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

Application Service Providers (ASP) are represented by a growing number of IT businesses delivering computer services from a central datacenter.  ASP solutions are very effective at reducing and in some cases eliminating the need for complex computer systems at the customers’ site.  A well run ASP service caters to businesses with niche computing needs or streamlined industry computer practices. 

The costs for an ASP service may seem high at first until factoring in the total cost of ownership associated with building and managing a complex computer system onsite.  Many businesses shy away from not “owning” their computer system and look unfavourably on ASP’s.  This will change in the future as computer systems become more centralized and monthly computer services become the accepted norm.  It is typically not in the best interest for businesses that do not specialize in IT to be responsible for an IT solution.  It doesn’t make sense to have an IT guy diagnose and illness, so why should a doctors be responsible for the health of their computer systems.

ASP’s are becoming more prevalent, however there are still many questions that must be asked before jumping on the ASP bandwagon.  A complete ASP solution will only require “dumb” terminals at the customers’ site, which begs the question what if there are other needs like accounting, email, pictures, peripherals, etc. not supported by the ASP.  Maybe there is equipment onsite like x-ray or manufacturing machines that need to communicate with a “smart” terminal or server.  I would say the most prevalent concerns one should have with an ASP is stability, security and disaster recovery.   ASP solutions rely completely on the quality of the Internet connection at the customer and service providers’ site.  Your service will only be as good as quality and security of computer infrastructure provided by the ASP.  And most importantly all your eggs are in one basket, so you must be absolutely confident that the ASP has a comprehensive disaster avoidance, disaster response and disaster recovery solution in place.

When considering an ASP, make sure you get a rock solid Service Level Agreement (SLA).  Ensure the ASP is backed by a proven disaster recovery solution and has taken every possible security precaution.  Consult with an IT professional who understands the ins and outs of ASP services to see if it is right for you in both the short and long term.

Don’t be too quick to assume that ASP’s are the one-stop miracle IT solution you’ve always dreamed about.   Be aware and proceed with caution.

“I’m sorry, it’s not our responsibility that you can’t recover your data, we only provide backup.”

“So I’ve been paying you good money to backup my data and I can’t get it back?  You mean tell me that ALL my files are gone?  Well that means I’m pretty much …”

It’s an unsettling thought to ever think you could be having this conversation.  Scary thing is it happens all too often.  Stats show that 70% of disaster recovery attempts from backup products and services fail are incomplete or ineffective.   It’s wild to think that most options for data backup aren’t very good at recovering data.  Sure there are multitudes of ways to backup your data.  Tapes, CDs, DVDs, online backup, disk backup, replication, and the list goes on.  But how many data protection products and services can actually ensure recovery of your data completely when you need it most?

So what’s the point in backup if you can’t recover?

I am excited to say that I have finally been given an opportunity to venture into a new and exciting career opportunity.  For the past few decades (I won’t tell you how many!), I have been a dental assistant,  dental administrator, and finally ended up being an area manager, managing 4 dental practices at one time.  I can speak great “dentalese“, but have now entered the world of IT.  Although the IT language still perplexes me at times, I love the challenges this opportunity has presented. 

I was surprised to learn on my first day of work at Toggle, that all of the data backup I had been doing within all of my dental companies was ineffectual.   I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent doing daily back ups (first with tapes and then CD’s), and even using a dental software recommended automated system.  I thought that I had protected my dental practices sufficiently, but in fact I had not, as most of my data I had backed up would not be retrievable.   One of my old dental offices has already signed up with my new company Toggle Networks.

Signed, the ever hopeful to one day being an IT Wiz,

Nelle