Although the design squarely hits the home network sweet spot, it would be a great economical addition to a small office network to aggregate both computer backups and shared files to one office device. It even comes with all of the backup software.
Automatic and continuous backup for all the computers on your network
Centralize all your family’s digital content
Best-in-class performance cutting-edge technologies to deliver high performance read and write speeds ideal for the most demanding users.
Built-in media server for streaming music, photos and movies to any DLNA certified multimedia device such as Playstation 3, Xbox 360, wireless digital picture frames, and connected audio receivers. DLNA 1.5 & UPnP certified.
iTunes server support to centralize your music collection and stream to a Mac or Windows PC using iTunes software.
This drive even sports remote access to your files. It needs to find it’s way to your office.
Strangest thing happened to me the other night while I reviewed Google alerts that watch my name, company name and social networking user names. I like to keep an eye out for strange happenings so I’m not blind sided by something. The Google alert for my Twitter username picked up one of my tweets.
I thought that strange so I investigated. Upon clicking the link, I was directed to this Twitter site:
Looks like my Twitter page, but it’s not. After I reviewed the tweets, I decided to delete a couple then tried to logon to my Twitter account. Suddenly, IE security kicked in, alerting me to the account information phishing scam.
Seems that someone‘s after unsuspecting Twitter users. So, time for all of you IE users to update your web browsers to the latest versions. I’m glad I did.
Advertising builds expectations that lead to sales pipelines loaded with prospects armed with the seeds of anticipated pricing. Virtualization rapidly rose to the top of technical must-haves for businesses looking to upgrade their computing infrastructure.
Recently, Dell promoted it’s virtualization with an interesting ad. I don’t often get such a clear opportunity to demonstrate the costs that small to medium businesses can potentially incur from typical virtualization scenarios.
I probably don’t need to remind you that this ad does not include software licensing, conversion and maintenance costs. In a typical twenty-five user office scenario, software might include Microsoft Exchange Server for email, Microsoft SQL Server for the LOB database back end, Microsoft Terminal Services application delivery services for LOB software, fax services for network fax capability, a Goldmine or Act server for CRM, file services for document management, services to extend security software to each computer and services for Peachtree or QuickBooks Multi User accounting software.
Virtualizing all of these services and software components would not only require hardware in excess of the $25,999 package, but the software costs would push this project well beyond the $150,000.00 range, not to mention IT costs incurred to deploy and maintain your virtualized environment. I can easily see over $5000 per month in amortized and recurring costs, a large price to pay for a small business to move current infrastructure into a virtualized environment.
From a technical perspective, I love to do this stuff. And, your environment will look more uniform, take up less rack space, will be more recoverable and will perform well, all good reasons to leverage virtualization. However, there is a better way, one I will explore with you in my next post.
APC has an interesting white paper about deploying EMR. You can download it here. (requires new account setup) Of course their take is from a power perspective.
The key things you want to be sure of when you consider where to actually put your equipment should include the following:
• Ability to provide enough cooling for the hardware as the hardware needs it
• Ability to simply and easily add new hardware. Storage, for example, is going to grow each and every day – just look at your paper files
• Ability to provide dependable power to the hardware that is protected so that it is not interrupted and can expand when you add new hardware
• Ability to see and manage of potential problems from power, cooling, or security
• Simplifies the set-up and use of new hardware by simplifying cabling.
I see these as the top five reasons to think real seriously about a HIPAA compliant virtual hosted environment for your new EMR deployment. Keep the hardware out of your clinic and save a ton of money and headache.
I find myself easily drawn to new and better technology, but when does a product not quite get you there?
The Seagate® Replica™ 500-GB System bills itself as a "complete PC backup system, Effortless, automatic backup for everything on your PC, including the operating system, programs, and settings." This sounds easy and the device looks pretty nifty. But, the devil is in the details.
Seagate tells me that the Replica will automatically backup my entire hard drive without my having to configure anything. I’m almost sold. So what pushes me over the edge?
This thing is so cool looking. It will look great sitting on my desk quietly backing up all of my data. So I make the purchase, plug and play, automatically backing up my stuff so that I am completely protected from any data loss, right?
Wrong… The Replica has it’s place, like it’s ability to save the file you accidently deleted on Friday but knew it was correct on Tuesday. So, just restore Tuesday’s copy of the file. You can also restore a complete snapshot of your computer’s drive in the event you are wiped out by a virus. But what about the really big catastrophes?
The big ones prove the need for a bullet proof backup and recovery system for not only your pc but your entire business. It’s not out of the question that when your computer is destroyed in a disaster, your cute little Seagate Replica will also be destroyed at the same time.
I would like to see this Seagate Replica device not only backup your computer automatically but also push a backup to the cloud, an off site out of region data center. Imagine loosing both your computer and Replica in a fire, but having the ability to restore your files from the cloud back to your new replacement computer.
