Greetings to All from Bill Millican:

Some of you know who I am and many do not. For the many who do not, I have
been in this awesome profession on managing records and information for over
35 years, first as an accountant, then as a law firm administrator, then as
a law firm records manager, and the last 12 years as a consultant. I work
for a Kansas City, MO based records and document management company called
Media Services. We store business records, shred paper, store and rotate
backup media, convert paper documents to electronic documents (image), and
assistant our clients in developing better strategies for managing their
records and information.

*The Destruction and Loss of Data - Particularly Backup Data that is
Improperly Stored*:

Always sad; but even sadder because it is so easily avoidable. I have
nothing much to add to what Larry has already offered, except this. The
problem continues to persist and for really some of the poorest reasons
known to any of us. I see this daily and it saddens me to see companies (and
individuals) put themselves at such great risk when there are so many viable
and cost-effective options available. If your organization falls into this
category of "risk takers", don't stop until you've led them to a better
solution. Step on as many toes as is necessary, but get them to a place of
safety. Climb whatever thorn-laden ladder needs climbing, but get it done.

My "old man" two cents worth -----

Bill Millican
Consultant and Account Manager
Media Services
Kansas City, MO




On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 4:00 PM, Larry Medina <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> This is a sad, but all too regular occurrence- and not just for "home
> businesses" but for businesses in office settings and regular folks
> personal
> records as well.
>
> A lot of people make backups and think if it's safely removed from the
> computer, that's good enough... or the make copies of valuable papers and
> store them in a 'fire box' or in a cabinet in another room.
>
> One of the first rules for protection of vital assets is SEPARATION, also
> referred to as DISPERSAL of your second copies or backups.  This should be
> AT MINIMUM a distance great enough so that the event you're attempting to
> protect them from is unable to affect both the primary and secondary copy.
>
> In the case of fire, it should definitely not be in the same structure and
> if you live in an area prone to wildfires, it shouldn't be in an area
> smaller than the worst recorded fire to hit the area you're in in the
> recorded past.
>
> Similarly with floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes you should
> look
> to store your backups or secondary copies at distances farther away than
> known hazards and their known or projected geographic boundaries.   If
> these
> events in the past have been known to cause damage to areas of up to 50
> square miles, then you should be storing outside of those distances from
> your principal place of business or your home.
>
> They should also be stored away form other known or potential hazards or
> threats.  If you're using a public storage area or commercial storage
> provider, get familiar with the adjacent businesses and/or their location.
>
> Is there an auto repair facility or a gas station next door?
> Any other businesses with flammables or combustible materials?
> Are they in the flight path of an airport, next to a freeway or railroad?
> Can you tell if there are any high pressure gas lines, oil or fuel lines
> under the facility? (these are typically plainly marked at adjacent
> roadways)
> Is there a fire station nearby?
>
> Businesses stand to lose a lot for failure to take necessary precautions,
> but individuals can also lose things that are irreplaceable in incidents
> such as this.  With many of us having nothing but digital cameras these
> days, most of our pictures are stored to hard drives or on CDs or other
> removable media.  Having the backups in an adjacent room may be 'better
> than
> nothing', but it really isn't as good as you can do.  One option is the old
> famous "sneaker net" where you walk a copy to a friend's or family members
> house in the next town or farther away.  Another is on-line storage, but
> that comes with some risks of privacy and possible loss as well- most of
> the
> agreements with these types of providers essentially tell you that they
> accept no liability for loss or corruption of your data, so it may be
> convenient... until it's not =(.
>
> Removable drives (from 250gb up to 2TB) are relatively cheap these days-
> anywhere from $30-$200 and you can have a pair.  One you store at a remote
> location, one you keep at home to burn a new "fresh" copy to for exchanging
> with it, on whatever cycle you find acceptable.
>
> Larry
> [log in to unmask]
>
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>



-- 
Bill Millican
Kansas City, MO
[log in to unmask]
816.213.5007

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