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25 [New] Very Helpful iPhone Tips and Tricks

Cortez — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:07:54 +0000

By Marc Saltzman | Digital Crave – Mon, Jul 9, 2012 4:21 PM EDT

What’s the only thing better than 25 ways to master your iPhone? 25 more.

In case you missed our first round-up of 25 assorted iPhone tips and tricks, be sure to read these simple ways you can get more out of your smartphone investment.

In the first post we covered everything from how to dry out a wet iPhone and fixing those dang “autocorrect” issues to using the phone cord to take a picture (and why) and making your own ringtone without having to pay your carrier.

And now we’ve got another 25 awesome things to try with your iPhone, many of which you weren’t aware of.

And hey, if you have any tips of your own to share, be sure to leave them in the Comments section at the bottom — so you can get credit where it’s due.

Here we go:

Turn iBooks into audio books: Like most smartphones, the iPhone has a number of accessibility options. One feature is called VoiceOver and it can read aloud any text on the screen. While designed primarily for the seeing impaired, anyone can take advantage of this feature if they want to turn an e-book into an audiobook. Now you can listen while commuting to and from work, while closing your eyes in bed or when jogging down the street. To activate it, go to Settings, then General, followed by Accessibility. Finally, swipe to change VoiceOver from Off to On. You’ll also be able to tweak settings, such as the speed of voice reading to you. She sounds like the voice of Siri, by the way.

Quick access a draft email: You probably know you can start an email and save it as a draft to finish or review at a later time — if not, when you’re typing an email, tap Cancel and then select Save Draft — but here’s a super quick way to access your message draft when you’re ready to continue working on it: Open up the Mail app, touch and hold the Compose button (the icon of the small pencil in the square) and after a second or two it’ll automatically take you to your last saved message draft. Neat, huh? Otherwise, you need to open Mail, select the email account, select Drafts and then find the message.

Send multiple photos at the same time: To send multiple photos to the same contact (say, in an email or iMessage), open the Photos app and then tap on an album, such as Camera Roll. Now tap the Select icon in the top right of your iPhone screen. Now you can tap to choose any photo you’d like to send to someone. Once you’ve selected the desired pics, tap Share in the bottom right of the screen and you’ll have three options: Email, Message or Print.

Tell Siri the entire email: iPhone 4S owners probably go through a lengthy back-and-forth with Siri just to compose an email. Most people say the person’s name and then, when prompted, the subject line, and finally, the body of the email. But did you know you can do it all in one fell swoop? For example, hold down the home button and say “Remind my wife about the party and say don’t forget to pick up a bottle of red wine tonight.” Siri will know who your spouse is (or will ask you once) and place that in the To: field, and because you said “about” the party, Siri knows you want that in the Subject (Re:) field. You also said “and say,” which places words you said after that into the body of the email. This will all save you time.

Close open apps to save battery life: Make sure apps you’re no longer using are not open and draining the battery. Do this by double-tapping the Home button and you’ll see all the recently used apps running in the background along the bottom of your phone — such as a GPS app you no longer need because you’ve reached your destination. Press and hold an icon and they’ll all jiggle, which means you can tap the X to close the open apps at the bottom of your iPhone.

Tweet from any app: If you scour comments and message boards on the web you’ll find iPhone users who complain the integrated Twitter support isn’t working for them. Chances are it’s because they didn’t know they had to sign in first — but it’s only required once. Go to Settings on your iPhone, select Twitter (look for the little white bird on a blue background) and enter your Twitter handle (or email) and password. Now, you can tweet directly from apps like Safari, Photos, Camera, Maps and YouTube. Also remember that you can start typing a friend’s Twitter handle and the iPhone will autocomplete the rest.

Undo the Bluetooth “ignore” command: If you’ve ever paired Bluetooth products with your iPhone then you’re likely aware you can also choose to “Ignore This Device.” There are different reasons why you’d want to do this, but sometimes you tap this option accidentally or you might change your mind after the fact. Now you won’t see the wireless gadget you want to pair with. What to do? To have it show up on the list again, simply turn off your iPhone by pressing and holding the power button (on top of the phone) for a few seconds and then swipe to shut down. When you boot back up again you’ll see the Bluetooth device you previously ignored.

