Sunday, March 22, 2009

What's hot this month

iPhone 3.0, Internet Explorer 8 Beta release, Windows 7, IBM deals with Sun and recession related topic are among the hot news that most IT and Computer-related magazines are covered.

1 - iPhone 3.0
I don't like to comment anything on the stuff I can only dream for at this moment..

2- Internet Explorer 8
Is spite of popular claim by Microsoft that the browser is one of the best version ever release. Outsiders are still at doubt whether this browser able to place itself on top, pushing out Mozilla Firefox version 3.5 which will be released sooner.  Being hacked at the first day of Pwn20wn has nothing but to show how vulnerable IE8 is as their previous version was. Luckily, the counterpart mozilla firefox faced same fate. On the other hand, it was surprised to know 'light-weight contender' Google Chrome was the only browser remains unhacked until the end of the first day. As a result, now I'm writing this blog under Chrome. Back to IE8, this version will be made available inside windows 7 and those who hate IE now have chance to remove it from add/remove program list unlike before.

3- Windows 7
This is the first ever operating system which was fully developed  without Bill Gates's final say.  This is also the first OS to be launched after Gates totally off from Microsoft July last year. According to CEO Steve Ballmer, this is really Microsoft team's product compared to the previous product where most of them was the result of Gates's thinking. Initial plan, windows 7 will be shipped 3 years after release of Vista (Vista was released on 2006). However, with the current economic situation, I doubt it will be postponed to the  next year mid.

4- IBM's 7billion deal with Sun
Whatever it is, there must be some advantages and disadvantages if the IBM deal of bought over Sun is closed. Generally, both will gain benefits. Sun will have enough money to run the business without changing any of it's traditional culture on R&D where has helped the technology industry evolved a lot. IBM on the other hand will now have more to be proud off by having more market share and owns quite a number of technology  they need years to develope if not decades.

5 - Recession related topics.
There are a lot of articles, tips and advice of how to survive recession subject to those who has already been laid off from the job to the action CIO should take during the recession time. I would advise everybody regardless of  his/her confortable level with the current job to read some of these stuffs. Who knows, one day your day will come, if not as someone to be laid off, may be as someone to decide who's going to be laid off. Anyway, It works for both.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Bypassing Vista for Windows 7

Windows 7 is now released for it's Beta version. I don't know quite well how good it is compared to Vista. Never have time to dirt my hand into it except some information telling by others who've tried it. Many of them admit that the coming version is far better than current Vista especially on handling network and hardware stuff which were according to some was the worst part in Vista.

Some people who's trying windows 7 considered it as best windows
OS since Windows 3.1

Again, I'm not sure how true it is. Wait and see. Some people might ask whether buying the PC with Vista is a right decision right now or wait after Windows 7 being released. Some might suggest to wait. But some said, it's okay to buy now, since Microsoft will provide the upgrade, you'll only have to pay for the upgrade fees and some even hope that Microsoft will give free upgrade to those who do buying since 12 months before the release.(Risky dream?). But for me, if you are not depressed enough and can wait for at least two more quarters of economic pain before shipping, why not?

It is good to always have some good info so that you won't make any costly decision.









Sunday, March 15, 2009

Backup Your Data: Looking for the best solution

Some information written here was based on my working experience and some are the information given by many others on the net. Since servers and networking was not my expertise (at least at the time this article was written), I always welcome any comments and feedbacks from readers.

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Data is important. Private data is even more. Either personal or commercial. No disputes on this.
When talking about data backup, THREE things are always highly focused on which are:

1- Cost
How expensive is the solution to be implemented.

2 - Reliability and Security
How reliable and secure the data once backup. Any security loop holes which can expose to any malicious attacks? virus? natural disaster? etc

3- Speed
How fast can we backup and restore the data.

Scenario to consider
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Now, consider we've large amount of sensitive data (200 - 300 Gb) to be periodically backup in a monthly basis. Restore will be done any time, depend on the request. Meaning that, the media must be large enough, the speed must be fast enough for restore process, and should not compromise in security factor. Let we consider solutions below.

1) CD is out of the consideration! Next please ..

2) DVD
Still limited in storage. While the dual layer DVD normally below 10 GB and single layer below 5GB, You still need a lot of pieces to complete your monthly backup.
Result: Reject!


3) Tape Drive
Good storage size. We need 1 to 2 tapes to backup 300Gb. Have to wait at least half to almost whole day to restore 1 tape data. In term of cost, we need USD1000 0r (MYR3000 - MYR4000) to buy the tape drive and 40USD (MYR 200 - RM300) for individual tapes. Not so good at speed and expensive at cost.
Result: Reject

4) External Hard Disk
The speed is much better than tape. A bit slower than internal. Not so costly compared to it ability. Not much security holes since you won't expose it to the network. However, it doesn't allow multiple accesses. One single client or server can access it in a time. Therefore not suit for server backup where the data is normaly shared by multiple users. Fortunately, this already satisfed above requirements.
Result: Just nice.

5) Storage Area Network (SAN)
Unlike the previous. This is more as architecture technology then a media technology. A single dedicated server is required plus few storage nodes will be connected to the network in order to implement the technology. Due to it highly advance technology, it is seldom used by personal and small company. The main benefit that a SAN network brings a company is speed with data transfer plus the ability to connect large data networks that span thousands of miles- and the devices on that network can still communicate effectively. By organizing these devices on a data device-only network, faster data transfers can occur. Very helpful to system administrator since it can backup data from multiple sources at any time.
Do we really need this?

Result: Acceptable for multiple access and highly scalable solution.


6) Network Attached Storage Server (NAS)
A NAS server is essentially a server that is set aside strictly for distributing files to other servers, and client computers. Instead of doing any processing, this server only act as a storage to other servers or clients therefore reducing risk of file corruption and most OS-related issues and very good at speed. Standard servers typically run server-class Operating Systems, which can become corrupted, or otherwise damaged. NAS, however, store their Operating System on flash memory which can only be overwritten in an upgrade. Due to that, it is normally more expensive. Moreover, this is not end stage of backup due to the physical disaster which can be potentially crashed the whole storage and leave no single data once occurs. That's why technology such as clustering and RAID should be implemented as well. (Wikipedia: It should be noted that NAS is effectively a server in itself, with all major components of a typical PC – a CPU, motherboard, RAM, etc. – and its reliability is a function of how well it is designed internally. A NAS without redundant data access paths, redundant controllers, redundant power supplies, is probably less reliable than Direct Attached Storage (DAS) )

Finally, In most cases, you'll still need to do backup for this server and bring us back to the original question "where and how to backup the data?"

Result: Acceptable for data storage not a data backup. Full Stop.

Besides these solutions, there are other solution we can implement.

7) Optical Jukebox.
From Wikipedia: Optical Jukebox is a robotic data storage device that can automatically load and unload optical discs, such as Compact Disc, DVD, Ultra Density Optical or Blu-ray disc and can provide terabytes of tertiary storage. Jukebox capacities have greatly increased with the release of the 50GB dual layer Blu-ray (BD) format, with a road-map to increase to eight layers and 200GB per disc. The current format allows 35TB of storage from a single 700 disc jukebox.

I might miss out some advantages or disadvantages at every single data backup solution I disucssed in this article. However, this overview might give you some introductory concept and idea on the data backup solution which might help you deciding the best solution and most importantly BEST AFFORDABLE SOLUTION as most people might concern.