, and central office-type
telecommunications equipment.
This problem can be solved by making better energy efficient air
conditioners and by making more energy
efficient computers. Many companies have taken a lot of interest
in subject. However, nothing substantial has been done primarily
because of the market requirements. The end users still want to host
their sites on the fastest processors which drives the market with the
latest processors. Going at this rate we would reach a time soon when
the energy required would be much higher than the energy available in
the market.
Intel, AMD, Transmeta and Via have all released processors which
consume very low power. A typical Pentium or AMD processor consumes
about 25 Watts of power, whereas these low powered processors take only
about 5 watts of power i.e. about 5 low powered processors would
consume as much power as a single main stream processor of today. These
low powered processors are also generally fan less processors which
means lower noise levels too. Intel has the centrino which has a lower
power consumption than the regular pentiums. Intel also has the arm
processors but those are RISC. Our prime focus would be AMD, Transmeta
and Via. They all have some very promising products.
One thing to be noted is that most of these low powered processors work
only at about 1.2GHz or lower. So they won't be as fast the pentium4s.
Which means one would have to host lesser sites per server. A good
recommendation would be upto a maximum of 600 sites on a
regular pentium 4 server. A low powered processor should comfortably
take about 200 sites. One advantage of these low powered processors is
that they have a very small form factor too. This means that one can
have more such servers in the same space that is typically allocated to
a high powered servers. All datacenters use a profitability matrix
based on the following rule: Performance/Per
Watt/Per Cubic Foot. This is one place where the low powered
processors really score high.
AMD Geode? NX Processor family
comprises of the AMD Geode? NX 1250@6W processor, the AMD Geode?
NX 1500@6W processor and the AMD Geode? NX 1750@14W processor. The
first two in these consume only 6Watts of power and run without a
cooling fan. According to AMD they provide the highest x86 performance
for fan less operations. They are based on the mobile AMD Athlon
processor technology.
Transmeta was one of the first companies to develop low powered processors.
For a long time Transmeta was known as the company where the
Microsoft co founder Paul Allen had interests in and the place
where Linus Trovalds, the father Linux, worked. Both of them are no
longer part of the organization. Today they are known for the two
processor families they have - The transmeta crusoe and
the transmeta
efficeon
Transmeta Crusoe?-
processors range from 500Mhz to 1.2 Ghz. According to Transmeta,Crusoe is a unique combination
of software and hardware. It's this radical design that gives Crusoe its
important advantages, and manufacturers of all kinds of electronic
devices their first truly innovative new platform in over 25 years.
Thanks to Crusoe, mobile devices can be made smaller and lighter than
ever. These new devices will be more comfortable to use, too, because
Crusoe generates very little heat a problem that plagues the industry's
legacy hardware-only processors. And because it uses far less power,
mobile devices running on Crusoe run far longer on a single battery
charge, and Crusoe-powered ultra-dense servers do far more work per
watt, far more efficiently.
Transmeta
Efficeon processors are the higher end processors from Transmeta
and they run at upto 1.6Ghz and have high performance I/O interfaces.
They are built upon Fujitsu's next-generation 90nm silicon technology
featuring transistors with a length of just 40nm.
The entire Transmeta range not just uses the x86 instruction set, they
also have full multimedia instruction support (MMX, SSE-SSE2).
Transmeta has done very little in marketing in terms of selling their
products for the server market. Like all other companies they have
focussed on mobile products, set-top boxes etc.. While these products
are
great for the mobile market, they do have a great potential in the
server market. FIC, JM-Net etc. have some products for the server
market
which run on the Transmeta processors.
Via, the Taiwanese
manufacturer
purchased the Cyrix processors and has since gotten out of the race of
faster processors with AMD and Intel. Instead they are focussing on fan
less, low-powered processors. They have the Eden and the C3 range of
processors. The power consumption varies from only 7watts to
15Watts. Additionally, the processors come with the
PadLock Hardware Security Suite which provides a platform approach to
computer security, ensuring uncompromising security performance. These
features include the implementation of the Quantum-based VIA PadLock
RNG (Random Number Generator), and the VIA PadLock ACE (Advanced
Cryptography Engine) supporting AES encryption.
According to Via, the VIA Eden-N
Processor is the world's smallest, lowest power and most secure
native x86 processor. It is a mere 15mm x 15mm in terms of size and
consumes between 2.5W @ 533MHz to 7W @ 1GHz.
Via again like Transmeta has not focussed in the server market. The
images above give a good idea of the benefits of this processor in the
server market. For datacenters, Via may be the best in the
Performance/Per Watt/Per Cubic Foot matrix.
Companies like Hitachi make some very good low powered hard disk drives
which have a very small form factor. They have both IDE's at 7200 rpm
as well as SCSI hard drives.
Many may think it is better to take higher end servers as the power or
heating problem does not directly affect them. As mentioned earlier a
server driven by a low-powered processor would be able to take just
about 200 sites. This means that a person with 600 sites would need to
take 3 such servers instead of one higher powered server. Here are some
benefits of this scenario.
One of the biggest factors influencing the performance of sites on the
internet is the capability of the network card (ethernet) .
When all sites are
hosted on just one server, they all would use the same network
card to push the data. Now if these sites are distributed among 3
servers the amount of data that the sites can push would be 3 times
more
which means faster access to the sites. Another benefit is that if one
of the site goes down all 600 people would not be effected, rather only
1/3rd the number of sites would be affected.
Hence, the number of support request would be lesser. And finally, such
processors are very affordable. Typically they would be just a third of
the cost of regular mainstream processors.
Digital Camera Prints - Getting the Most for Your Money
Digital cameras have really taken off in popularity in recent years. It's not uncommon anymore to see several people at an event with a digital camera. Here are some things to keep in mind when getting your digital camera prints converted into keepsakes.
|