Siri can handle Facebook, Twitter: The iO6 update will add native Facebook and Twitter support this fall, but until then, you can still use your voice to tweet or update your status. It involves setting up these popular social networking services to work with text messaging. For Facebook, text the word “hello” to 32665 (which spells FBOOK on a traditional keypad). You’ll get an automated reply on your phone with a link to click to finish the setup. Finally, add the short code to your address book and rename it “Facebook.” Now you can tell Siri “Text Facebook,” followed by your status update. It’s the same process for Twitter, as you’ll want to enable mobile updates by sending a short code to Twitter. Then you’ll add the short code to your Contacts, name it “Twitter” and then instruct Siri to send a message there. To get going, text the word “start” to 40404 (U.S.) or 21212 (Canada).

Lock the screen orientation: Does it drive you nuts to have the iPhone screen flip around when you rotate the phone? You can prevent this from happening if you have no desire to swap between portrait and landscape view. Simply choose the orientation you prefer by tilting the device and then double-click the Home button. This will bring up the multitasking interface at the bottom of the iPhone. Now swipe from left to right and you’ll see a “portrait orientation lock” icon at the very left of this string of apps (it has a circular arrow on the icon). Tap it once to lock your orientation and you’ll see a padlock appear. Turn it off by tapping it again.

Add PDFs to iBooks: You don’t need to spend money on apps that let you read Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files. Instead, if you get a PDF as an attachment in an email, or see one on a website in Safari (or another iPhone browser), simply press and hold the PDF icon or link and you’ll see an option appear called “Open in iBooks.” Select this and you’ll be able to read the PDF in the iBooks app. In fact, all your PDFs will now be stored here. Simply tap the word Books in the iBooks app (top, center of screen) and now select PDFs to see them all on the virtual bookshelf. You can delete them from this screen, too, if desired.

Master the keyboard: In the first 25 Awesome iPhone Tricks post we cover how to add your own shortcuts and quickly accept or refuse autocorrect suggestions. But here’s a few other keyboard related tips: tap the space bar twice and the iPhone will add a period and capitalize the next word; quickly capitalize a word by pressing on the Shift (arrow) button and dragging your finger to the first letter of the word; to enter a number or symbol quickly, touch and hold, then select the key you want (lifting your finger returns you to the alphabet keyboard); and touch and hold a letter to reveal a list of special characters, such as à, á, â, ä, æ, ã and å, when you press and hold on “a.” Hey, now you can type “Mötley Crüe” properly.

Siri is a verbal calculator, too: You might know Siri on iPhone 4S can give you facts and definitions on-demand but “she” can also solve math problems for you, too (this is where students, off for the summer say “so NOW you tell me”). Just give Siri a verbal task, be it addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, equations or fractions — and you’ll see (not hear) the answer on the screen. Better yet, this is very handy when figuring out tip at a restaurant. For example, say you’re out with three friends and the bill comes to $300. You can ask Siri something like “What’s a 20 percent tip on $300, for four people?” and Siri will tell you everyone owes $15.

Swipe to delete messages: This one is pretty simple, but you’d be surprised how many people do it the longer way: to delete an unwanted email, text message or voicemail without opening them, just swipe across the message from right to left when you see it in list view and tap the red Delete button. Instead, many iPhone users waste time by opening up each and every message and tapping the small trash can at the bottom of the screen. On a related note, you can delete unwanted emails in bulk rather than deleting one at a time: In your Inbox, simply click the Edit button and check off the emails you want to delete with your finger and then choose Delete.

Tap to focus the camera: Those who regularly use the iPhone as a camera might know this simple trick: When you’re snapping photos or shooting video on your iPhone — and seeing the subject on your screen as you line up the shot — tap the screen where you want to iPhone to focus and it’ll adjust the exposure and white balance automatically for that area. For example, you might want your friend’s face in perfect focus or might opt for a more artsy shot of the sushi they’re holding in their chopsticks by focusing the camera on the food. You get the idea.

