Pool parties are the best not to mention all margaritas and martinis that come with them. A month ago, I was down at the swimming pool on a sunny Sunday and happened to meet a neighbor who is a paralegal. So here I am boozing and socializing with a paralegal and talking to her about her office and my work. Unfortunately she just happened to have a tough week at work, as the building in which her office is located had a fire. The office above her office was caught on fire and it all started with a cigarette butt. Fire went on and did some direct damage to one of the offices. But most of the damage was not from fire it was from something else.

You got it! Most of the damage was from sprinklers and water thrown in by the fire truck. Some offices in the building got flooded and everything from computers to files felt the brunt of H2O. Fire, flood, computers, files….sounds like some uninvited extra work, doesn’t it? Time to buy new office furniture, files and computers, flood control …shopping time! Wait a sec, where can they buy data that was on their old computers and servers? My friend was relieved to know that even though her computers were damaged due to water her data was still secure, as they had a backup server on a different floor in the same building. A NARROW escape! I just wonder how many businesses out there have a backup server in their basement or on another floor in the same building and don’t realize there are data centers (with fire supression technology ) in this world for a reason. Do they know that:

“70 percent of small firms that experience a major data loss go out of business within a year “.*

Even more than that I wonder how adamant are they about their basement backup server when they say “I have backup, it works well, I have it all taken care off and I don’t need offsite backup” I guess will let them live in their ignorant world, after all what do I know I am just a rabbit!

*Source: Contingency Planning, Strategic Research Corp and DTI/Price Waterhouse Coopers (2004) and is widely quoted in places such as: DianaShepstone, National data awareness project launched to help businesses prevent data disasters ( Data Centre Solutions, Jan. 8, 2007)  see: http://www.datacentresols.com/news/articles-full.php?newsid=5455

In recent news headlines, Kelowna’s name comes up with announcements about the new $75 million dollar gigacenter that is being built by IBM and RackForce (a Kelowna company). The 70,000 square foot facility scheduled to open in December 2008, is state of the art, energy efficient, “green” and totally secure. Upon completion it will generate 100 plus new career positions in Kelowna and area.

The gigacenter is purportedly going to be the largest in North America. That raises the question of why would these organizations choose Kelowna as the ideal place to build this very expensive facility?  Well first you have to have a clear understanding of why the facility is needed at all.

The gigacenter fulfills the huge and rapidly increasing need for IT data storage. The continuing explosion of data that is being generated (much of which must be securely stored and instantly retrievable when required for both business needs and legal and governmental requirements) is dramatically taxing data storage capacity worldwide. The gigacenter is designed with “state of the art” security, highest reliability, greatest efficiency, readily accessibility and “green power”.   Huge volumes of data will be transmitted and stored in the Kelowna gigacenter from all over the world.

Kelowna is a unique but also ideal choice as the site for this type of facility due to our moderate climate, earthquake and flood free history, and we are not in a zone normally affected by terrorism or other strife. Our electricity is reliable and “green” hydro electric and we have a very stable economy and a growing IT work force with an excellent work ethic.

All of this makes both the gigacenter and Kelowna the ideal choice for organizations both big and small wanting to avoid the disaster of data loss and have the ability to assure rapid and comprehensive disaster recovery. 

The Okanagan Valley already has a surprising number of high tech organizations with dozens of website design firms, software developers, custom programmers, computer sales and support organizations and manufacturers whose products and services are based on high end technology. On behalf of my employer Toggle Networks Inc. I am now offering to valley businesses our “state of the art”, data protection solutions that fit all enterprises, small, medium or large. 

The movers and shakers in business and community development have created and are solidly behind a “Silicon Vineyard” initiative with support from the Okanagan Science and Technology Council, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Commission. 

The combination of the development of the Gigacenter whose primary function is the secure storage of back up data, the burgeoning growth of IT enterprises in the valley and the “Silicon Vineyard” initiative, has attracted the interest of IT Disaster Recovery and Avoidance experts.

As an example, on October 7, 2008 Toggle Networks Inc. is sponsoring a seminar  “Avoiding a Business Disaster” (naturally being in the Okanagan Valley the no charge format is a Wine & Cheese).

For further information contact ;

Bob Keeling
 Roberts.keeling@togglenetworks.com
(250) 769.9159

I was recently asked, “How effective is your daily data backup in your practice?” I had no idea so I retorted, “Very effective… I think.” With over twenty-five years of experience in the dental industry, I have amassed extensive clinical and administrative knowledge. However, I confess that technical issues still perplex me.

My paths first crossed with data backup before the days of computers. A fire broke out in the building where my dental practice was located. As I hauled my A/R ledgers and appointment book outside to safety, it dawned on me how fragile data and our data storage were. As the firemen extinguished the fire, I reasoned I could not expect our staff to carry the heavy and cumbersome records home everyday. What preventative measures could be taken in the event of an after-hour disaster? I crossed my fingers and prayed disaster would never strike again.

