Computer on Sonia Cuff

Storage in the Australian SMB Space

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:33:17 +0000

Day 2 of the New Zealand Computer Troubleshooters conference was full of very talented kiwis highlighting open source, retail shops/service centres, and job management systems.� James Caldwell didn�t have to try very hard to�remind us�why we love AVG (especially when they sponsored the Friday night mini-golf/spit roast dinner/drinks/prizes & more drinks).

But the topic that�really made me think was Storage Management, presented by Jeff Maslen.� With credentials including HP, IBM and Ingram Micro, it�s great to see someone of that calibre at our conference.� He was such an engaging speaker, that a lot of people walked out of the room saying �I don�t know what he was talking about, but I want one�.� With Jeff warning that the days of direct attached storage (e.g. hard disks inside servers) are numbered, he advised us to get onboard with technologies such as iSCSI SANs etc, even in the SMB market.� Now, I�ve always understood the reasons for SANS, Blade servers etc in the corporate world (where data volumes are huge and floor/rack/data centre space is limited AND expensive � but for SMBs?� And when we talk SMB, we talk less than 30 PCs � more likely less than 10 PCs.� Jeff�has enough experience�and knowledge for me not to dismiss his ideas completely, but instead make me interested enough to find out more and see just how�SMB owners can be sold on the value of $10,000+ storage solutions.� Not to mention the fact that I know his name from somewhere�and it�s driving me crazy trying to figure out from where!

Is your critical information really deleted?

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:34:25 +0000

Title=thought provoking question that came from our friends at Kroll On Track during day 1 of the New Zealand Computer Troubleshooters conference � delete or even disk format does not permanently remove data.� Kroll�s fancy data recovery program can get some very interesting data (i.e. credit card numbers etc) of �blank� hard disks � just like you find in second hand computers being sold on eBay.� Of course it was also�a shameless plug from their data erasure software, which even they cannot recover data from.Colin�delivered a brief session on demystifying search engine optimisation (=copy Colin�s site/tags etc! � gotta love being part of a �share and share alike� franchise group of talented individuals!).� And if you came here looking for SEO tips �. sorry, you�ll just have to join�Computer Troubleshooters.� Actually, I may ask Colin for some �end customer� type tips that I will blog at a�later�date, so watch this space.

Save, save, save

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:07:33 +0000

Save � of the critial �protect your data� type, not the �look how much money I saved in this sale today type� (though arguably they are just as important as each other).

Normally my favourite rant is regarding backups (and, more importantly, testing your data restorations), especially where small business is concerned. And I�m talking real small business (1 � 20 users). But I�ll save that for another day.

No, today�s rant is about saving your progress as you go. Though the concept was made famous when Microsoft Word crashed during that business report/university paper you had nearly finished .. and hadn�t saved .. and couldn�t be recovered � saving as you go is important for other applications too .. and not just software applications.

And I work in I.T.!!!

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 10:08:29 +0000

I�m afraid I�m starting this blog with a technology drama, involving my shiny new iPod Shuffle (2nd generation) and Windows Vista.� �Ah yes, Vista� you say knowingly.� But at Microsoft�s defence leaps the voice of my dear friend who pointed out that the vendors had the Vista code for�2 years prior to the release, so surely they could have sorted out their device drivers by now and what more does Microsoft have to do?