Today’s systems are not as simple as they used to be. With the advent of a service-oriented architecture permeating our systems, the dependencies reach far from a single system. The old days of single server/client architecture are gone, and it takes more effort to understand the more complex infrastructures. With that, today’s disaster recovery planning isn’t just about assigning personnel and decided on a failover facility, it is also an exercise in understanding your entire IT infrastructure.

Most companies have a mix of commercial off-the-shelf applications and custom or semi-custom applications that have been updated and modified over time for the environment. The question is, do you know what your applications need to survive? Too often, customized code is victimized by poor documentation and changing scope. When the time comes to recover an application, what if you’ve come to realize that that application was dependent on some small Web service in your environment that was not deemed critical at the time? The entire disaster recovery can become a failure due to the oversight, regardless of the careful planning that went into the effort beforehand.

What you must do is understand your systems at much lower level than servers and networks. Following the ITIL model and creating a configuration management database can help you document the detail of your most critical line of business applications. Documenting the service dependencies is especially important in this effort. If you don’t understand the service contracts and the responsibility assignment of those services, you’ll likely reach a point in the processing of a transaction where an assumed service is not available, breaking the entire functionality of the application. Read the rest of this entry

Since Android is a Google product, the OS has tight and excellent integration with all Google services, including Gmail and Google Contacts. If you own an Android phone and have a Gmail account, it is highly recommended that you synchronise your contacts with Google Contacts.

By syncing your contacts, you are saving them on Google’s server/on the cloud. This means that you can access your contacts from any PC or browser, and your contacts will remain safe even if your phone ever gets lost or stolen. In fact, if you keep changing phones, Google Contacts will be your best bet to keep your Contacts in sync across all handsets.

Before you sync, it’s highly recommended that you organise your Google Contacts. Gmail automatically adds all the email addresses you have ever exchanged emails with as a contact in your Google Contacts. So chances are there are a lot of irrelevant contacts in there! Read the rest of this entry

When it comes to using your PC, organising how and when your data is backed-up is one of the most important processes you need to implement. Microsoft has made it very easy to set-up a back-up in Windows 7. Here’s how to do it.

Step one
From the Start Menu, open the Control Panel.

Step two
Select System and Security and then scroll down to the section marked Backup and restore and click Back up your computer.

Step three
If you have never set up a backup in Windows before, at the top of the window underneath Backup, it’ll alert you to the fact a backup is not in place, so simply press Set up backup to the far right-hand side to alter the backup settings. Read the rest of this entry

Disaster recovery is one of those IT functions that can never be fully completed. No matter how good you think your program is, it can always be made better. And the fact that its worth cannot be proven except when confronted by extreme circumstances makes it difficult to devote time, money and resources to the cause.

Yet that’s exactly what is required on a regular basis. DR is the equivalent of running a marathon — only those in tip-top condition will see the finish line. Unfortunately, virtually no one out there runs a full DR test even once a year. At best, organizations test individual components to ensure continuity of various application subsets, mainly out of fear that more comprehensive trials will upset ongoing business processes.

And that’s only among organizations that have DR plans to begin with. And the fact is that too many enterprises are still without a means to recover from even minor disruptions let alone the kinds of calamities that make the evening news. The cloud has proven to be a friend in need for groups that can’t afford backup data facilities and advanced DR platforms, but there are still many pitfalls when it comes to maintaining continuity in the cloud. Read the rest of this entry

A great new feature of iOS 5 and iCloud is the ability to back up your iOS device wirelessly to the cloud. This ensures that your data is always protected in the event that the device is lost or damaged.

Unfortunately, there are two considerations that users must now address. First, when you enable iCloud backups, the device will stop automatically backing up in the traditional manner when connected to iTunes. While cloud backups are more convenient, there may be times when a user wants the added security of a local backup.

Thankfully, there is an easy way to initiate a manual local backup. First, connect your device to iTunes. Once it appears in the iTunes sidebar, right-click (or CTRL-click) the device’s name and select “Back Up” from the pop-up menu. This will initiate a full local backup that can supplement your incremental iCloud backups. Read the rest of this entry