As computers manifested into the workplace, my love-hate relationship with tape backups emerged. Each of five tapes, beautifully labeled with the days of the week, accompanied an “advanced” procedure: remove the previous day’s tape at the end of the day, tuck it into your purse and store it at home; insert today’s tape into the tape drive for immediate data storage. My colleagues and I were awestruck by our flawless practice; that is until disaster #2 struck. Our computer crashed. With tape backups in hand, we boldly approached our software vendor to recover our data. “What do you mean the data on the tapes is incomplete or missing? You can only recover 10% of our data?” I begged. One agonizing year later of recruiting help and sifting through day end sheets (which luckily we had printed beforehand), we recovered our lost data. Our misfortune was perplexing; we had done everything we were told to do. Our software company conceded, “Your tapes are old, but can be maintained current by purchasing new ones monthly for a mere $150/month.” Can we say robbery? Oh yes, and there was no guarantee with the tapes.

Data loss can be catastrophic when it strikes home. Cognizant that my most precious data is personal pictures, I burned all of my photos to CD. The peril of this simple and affordable approach was exposed when my home computer crashed. I loaded the first of thirteen CD’s onto my fixed computer only to find nothing. I lost all of my pictures of my children, holidays and special occasions; even my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. The sting of that moment will forever haunt me.

May the age of automation have mercy on me? There must be a bright side to technology. I settled into the world of “automatic timely back-ups” (too good to be true), data encryption (say what?) and 100% restoration (right, I have heard that before). My software vendor was annoyed by my skepticism proclaiming I should be “thankful for technology.” Forgive my doubt but his artificial words did not deliver peaceful slumber.

I will be the first to admit it is easier to believe the plethora of lies out there about data protection, than to uncover the truth and establish proper protection. However I cannot disregard the anguish of data loss or the vast ignorance that surrounds it. While the dental software I most recently used was best in class, it was non-compliant with provincial dental association’s data retention requirements; we did not maintain or protect ten years of our patient files. If we ever had to restore our data, we would have been shocked by the sticker price that we thought was included in our monthly fee.

One thing I am certain, you will be threatened by data loss. Computers fail. Make sure you are protecting what you could not afford to lose. No matter how great software affects your bottom line, or how gorgeous that picture is of your newborn, it is worth nothing when it is gone and will cost you more than you could ever imagine. I encourage you to avoid the pain I experienced by taking the time to discuss the importance of this matter with someone who specializes in IT data backup. Ensure that your system will allow for complete disaster recovery. Ignorance is not bliss, at least not when we are talking computers.

Nelle Pedersen currently serves on the executive team of Toggle Networks, Inc, a Calgary firm committed to data protection.

I am headed off to “Sin City” next week with 4 of my girlfriends. It has been a long time since I was there last. The year was 1978 and my family drove from Calgary, AB to Scottsdale, AZ for a winter break. We had planned to spend a night one Las Vegas. I was a minor at this time, so there was no gambling done by me. This certainly didn’t minimize my view of Vegas. It was not a vacation spot for children in 1978, but my parents attempted to let us take in what we could. As we drove downtown, I can recall being totally mesmerized by the lights. My brothers on the other hand were all giggles whenever they spotted the exotic dancer bars, and there were LOTS of them. I can recall my mother trying to distract my brother’s views by recommending other sites to look at.

“The Strip” was certainly there, and not like it is now. Most of the hotels that were on “The Strip” in 1978 have been bulldozed and rebuilt into magical palaces. I am not a gambler, but am anxious to try it. I have my allotted amount of gambling money, that I view as my “throwing away” money. If I do win anything, it will just be a bonus. Beating the Casinos is not impossible but I need to be realistic. It is unlikely that I will win with the odds stacked against me. Here are the approximate odds on some of the games in Las Vegas:

Keno - 30%. Slot Machines - 3%-25%
Roulette - 5.25% Video Poker - 0% to 5%
Craps - 1.4%
BlackJack - 0%-3%

I am just looking forward to seeing the shows, hotels, and chillin’ with my girlfriends. There will be no further comments from me on this posting, because “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!” Wish me luck.

Just when you think life on the web can’t get any better Google goes and launches their “Google Chrome.”  Within seconds of installing the new web browser (yes seconds IE) I am wondering why I have never seen some of these features in the past.  

Even with the introduction to tabbed browsing, I was still finding myself filling up my taskbar with IE or Firefox entries across the board.  Google Chrome now lets me simply combine my tabs by dragging them into one nice browser.  How sweet is that?

And why was I stuck with one home page (if I was lucky in tabbed browsing)?  I love the “New Tab” approach that Google Chrome uses.  How convenient is it to have all of my recent web sites, closed tabs, bookmarks, and of course the google search bar all nicely organized on a single screen?  

The address bar just speaks for itself.  Imagine what it should do and then try this out.  Yes, it does whatever you want it to do.

Keep up the good work Google.  Keep making my life easier.

www.google.com/chrome