Manage your camera time: Here’s another tip when using the camera. Unless you’re running out of room, never delete unwanted photos from your iPhone when you’re out. Why? You really don’t know what the photo looks like until you see it much bigger on a computer monitor (it may be better than you think and/or fixable with software). Plus, spending time deleting photos on your smartphone right after you took them means you might miss an awesome shot because you’re not paying attention. And finally, deleting photos and videos off your iPhone unnecessarily drains the battery.

Add folders to the dock: Since iOS 4, you’ve been able to create a folder to store many similar apps on your home screen — this helps you better group your programs and find them easier. (Just press and hold an app until they squiggle, then drag and drop it onto another app). But did you know you could also create folders and add them to your dock at the bottom of the iPhone? Once you’ve got your folders created — and you can create or edit the name for the folder by pressing and holding the icon — simply drag it to the bottom of the iPhone screen for easy access. You can only have four icons at a time, so you might gave to move one there to your homescreen to make room.

Hold your iPhone like a camera: If you don`t like take a photo on your iPhone by pressing the virtual shutter button on the screen — after all, it’s not the most comfortable and could cause the iPhone to shake when you snap the picture — then remember you can now take a photo by pressing the volume button on the side of your iPhone, which will be on top — in the same place as a shutter button on a regular camera!

Preview that picture: On a related note, if you want to preview the photo you just took, just drag your finger from left to right in the Camera app for a preview. Most people will tap the icon in the lower-left of the screen and open up the photos manually. If you haven’t taken any photos or videos lately, swipe from left to right in the Camera app will start to show your Camera Roll, from newest to oldest, as you continue to swipe along.

Easily control your music: When you’re listening to music on your iPhone and using the earbuds that shipped with them, you might be aware you can press once on the small controller in the middle of the headphone cord to pause the music, and press again to play. But did you know you could quickly double tap to skip to the next song and triple-tap to listen to the previous song? Also, iPhone 4S users can use Siri to play music, such as saying “Play Jay Z” or “Play other music like this” or “Play playlist workout mix.”

Quickly add a calendar entry: You might’ve noticed when reading an email in the Mail app it’ll automatically underline anything related to date and time. For example, you’re typing to your buddy something like “Don’t forget we’re hooking up for drinks on Friday afternoon.” iPhone will detect this is a date or time and will convert it to a link — your friend will see “on Friday afternoon” underlined and in blue — and they could tap the link to add the event to their calendar.

Sync it all: Computer? What computer? You need not connect your iPhone to your PC or Mac ever again if you activate the iCloud service. Automatically back-up your iPhone information to iCloud by going to Settings, iCloud and finally Storage and Back-Up. Also, be sure to select what gets synched over Wi-Fi (or if you prefer, 3G, too, though be aware of data costs). You can choose to sync Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, Notes, Photos and more. You get 5GB of free storage through iCloud, but can pay for more if you like. Also, while here, activate “Find My iPhone” so you can track your phone if missing or stolen (see here).

Enable restrictions: Whether it’s on your iPhone or your child’s iPod touch or iPad, you can block inappropriate content from your kids (such as music with explicit lyrics), prevent them from buying apps (or in-app purchases) and block YouTube, Safari, FaceTime and more. To enable restrictions — and then customize what they’re able to access — go to Settings, General, Restrictions and tap “Enable Restrictions.” You will first be promoted to select a 4-digit passcode before choosing which content and apps can be accessed.

Delete your memory-hogging apps: Beginning with the iOS 5 update, you can see how much space your apps are taking up on your iPhone and delete them from your device — even a bunch at once. To do this, tap Settings, followed by General and finally, Usage. From here you’ll see a list of all your apps and their file size. If you see that Max Payne game is 1.3 Gigabytes and you don’t play it anymore, tap to delete it. You can always reinstall it later of via iCloud, App Store or your computer.

Save battery by turning off “pushed” data: Another way to prolong battery performance is to off push notifications in email, instant messaging and other applications that constantly ping a server to push real-time notifications to your smartphone. That is, if you don’t need to know this kind of information right away. In Settings, select the option that says Mail, Contacts and Calendars, tap “Fetch New Data” and change it from Push to Every 30 Minutes, Hourly or Manually.

