Seven Tiers of Disaster Recovery

Photo Source: Topato

Today, to make a long story short, I landed upon the Wikipedia entry for the "Seven Tiers of Disaster Recovery". The original source is over here at Recovery Specialties.

If you're not familiar, it's a very common, if not somewhat dated, breakdown of the various levels of systems and data protection categorized by tier. Starting at 0, the higher the tier, the more protection, right?

[Ignore the fact that tiers 0-7 is actually 8 tiers... but I suppose we don't count "Tier 0: No offsite data".]

At first glance, one might think that "Tier 0: No Offsite Data" is as bad as it could get for a specific system or an organization in terms of preparedness. It's either a DR planner's dream or nightmare, depending on your expectations.

But no. It could be worse. In fact, the spectrum of tiers is to be expanded... and in the negative direction...

Sickweather Says Social Data Analysis Has Already Detected Two Illness Outbreaks

Sickweather, a start-up that’s attempting to forecast illness outbreaks by tracking Facebook and Twitter updates, says its method might have already worked.

That is, Sickweather noticed increased occurrences of the word “cough” near Algonquin, Ill., dating back to Oct. 5, about one month before whooping cough reports hit the local news. About a month later, the service recorded the same trends in Milwaukee, Wis., another area hit by whooping cough.

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Ultimate Productivity and Life Management with Springpad

Over the years, I have been on a constant search for just the right combination of tools and processes that would give me the most features, most accessibility and least management headaches possible, while giving me the most control over all the information and to-do’s in my life that I need to keep track of.

Previous iterations of my ‘method’ involved using MS OneNote, Evernote, Google Docs, Producteev, Google Notebook, Google Tasks, Astrid Tasks for Android, Remember the Milk, a Wiki, or some combination. But each had one more missing features or failures that made it almost too cumbersome to manage once I really started using it daily.

Then, one, day, my sister introduced me to Springpad. I admit that I didn’t like it at first. But over the past several months, it has met my every need. And I am still finding new ways to use it to make it even better. With that said, it isn’t perfect, but I’ll get to those later.

So, “How do I use Springpad?” you ask.

RE: The differences between business continuity and disaster recovery explained

While waiting to have my oil changed & power steering checked out at the Nissan dealership this morning, I happened across a set of articles posted to Helium.com discussing the differences between business continuity and disaster recovery. I felt it my moral and professional obligation to chime in.

What follows is the article as I originally posted there (with a little added formatting to make it easier to read). Enjoy.

10 Business Travel Hotel Safety Tips

When traveling for business, we're often traveling alone. We're also often in a hurry to get from one place to the next. When it comes to the hotel, if you're like me, you are usually checking-in late at night and just want to get in your room and get some sleep before the busy agenda that awaits the following day. When our minds are racing or we're tired, we are especially vulnerable to making poor decisions regarding personal safety. Here are a few hotel safety tips:

Process Management Maturity and Disaster Recovery Capability

Most companies start small. As they experience success, they grow. As they grow, their business gets more complicated. It's the second law of thermodynamics at work*.

As business needs change, this system responds with subtle changes to maintain equilibrium. And because this growth toward disorder is incremental, it's often not even recognized as a problem... until it has to be rebuilt from scratch in the aftermath of a disaster.

Twas the Night Before Earl [Video]

A quick video-blog entry, with some shots taken of the ocean at Croatan Beach as Hurricane Earl was approaching.