Then you would have a true backup. Combine frequent file restores with testing of those restored files and you then have a bullet proof backup and recovery system.
Opps… Sunday afternoon and I’ve just discovered that I damaged three files on my home PC. Not to fear… I have these files backed up. Mozy allows me to get the versions I know were there two weeks ago… just like on TV, right?
Unfortunately, Mozy didn’t work as advertised this time.
Here’s a picture of mozy.com when I needed it the most.
And a picture of the the Mozy blog where I went for a status update.
I gave up recovering the three text files I needed after about a half hour. I will stop trying and look at Mozy later.
Looks like I need to regroup on the backup strategy for this particular computer. Except, I’ve recovery tested random files every month on this computer. I’ve confirmed that they will open after I recover them. I’ve chosen a well known home pc backup solution from Mozy. I made the right decision. Time to back off and wait.
One hour and thirty-five minutes into this, suddenly three text files restore and I finally have my files. Guess this will serve as this month’s recovery testing. I also noticed Mozy’s website bounced back. I guess I’m not the only one with occasional systems problems.
Mozy has a great no charge to home users 2GB Online Backup plan. Give it a try. It’s never let me down, even this time. And, please use referral code F2YX90 when you sign up so I can get some more space on my account..
As you leave the office this chilly afternoon, I’ll give you one more thing to think about, courtesy Yahoo Finance and The New York Times, "Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company". Don’t let an extension cord destroy your business data backup.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read and heard about business people allowing their tape and disk backups to stay on top of the computer they are backing up. When your computer burns up, your backup burns up.
Please use an online, offsite backup product to backup your data. Then, recover your backup every month to demonstrate the viability of your backup-restore process.
Great article on BBC this morning detailing the “security” software forced on unsuspecting computer users. Fortunately, two simple solutions will stop this dead in it’s tracks.
Use OpenDNS when configuring your home or office network. Your web browser will not go where a name cannot be resolved to an ip address.
There is no secret. Transitioning to Google Apps is hard work and not for the faint of heart!
It’s also no secret that Google targets Microsoft Outlook used with Exchange Server or with just plain old POP3 to build the APPs market share. Consequently, using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook for deployment requires those supporting Google Apps for small business to understand all of the nuances of Outlook. (yes it’s a blank page)
Although I am admittedly new at Google Apps, I come to this with many years of Outlook and Exchange experience. So, I would like to give you my steps to successfully sync Google Apps with Microsoft Outlook. Then, please comment with your insight to Google Apps deployment so we can all learn something.
My focus here centers on working with the Microsoft Outlook PST file created from standard email or as a backup of an Exchange mailbox. There are other tools available for migrating Microsoft Exchange mail boxes.
1 – Start by checking Google mail to confirm that the Google Apps account you are working with receives email correctly and that sent email carries the correct name and reply address and comes from the correct domain. If there are problems here, you must work out the issues before you attempt a Google Apps Sync with Microsoft Outlook.
2 – Insure that the computer operating system and Outlook software that you are working with meets system requirements for Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. Remove any malware or virus and optimize the computer so that it runs correctly.
3 – Work to clean up the PST file associated with the Outlook profile that you plan to sync with Google Apps. Delete any old information and compress the file. Then, create a backup of the PST file.
4 – Run scanpst.exe, the inbox repair tool in Outlook, to repair any errors with the PST file you are working with. Backup the newly repaired PST file, because you might have to recover this backup to return Outlook to it’s original functionality, when or if Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook fails.
Te recap; take a look at the Google Apps with Microsoft Outlook video below and again, please comment about your experience with your Google Apps deployment. We can all use the help.
I caught a statement on TV last night that 65% of American companies have no business continuity plan to mediate the impact of a localized flu outbreak. I hope I heard wrong.
In light of the fact that 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home, I thought I would offer a quick and easy, more productive, full screen remote desktop solution, one that allows an employee to work from their home computer, almost as if they were sitting in front of their work computer.
Setting up connectivity from your home desktop computer to your office desktop computer takes only a few minutes to complete a few simple steps.
First, forward your office telephone extension to your cell phone.
Next, turn on the "Remote Desktop" functionality from the "Remote" tab in "Systems Properties" again in "Control Panel". Then, download and install an easy to work with software VPN product from LogMeIn Hamachi
I’ve never seen a firewall that Hamachi can’t cut through.
Follow the Hamachi instructions to set up a VPN network.
Then, make sure your office computer will not go into standby or hibernate when left alone. Nose around in the "Control Panel" to change the power settings.
Hang around long enough to test it out.
Now, go home! Use your cell phone to answer work calls. Wash your hands frequently and learn to twitter.
On your home computer, download and install LogMeIn Hamachi², connect to your VPN network, open up Remote Desktop. Then using the VPN IP address of your office PC, connect full screen and get to work.
Or, if you can deal with a small screen and advertising, install LogMeIn Free on both computers and begin working.
The Western Digital My Book World Edition 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage Drive