Turn on the “Emoji” (emotions) keyboard: Ever notice how some of your friends have cute little emoticons in their emails or text messages. You know, like a little yellow face with hearts for eyes, teddy bears, Christmas trees, and so on? By default, your iPhone doesn’t give you access to these emotions and other graphics — but it is stored on your phone and ready when you are. To enable the Emoji keyboard, go to Settings, then General and finally Keyboard. Once inside, tap International Keyboards and “add” new keyboard. Select “Emoji.” Now, when typing an email or text, tap the globe key near the space bar for these new options. Tap it again to return back to English.

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#blyDEA No. 48 – Good Data Structure = Good Business Success

Apryl Hanson — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:48:21 +0000

The countdown to #Sagesummit 2012 continues and we’re continuing to share business ideas with our readers and followers as we encourage everyone to do by using the hashtag #blyDEA on Twitter. By doing this, everyone can see and follow your posts while hopefully contributing to the start of a trending keyword. I can’t wait to see the outcome and your responses.

#blyDEA No. 48 is focused around the concept that ‘the organization and structure of your business data relates to the success of your organization.’ This may sound a little off at first glance, but think about it…access to the right information at the right time is pricessless. So how do you make that happen?

We spend significant time with our customers on both the CRM and marketing side of consulting and the question of how to properly use collected data often comes up. Many are unaware of the resources available that outline how CRM can be used to harness this data. The answer begins with identifying what your organization’s goals are and how it plans to use client-related data as this can be directly related to how the data is organized. What I have realized is that it is a skill to understand how data should be used in the future as an organization grows vs. how it needs to be used in the present [as many companies are just now beginning to implement CRM strategies].

On a recent engagement, while speaking with a client who will be implementing CRM for the first time, but has had ERP for a while, the topic came up of the different types of communications they may want to send in the future that may impact how we set-up data in CRM. In fact, you should even think about what information points you want to collect from a customer and how that will be used. If you can’t think of a use for the data, we recommend not collecting it.

User adoption is critical too. If your teams do not buy-in to updating and keeping data in the system – you won’t be able to use that data effectively in the market. Being able to slice and dice data to target your marketing efforts appropriately increases your response rates, decreases your opt-out rates, and will increase overall leads and sales from marketing initiatives. That in itself directly impacts your bottom line.

For more information on how you can make your CRM solution stick inside your organization visit our whitepaper here. Or if you are interested in general marketing consulting that can help you understand how to better organize your data for better market penetration visit our Advanced Marketing page.

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Why CRM Fails and How to Fix It – Denver #blyDEA Forum

Cortez — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:56:53 +0000

Unfortunately, CRM does fail and at times needs to be fixed. This beckons the question what does it take to have a successful CRM deployment in your organization?

Whether you are considering CRM or not getting the results you want with your current system, the steps to getting to your ROI goal are the same.

Luckily, we’re throwing a #BlyDEA forum in Denver on June 5^th where you can join us for a free half-day session from 9am to noon to get in on an important conversation about building value in your CRM.

Here’s a quick idea of what you’ll be missing if you can’t attend:

AGENDA

8:30am-10am: Why CRM Fails and How to Fix It
10am-11am: The Intuitive Cloud – SugarCRM Means Success
11am-12am: Advanced Marketing – Less Spend, More Leads

Join us at Maggiano’s Denver on June 5. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served. Yum!!

Register here!

The post Why CRM Fails and How to Fix It – Denver #blyDEA Forum appeared first on Think, The Blytheco Blog.

10 Tips on Improving Your ERP Strategy

Cortez — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:21:29 +0000

Enterprise relationship planning, or ERP, is by no means a ‘piece of cake’ to implement. Horror stories abound about failed installations, unresponsive vendors, and wasted investments. ERP can indeed be complicated, however many organizations can’t find themselves able to function without it— It’s used anywhere from the optimization of inventory management to the organization of accounts payable. Despite the ubiquity of ERP among many organizations, it can still be difficult to grow your business with the right ERP tools. Thus, when wanting to implement a new ERP system, it’s important that it efficiently brings together different aspects of your back office for greater insight into business processes.

