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IT Infrastructure - News

September 17th, 2007

March 29th, 2007

A massive air-conditioning failure at a state office complex shut down government computer traffic statewide and forced emergency managers to begin backup plans.

March 6th, 2007

(Computerworld) --  Imation Corp. today announced a first-of-its-kind tracking technology that could put an end to the ongoing problem of lost data tapes by using passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking systems to remotely locate cartridges, no matter where they are -- stationary or in transit.

Imation said it will begin shipping its RFID tape-tracking technology in April. The technology embeds RFID chips in standard tape-cartridge labels, allowing them to be scanned either individually with a handheld device or by placing cases with up to 20 tapes inside on a scanning pad. While the GPS tracking system will not be part of the initial product launch next month, over the next two months, Imation plans to announce when GPS technology will be available in order to locate cartridges no matter where they are.

January 27th, 2007

The ISO 17799 compliant Disaster Recovery Planning (Business Continuity) Template is Version 4.2.  The template has increased in size from 140 pages in version 3.1 to 189 pages in the current version. 

New with this version of the Disaster Recovery Planning Template are:

January 14th, 2007

The Security Manual for the Internet and Information Technology is over 200 pages in length.  The template is compliant with ISO 17799, Sarbanes-Oxley, Patriot Act and HIPAA. All versions of the Security Manual template include both the Business & IT Impact Questionnaire and the Threat & Vulnerability Assessment Tool (both were redesigned to address Sarbanes Oxley compliance).   In addition, the Security Manual Template PREMIUM Edition  contains 16 detail job descriptions that apply specifically to security and Sarbanes Oxley. - more info 

January 12th, 2007

(Computerworld) -- LAS VEGAS -- Gartner Inc. is recommending that businesses complete planning by the second quarter of next year for a possible avian influenza pandemic and in particular stock up on supplies that would be needed by data center workers who might be quarantined together.

Among the suggestions offered last week by Gartner at the consulting firm’s annual data center conference here: Store 42 gallons of water per data center employee — enough for a six-week quarantine — and don’t forget about food, medical care, cooking facilities, sanitation and electricity.
- more info 

November 28th, 2006

(Computerworld) -- As a technical matter, migrating data from an old computer system to a new one should be straightforward. There are common industry practices that can help, such as running field-mapping and conversion scripts, and using extract, transform and load tools. So why does data migration so often turn good IT projects into bad ones, with embarrassing delays that drag on for weeks or months?

Delays are often the result of getting off on the wrong foot - failing to adequately plan the approach to data migration at the outset. The technical issues can be complex, but at least they are  predictable. It is the nontechnical strategy that often causes delays down the road. - more info 

November 10th, 2006

(Computerworld) -- Like many other organizations, the Baltimore Ravens took note of what happened to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina last year and decided to take steps to prevent a similar occurrence, said the senior director of IT at the American Football Conference team. The professional sports team had been backing its data up to tape, but it moved to a combination hardware, software and service offering from AmeriVault Corp., he said.

The National Football League Inc. organization, which had about 200GB of stored data, started out with a 500GB system at AmeriVault and took an initial snapshot – which took about a day – and then shipped it to Waltham, Mass., to be loaded into the AmeriVault data centers. It was then shipped back to Baltimore, and every night, any files that were changed during the day get backed up to the Massachusetts facility. The data is also mirrored to a facility in Illinois.

September 14th, 2006

(IDG News Service) -- Microsoft Corp. has released its monthly set of security patches, fixing a critical flaw in Office.

Attackers could exploit the bug by tricking Office users into opening a maliciously encoded .pub document, which would then allow attackers to run unauthorized software on a victim's PC. These .pub documents are created by Microsoft's Publisher software, an Office component used for designing print and online business publications.

September 5th, 2006

(Computerworld) -- As it waited for Tropical Storm Ernesto to make landfall last week, the American Red Cross of Central Florida used an emergency notification service from MessageOne to automate communications with some 1,500 on-call volunteers, according to Chad Magnuson, assistant director of preparedness and response for the Florida chapter.

AlertFind is a crisis management and communications tool from Austin-based MessageOne Inc.

"What used to take 20 volunteers and a few days to do can now take one person typing in an announcement and one person monitoring the results," Magnuson said. "We can mobilize the 1,500 or so volunteers much quicker, using a lot less resources. We would have a number of volunteers come into our office, and we would have lists of people to call, and we'd just divide up the list and make a telephone call to them."

