An important part of a thorough BC/DR Plan is the establishment of good corporate policies. We have started a relationship with Nancy Flynn of E-Policy Institute. Nancy is known around the world for her work helping firms develop enforceable policies designed to protect the firm based on solid business concepts. Thorough and enforceable policies will prevent business interruptions that are very costly. Take a few minutes to visit Nancy's web site www.epolicyinstitute.com to learn from an expert.

Thanks Nancy!

What does MTBF (mean time between failure) really mean? It is essential that you fully understand how MTBF is calculated especially when it comes to Hard Drives. The calculation is as follows, a 300,000 MTBF simply means that if a manufacturer delivers 1 million drives , one half or 500,000 of them will fail before the 300,000 hour mark is met. The figure of 300,000 hours is based on stress testing since there is no way a drive that has yet to be delivered could run for 34 years????

A thorough and complete BC/DR Plan requires that a company look at the impact drive(s) failure(s) are taken into account.

With a 1TB drive costing less than $300 today we all need to be careful to realize the value of the 1TB of data that drive supports. If there were a line item on your firm's balance sheet titled data, what amount would you place there? Get your plan done...NOW!

I'll take 2gb of Social Security Numbers and a disk of credit card information please.

Oh Boy, what is going on? It has long been discussed that the mafias of the world are the the dominate players in acquiring improperly and illegally acquired data but now it is much more in the open and it gets worse. What happens if your personal information is sold 100 times and all of the bad guys use it to get credit cards, loans and the like?

It is time to protect! If you aren't serious about protecting your name and credit you are setting yourself up for "the big hurt".

A thorough BC/DR Plan will help your firm with data security issues and help prevent serious business interruptions.

It's bad enough when your firm has lost some tapes, a laptop or been hacked and people who have trusted you now have to try and protect what your firm could not, their good name. What makes this even worse is the way your firm handles the breach. Rather than standing up, apologizing and offering to help, your firm decides to minimize, turn its back or even bury their head in the sand...a key to becoming a statistic!

Do your job, do it well and if you make a mistake, help those who have been harmed.

Get your BC/DR Plan in place NOW! It will help your firm negate this type of issue and if not minimize the impact.

I was sitting at my computer preparing for a morning of meetings. There were several firms interested in starting their BC/DR Plans. When the house started to shake I thought a HUGE truck was rumbling by, but the shaking got worse. OH MY (not my real words but I want to keep the blog G rated) it's an earthquake. Then the the shaking lessened to a vibration, and then a BIG rumble! Things shook and glasses rattled, and then it was over.

Needless to say, my meetings this morning went better than I could have imagined. Everyone asked what I did to be able to "Start an Earthquake"? Both firms are scheduled for their Plan Development Workshop and are committed to getting their BC/DR PLan done ASAP. 2 down and 7,000,000 to go!

Are you ready? Will your firm be a survivor or a statistic?

Imagine walking into your business one morning and find that all of your data has been stolen. Gone, vanished, some paper is left but all of the data is gone!

What impact would that have on your company?

Is the impact the same as your #1 competitor having all of your data? You may have the data but your #1 competitor has the data as well.

It's time for employers to wake up and understand the risks they are exposing themselves too.

The article is a good one, What are you going to do?

Too often we find web sites that are poorly designed and have inadequate security in place. There are a few rules that you might consider. If your web site is simply advertising for your firm, move it to a hosting service and get it off your network, this is especially true if you take electronic payments through your web site.

There are few business disasters more significant than having your clients confidential information stolen from your firm as a result of lax and inadequate security.

Part of a good BC/DR Plan will have your firm look at the location and support provided for your web site to make it a secure as is possible.

16 year ago this weekend the Great Unseen flood occurred. 16 years ago is a long time ago when it comes to technology. The flood of 1992 shut down all of the businesses in the loop area of Chicago. The Board of Trade lost all communication to the world. No phone, no Internet and their token ring network was just not going to work.

All the buildings were OK, the roads were fine, no one was hurt byut many firms were out of business for a month and then forever.

Very often its what you don't see that puts your business on the curb. A thorough BC/DR Plan WILL make a difference!

Home users need to be more aware of the danger they and their family are exposed to as a result of their lack of knowledge when using the internet. PLEASE got to www.staysafeonline.org and do a little research and prepare your family and computers for the new (and old) threats that can cause personal and financial harm.

While safety and precaution may cause some "inconvenience" and require the modification of a few habits, the change is for the good of your family and its future.

Businesses, until you establish and enforce policies regarding the use of company owned tools and resources, you are exposed to the same harm.

Gotta Do It!

RTO (recovery time objective) is the amount of time a company has established to resurrect an application after a system failure regardless of the reason for the failure. The time may be measured in seconds, hours or even days and too often is overly aggressive and unattainable.

Imagine a (flood, tornado or other regional disaster) wreaks havoc in your community and many businesses are in DR mode. How many servers (or even workstations) are available in the community for you to purchase? In a city of 1,000,000 people the number is maybe 50 servers and 1,000 workstations at a dozen or more stores. What impact does this have on meeting the RTO? Well, if you have no servers you cannot restore your data and applications. Having a emergency system replacement agreement in place is essential. Knowing that there are 12 servers on the way provides an opportunity for success.

Be careful and realistic as you establish an RTO, it might be the difference between your firm being a survivor and not a statistic!

I have to admit that I have looked down my nose at some of the "Social Networks" and their impact on business. My thoughts have gone to the negative in most cases. The YouTube video "Shift Happens" (Click on the title above to see the video) has caused me to rethink my position. Of course I had to validate the video, the source, the producer and the facts before I could even breath the title or ask anyone to review the video. It seems real to me based on a couple hours of research.

As business people, we need to be aware and knowledgeable regarding trends, shifts and the future. Please take the time to review the video and share it as appropriate.

It would be a significant and potentially fatal business decisions to disregard the message contained. Preparation and awareness are keys to survival!

Best Wishes

I am not endorsing the product, but do support the action. As a business owner you provide your employees with tools. They need the tools to do their job, but can they use those tools for personal use? A near universal answer is, no the employees cannot use company provided tools for personal or non-business use. Even more, they cannot use them for personal issues when they are being paid by the company to perform company work.

So, why are business owners not locking down the internet in the business?

Business Interruptions and law suits abound from businesses not controlling/monitoring what the employees are doing with the company provided tool, the connection to the internet.

Take control now!

In tough economic times (well all the time) companies want customers to like them, to feel good about them. Well, Apple Computer may have done it... they are trying to stop New York City from using an apple as a logo for a new marketing campaign. If I remember correctly, the Big Apple was around long before Jobs and Woz started up in the garage.

PR Disasters can hurt and even kill a company. While this episode will not put Apple Computer out of business, do you think there will be a bunch of iPhones in use by NYC officials? I think not.

A good BC/DR Plan will help a company overcome the impact of bad publicity and even create a mind set to help make certain these issues never occur.

So, Steve Jobs, is God next for using the Apple in the Garden?

Almost 71% of all e-mail is SPAM! Hopefully, most of you never see any of the barrage of junk that bombards your in-box. Click on the title above to review the 1st Quarter/March 2008 Report.

It is amazing the number of pop-ups and lewd messaging that can choke your system.

I am a big FireFox disciple. With the number of extensions that can be used to enhance your internet experience it is simply the best. While advertisers cringe with the use of Flask Block and AdBlock Plus my systems are very clean and clutter free.

A key part of a great BC/DR Plan is Business Interruption Prevention. When a firm prevents a Business Interruption it enhances the bottom line and that is a good thing.

Get your BC/DR Plan started NOW, contact us to find out more.