Today’s ERP offerings are still convoluted, but smaller companies especially have more choices in ERP solutions designed for their requirements. In order to implement ERP effectively, you should remember to stay close with your vendor in order to have easy access to customizations and configurations, choose the right delivery and access model for your business, and of course, use this list as a guide!

1. Focus on the ways ERP can optimize your business processes.

You must first know exactly how your business operates. If you have in-house human resource functions along with the need to manage products or inventory, you should totally be aware of these needs before you can identify the ERP functionality that can support your various business processes. It’s important to be open to some change, however; an ERP implementation can alter some business processes, and your organization will need to adapt its processes to match.

2. Understand your organization’s business goals and decide how ERP can support them.

ERP is intended to boost your company’s bottom line by optimizing your business processes, so it needs to be linked to your organization’s business goals. To this end, it is probably not a bad idea to integrate both your business’s CRM and ERP initiatives. It’s crucial, then, that you identify the ERP functionality — from advanced financials to supply chain management (SCM) to sales force automation (SFA) to workforce management — so it can help you attain those goals. Your ERP goals need to be specifically outlined and defined.

3. Understand your back office workflows.

Simply put, you need to know how your employees perform their jobs every day in order to maximize efficiency. These results should be gauged daily and compared to the amount of production at [the very least] the end of each week.

4. Consider Web-based ERP solutions.

Everybody’s doing it! Most notably SAP, Microsoft, and Sage have moved into the cloud and now offer full-featured hosted ERP solutions that are delivered via the Internet. If an on-premise solution is not available to you because of limitations in IT staff, SaaS might be actually be a better option for you.

5. Involve employees from IT and the departments impacted by ERP in the implementation.

It’s important that everyone is on the same page – not just the people physically installing the new system. Furthermore, since many departments within an organization are affected by ERP, it’s good to have a consistency in understanding among employees. It is important for the people who use ERP on a day-to-day basis to also be a part of the implementation process as they can provide feedback on how to optimize system functionality.

6. Dedicate members of your IT staff to your ERP implementation.

Even if you’re working with a vendor to install an ERP solution, you should have some employees focused only on the implementation. Needless to say, your vendor probably won’t be around as constantly as your employees, and it never hurts to have some extra brains around in case of a system failure. This is why it’s also important to frequently back up your data!

7. Full ERP implementation rarely happens overnight

Be patient. Most ERP deployments take several months or even a year to be fully implemented — Yikes?! No, don’t fret; this timeframe is typical for most ERP modules in midsized-to-large businesses but not necessarily indicative of small business ERP implementations. ERP systems should be installed in phases, one at a time, and must be methodically tested.

8. Limit customization of the ERP solution.

There are so many ERP solutions available that you’ll surely find one that matches your organization’s business processes. While some customization is typically necessary, remember that the less you need to customize the solution, the easier it will be to maintain and upgrade, particularly if your current IT staff changes.

9. Budget for training.

Most modern software is so user-friendly that most people can boot up and go. ERP is unfortunately not like most modern software. Luckily, there are places like us that offer On-Demand training for many Sage ERP products. These feature tutorials, how-tos and other whitepapers.

10. Prepare data for the migration earlier rather than later.

Business data is at the heart of every ERP solution, and it must be migrated from your legacy databases to the new ERP software. To be effective in the system, data must be accurate, complete, and consistent — that means cleaning it before migration. Start cleaning your data early in the implementation and create data entry standards that will be in place by the time the system is live.

For an overview of the Sage ERP family, check out this product portfolio.

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Business Recovery: What We Can Learn From the Disaster in Japan

Oli Thordarson — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:04:46 +0000

As it has been ubiquitously reported, I am sure all of you are aware of the devastating tsunami that struck Japan last week. This tsunami, caused by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake was one of the worst ever recorded in history. The 3rd largest economy on the planet has pummeled. Thousands of businesses have been destroyed, and many have perished. Because natural disasters occur and are often unpredictable, it is essential for businesses to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

Obviously during a disaster, health and safety come first, however, there will come a point in time when people and companies alike will have to transition back into a normal life. The key is to mitigate the loss and pain through careful preparation.