September 2nd, 2006

Janco Associates, Inc. (Janco), announced today the release of Version 4.1 of its Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Template. This electronic document is over 183 pages and can be used in the creation of a unique Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and Business Continuity plan (BCP) for any entity. In the process of creating DRPs and BCPs for organizations across the country, Janco has found every department, in every corporation or organization needs a universal, yet comprehensive DRP and BCP to safeguard the use of their computers and all related equipment and information which support enterprise wide operations in the event of a disaster.

August 31st, 2006

China's central government has allocated 120 million yuan (15.2 million U.S. dollars) to regions struck by recent severe natural disasters, said the Ministry of Finance. Half will be allocated to areas struck by a severe drought in Sichuan and other regions in southwest China and half will be used for disaster recovery operations related to typhoon Saomai. Source: Xinhua - more info 

June 30th, 2006

According to a recent survey of 54 security executives by security vendor Courion and consulting firm the Executive Alliance, unauthorized systems access tops the list of the execs' security concerns, followed by auditability/compliance, customer data breaches, sabotage (internal and external) and theft of intellectual property. Two other top concerns were cost of administration and unauthorized access from remote or mobile workers. One executive interviewed in the article, from car parts supplier Federal Mogul, says his company is installing an identity management system to cut down on the average of seven passwords used by employees to access different systems. The company currently lacks a standard ID method for its 42,000 employees around the world.

> Read "ExecsÂ’ Six Top Security Concerns" at Computerworld New Zealand

April 20th, 2006

Janco has just released its IT Service Management SOA Policy Template.  The Service-Oriented Architecture policy template is an 107 page document that contains standards, policies and procedures, metrics and service level agreement for the help desk, change control, service requests, blog / personal web site, and travel and off-site meetings. It also contains a Change Request Form, Business and IT Impact Questionnaire, and an Internet Use Approval Form.  The template is availalable in Microsoft Word format or PDF file. - more info 

March 31st, 2006

(COMPUTERWORLD) - Every hour that the storage network is down costs Fidelity National Financial Inc. almost $4 million.

March 28th, 2006

In a move some say has the potential to stall adoption of the OpenDocument Format as an international standard, Microsoft Corp. has joined a group that takes part in the International Standards Organization (ISO) voting process to standardize ODF.

Microsoft joined the V1 Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface group within the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), a Washington-based organization. The INCITS is involved in recommending what technologies should become ISO standards, and the V1 Text Processing group in particular deals with office document formats.

ODF is overseen by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and is supported by Microsoft rivals IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc., among other companies. They want to see ODF adopted internationally as the standard for office documents and the software that creates and manages these documents, such as Microsoft's popular Office suite and rivals such as Star Office from Sun. The commonwealth of Massachusetts has already put in motion a plan to migrate its documents from proprietary formats to ODF, a process it hopes to implement beginning in January 2007.

March 17th, 2006

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the only communication system that had not broken down was the wireless mesh network deployed in the downtown area to support surveillance cameras credited with reducing the citys prestorm violent-crime rate.

Today it still performs police duties, but as the lone public communications system left in the city, it also carries VoIP traffic that is the lifeline for many city businesses.

The storm wiped out wireline phone service and cellular networks, and those that it didn't destroy outright couldn't be kept up because the city could not get fuel to the backup generators needed to keep the networks running, Meffert told an audience at a session during Spring VON 2006 this week.

March 3rd, 2006

The Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Template Version 4.0 was just released. It is a MS Word document that can be used as a DRP - BCP template for any enterprise. The template and supporting material have been updated to be Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA compliant. The Disaster Planning Template includes:

February 12th, 2006

The IT Productivity Center, a division of Janco Associates, Inc. announced an update to IT Service Management Template. IT Service Management (ITSM) is defined as part of a rapidly accepted standard of best practices known as IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The IT Service Management template joins the IT Productivity Center's CIO and IT Productivity series of tools and templates which include their popular Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Resource Kit and Disaster Recovery Plan Template. The ITSM update can be found at http://www.itproductivity.org/itsm.htm.

Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco and the IT Productivity Center said "IT infrastructure productivity is the core of our firm's practice. We have created a set of tools to improve the productivity and quality of service provided by the IT function. With the IT Service Management Template and our Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Resource Kit enterprises of all sizes can quickly implement best practices." In addition he said. "... the IT Service Management template is now included in the CIO Productivity Bundle." The CIO Productivity Bundle, which is Sarbanes-Oxley compliant can be found at http://www.itproductivity.org/offer_cio.htm.

February 7th, 2006

There's been a lot of coverage lately concerning lost backup tapes in the last couple of months.  In December, Marriott International revealed that they'd lost tapes with over 200,000 customer records on them.  And just last month, the People's Bank in Connecticut lost tapes with 90,000 records on them. Some experts say, don't fret about it.

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