Are You Ready? Common Ways to Tell You Are Not Ready to Recover from a Disaster is an article I wrote when working recently on a disaster recovery project. It wasn't my first time working a project such as this, and I noted common mistakes being made over and over. These didn't have much to do with specific technology as much as the approach towards the need for an administrator to provide solid recovery of their systems. Specifics around process, documentation, and choosing from available options seem to catch us off guard way too often. When we realize our mistakes, it's almost too late to recover from the error. I hope to bring a little foresight to those administrators handed this very large task.

The journal is available from Realtime-windowsserver.com in the Digital Library section. While you are there, subscribe to the journal which is released monthly.

- Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)

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CStechcast.com brings you another audio podcast filled with a half hour of solid information for IT professionals. This week we interview Andy Leonard, Microsoft MVP and co-author of several books including Professional Software Testing with Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Tools for Software Developers and Test Engineers, and we talk about the importance of database testing. In the news we talk about some major security gaffs involving malware on servers that led to identity theft and rigged searches on major web sites, plus new attacks against DNS, hacking Windows Server 2008 and the MacBook Air, and EnterpriseDB's open source Postgres database gets new life with new funding and a competitive update. The "Worst Tech Move of the Week" goes to Warner's proposed music tax on ISPs, the "Weekly Tech Tip" brings you ways to improve page file performance in Windows, and disaster recovery planning gets "A Closer Look". A big giveaway for you from Quest Software for a copy of Change Director for SQL Server, so enter at our web site CStechcast.com by clicking the Contest button.

Links to stories discussed during the show:

Attackers booby-trap searches at top Web sites (C|Net News.com)
Malware Cited in Supermarket Data Breach (Associated Press)
EnterpriseDB Looks to Bolster Product Line (eWeek)
NIST Unveils Tool To Foil DNS Attacks (ENT Magazine)
Minimizing Information Leakage in the DNS (National Institute for Standards and Technology)
MacBook Air Hacked In Two Minutes (Information Week)
Hacker Pours Cold Water on Windows Server 2008 Security Design (eWeek)
Warner Music Pushes ISP Tax For Music Downloads (Information Week)
Jim Griffin says ISP music tax only one possibility (C|Net News.com)

Don't Miss The Giveaway!

Don't miss our big giveaway of Quest Software's Change Director for SQL Server. Change Director for SQL Server provides a powerful automated solution for managing change to SQL Server databases. Please enter using the "Contest" button on the CStechcast.com homepage.

Leave comments at the blog, on the feedback form, or at our voicemail. Tell your friends to subscribe to CS Techcast! Thanks for listening.

Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=18

- Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)

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