So how do you do that? You should first develop a disaster recovery plan with these questions in mind:

What assets do I need to protect?
How can I best protect them?
What is my Recovery Point Objective?
What is my Recovery Time Objective?
Do I need a business continuity plan to go along with the recovery plan?
To whom shall the disaster recovery duties be designated?
Where should our alternative workplace be in light of a disaster?

These are just some of the questions that many in Japan will soon be facing. In the days and weeks to come, some businesses will return to work swiftly and effectively. They will resume full operations and miss only a few calendar days of operation – these are the businesses that have already developed their disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

Others though will find that many or all of their key IT assets have perished due to the affects of the disaster. It is important to note that having a disaster recovery plan alone may not offer full IT protection, particularly when dealing with a devastation on the scale of Japan’s. Disasters are generally unpredictable, but being prepared and having the right plan(s) in order will put your business in a better position.

To make a donation to help those suffering in Japan, please visit the American Red Cross.

Oli Thordarson is the CEO of Alvaka Networks, a provider of network security and network management services. With over 28 years of experience, Oli is the founding chairman of the Global MSP Network and currently serves on the board of CompTIA and the Technology Leadership Political Action Committee.

Alvaka Networks is distinguished for its many industry awards, including the NASBA Top VAR Award. Alvaka Networks is headquartered in IRVINE, CA.

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1.7 Million Patient Records in Massive Data Heist at NYC Hospitals

Oli Thordarson — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:50:28 +0000

Photo by Agecom Bahia

All I can say is “WOW!” I wonder how much this is going to cost the hospitals. How much damage is done to their reputation? What kind of government settlement, oversight and years of scrutiny will this cost the hospitals when regulatory agencies are done negotiating with them on penalties and remediation?

Here is the gist of the story:

“Thieves made off with the personal health records of about 1.7 million New Yorkers’ when they stole backup tapes from four Bronx hospitals in December, the city’s Health and Hospitals Corp. revealed….

…The computer backup tapes were stolen on Dec. 23, but the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation began notifying victims Feb. 9, according to statement issued by the 14-hospital system on Feb. 11. While it took HHC nearly two months before reporting the data breach, it was well within the 60-day period required by New York state law. It took HHC this long to sort through the files to assess what kind of information the tapes had contained and who it belonged to, before reporting the data breach, according the hospital group….

…The tapes contained full names, addresses, social security numbers, medical record numbers, health insurance information, diagnoses and treatment data, telephone numbers, birth, admission and discharge dates, and mothers’ maiden names, according to HHC’s FAQ site. Staff, vendors, and contractors may have other personal information, such as professional licensure numbers.”

The full story is here:

http://www.itsj.com/launchpage.aspx?CID=39647

I have had some discussions with a few people about this. One person suggested that they would be OK if the tapes were made using a password. Password protection is very limited and only offers protection for those trying to access the tapes through the application software that created the backup. If someone has moderately sophisticated skills and special software they can pull the data off the tape block by block if it is not encrypted. The password is similarly equivalent to a lock on the front door of your house. It only keeps out the honest people. The determined burglar or pro thief will still get in.

This heist is one of the best arguments for using an encrypted Disk-to-Disk online data storage vault if I ever heard of one. Eliminating the need for physical tapes that need to be picked up by couriers, employees, etc. mitigates a huge area of risk in the whole backup process.

There are some quality high-speed and encrypted systems available that offer more secure Disk-to-Disk online data storage vault services. Check out Alvaka’s page to find out more about the services that help prevent such a debacle.

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The Beauty of Having a Data Backup Service Provider

Tyler Fergusson — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:21:10 +0000

Photo by Sean Ellis

When it comes to the backup of data, it seems that we are constantly bombarded by technologies, speeds and feeds, expensive and low cost solutions, and the task of choosing the best option out there. We all know backup is important, but sometimes I think that because backup is such a main focus for so many vendors, we often forget WHY we backup in the first place. (So now everyone is saying, “to recover data you idiot.” Keep reading…) The fact of the matter is that many small-to-midsized businesses (SMBs) trust their IT tasks to only one or two people where many of the responsibilities of data backup are overlooked. If you are consistently finding yourself in this situation, you might want to check with a backup service provider.

Because the IT department of SMBs is often minuscule, its workers are often heavily over-tasked and data backup is just one of those routine tasks at the end of the day. Not only are IT employees overwhelmed with duties, more often than not they’re break/fix because of being under-budgeted and under-resourced. So at 5:00pm every day, IT has to go into the server room/wiring closet and put in today’s backup tape in hopes that a successful backup is completed by the morning. Sounds simple enough right? The chaos often comes when businesses close or when IT employees have gone home for the day.

When the IT staff is away, data backup duties are generally delegated to the office manager. Here’s a hypothetical instance outlining this situation with an SMB we will creatively call Company A. Prior to taking a vacation, Company A’s lone IT staffer decides to hold a quick meeting to show the office manager where the tapes are located, and what to do on a daily basis in order to perform a backup. The IT guru then leaves and heads for the Bahamas. Missing anything? Yes!

Unfortunately what that IT person FAILS to do is show the office manager how to RECOVER data and systems should a data disaster occur. A backup is useless if your staff is unable to recover anything from it. So how does showing Company A’s office manager how to backup protect the business from downtime should there be a data or system loss event? IT DOESN’T! What if the IT person was out for an entire week and the company lost their Exchange, SQL or another critical server on day one? With IT out, and the office manager not knowing how to recover data, how is Company A expected to continue operations?

I hope that if you’ve gotten this far in this story your head is nodding in agreement to some degree.

Now, let’s look at this exact same scenario if the IT staff from the same SMB Company offloaded the mundane task of backup to a service provider. No need to have to worry about that tape at 5:00pm every day. No need to hope and pray for a successful backup job to be completed the next morning as a service provider monitors this on your behalf. No need to worry about having to go and ask for capital budget because you have out-dated backup hardware. No need to worry when going on vacation (and yes, IT guys worry about things going wrong when they go on vacation), and as a major timesaver, you wouldn’t need to train any staff on the intricacies of data backup and recovery.

Tyler Fergusson is currently a Regional Sales Manager for Asigra, Inc. He specializes in storage and backup/recovery space. Over the years, Tyler has helped dozens of managed service providers across the Americas improve backup/recovery service practices. You can follow Tyler on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/CanadaCloudGuy or read his blog on the Asigra corporate website http://www.asigra.com/blog/4

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Understanding Recovery Point and Time Objectives

Oli Thordarson — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:02:05 +0000

Think by Blytheco, LLC has teamed up with several experts in the business continuity industry to develop a blog miniseries about the importance of backing up data and enhancing your business’s continuity plans (BCP’s) and disaster recovery procedures. The series, titled ‘Back it Up’, is meant to connect you with the information and resources you need before the occurrence of data loss.

Businesses, in light of a disaster, you must possess a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)! Period. A year ago, a client was victim to a disastrous and destructive storm. There was a torrential downpour that caused a major leak in the roof that just so happened to be right above the client’s primary server rack. The servers were so filled with water that each day they had to be de-racked and drained out. As luck would have it, after carefully drying the servers, they miraculously restarted! This of course took a few days to complete, however full disaster was averted because this business had an RTO and RPO – they knew exactly how long they could be without IT functionality and how much data they could afford to lose. Luckily they already had safety measures in place and knew how to adapt.

So what is RTO and why is it important to you? RTO is the maximum duration of time for which a business process can be unavailable after a disaster or disruption. RTO is generally measured in minutes, hours or days and represents the amount of time that is acceptable for your organization to be without IT service. In other words, your RTO should be defined in terms of how fast you need to be back up and running in the event of partial or total failure. Most organizations I talk to commonly have RTOs of 15 minutes to one day, depending upon what business they are in and which systems are involved.

Similarly, RPO is the acceptable amount of data loss an entity can endure measured in time. RPO will likely be different each time contingent on the type of data loss. It is essentially the state or point in which a business believes it needs to recover following an unplanned interruption. Most clients usually fall into a RPO range of about 24 hrs or less, but I have seen them go into the weeks. This varies greatly depending on the type of server involved. Mail servers, database servers and accounting systems typically land in the 15-minute RPO range. DNS servers, remote access servers, etc., usually have a one-day RPO. You must decide the length of the RTO and RPO that is right for you. Choose wisely.

Alvaka Networks is distinguished for its many industry awards, including the NASBA Top VAR Award. Alvaka Networks is headquartered in IRVINE, CA.

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Warning: Know Thy Data Backup

Oli Thordarson — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:58:02 +0000

Photo by Art Mast

Many companies assume that their data backup plan provides them with 100% protection of their valuable files. However, if you have a large number of servers, things may be slipping through the cracks. They key is to know what you are backing up and to know what you need to back-up. They are not always the same thing. Over 140,000 hard drives crash each week in the US and most small businesses do not have a backup plan that offers full protection.

Prior to writing this article, I had just gotten out of a meeting with one of my key managers. We were talking about a long-time client and a huge backup problem that was just uncovered.

We were asked to document their current backup procedures and what we found in the process was frightening. This client had over 100 servers, but only about 30% of them were getting backed-up! In the list of servers not getting backed-up were several critical servers that receive on average roughly 1,000 vital new documents per day. In a disastrous situation, the data lost and the time to recover would be devastating.

Are you aware of exactly what data is being stored at your company? Small business or large, a data disaster can happen to you – particularly with a large number of servers. When did you last check? Are all your important accounting programs and files recoverable?

Alvaka Networks is distinguished for its many industry awards, including the NASBA Top VAR Award. Alvaka Networks is headquartered in IRVINE, CA.

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Business Continuity Planning Made Easy

Oli Thordarson — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:57:50 +0000

Every business-owner should have a business continuity plan…plain and simple. If one doesn’t, he/she may not only lose important information, but also the business itself! 80% of businesses affected by a major incident either never reopen or close within 18 months.

The Journal of Applied Management Studies says that Business Continuity Planning is “planning which identifies the organization’s exposure to internal and external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to provide effective prevention and recovery for the organization, whilst maintaining competitive advantage and value system integrity.”

Last November I attended a small, invitation-only IT conference in Chicago that discussed these very elements. The conference consisted of private technology briefings that were open to the industry’s most esteemed and established IT service providers. The briefings provided the best updates on cool new stuff that solves real business problems.

One such gem came the first morning with a fabulous presentation on business continuity planning. The presenter was discussing a newly-developed toolkit and software-as-a-service solution that solves several problems in BCP (Business Continuity Planning). This 30-year veteran of IT and his team have crafted a solution that makes business continuity planning structured and organized… and dare I say, almost easy.

Introduced was a 64-step methodology reinforced by a software-as-a-service platform. The 64 steps are not just limited to a technology approach to BCP. The process starts by identifying internal and external champions that are essential sponsors of any successful business continuity planning process. These plans require not only the involvement of IT personnel but, are in fact, most reliant on HR and the CFO.

A part of the methodology are site inspections, identifying pertinent risk areas and contingency plans. Among the audience, questions were asked about everything from weather disasters to earthquakes. Even terrorism and pandemics were addressed. During the conference, someone asked “who will respond and work the plan in a disaster and what if he/she abdicates their duty?” Considerations such as this must be addressed. Access to the BCP should remain open and available to several employees due to the chance of employee unavailability. Insurance company statistics indicate that 90% of companies that fail to resume operations within 5 days of a data disaster are out of business within one year. 78% of the companies who suffer a disaster without a business continuity plan are out of business in two years. That results in lost jobs, lost wealth, and lost equity.

The BCP process is somewhat time consuming, but this structured approach makes the task manageable, achievable, and durable.

Oli Thordarson is the CEO of Alvaka Networks, a provider of network security and network management services. With over 28 years of experience, Oli is the founding chairman of the Global MSP Network and currently serves on the board of CompTIA and the Technology Leadership Political Action Committee.

Alvaka Networks is distinguished for its many industry awards, including the NASBA Top VAR Award. Alvaka Networks is headquartered in IRVINE, CA.

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