According to a report released near the beginning of February, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has still not restored information it lost because of a server software crash that happened in May of 2010. The data lost consists of more than seven years of official post-disaster reports, including ones from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While the reports were allegedly recovered by November, FEMA has still not been able to use the software needed to get to the records, rendering them essentially useless and still totally inaccessible. Without the restoration of this software, it is not possible to tell what data has been lost forever, but what is certain is that this disaster could have been avoided using better server software.

Server software crashes such as this one not only affect government agencies, but also hundreds of businesses every year. According to freshbusinessthinking.com, a recent survey showed that 43 percent of companies that suffered a “major loss” of computer records immediately went out of business, and another 51 percent closed within the next two years. This leaves an astonishingly low survival rate of only six percent after a major business server malfunction, something that can be so easily avoided with the proper enterprise backup software.

While online backup services have become increasingly common for personal use, businesses and private users who are serious about protecting their files know that the more powerful and comprehensive drive-imaging software is the way to go for safeguarding important data. One of the best choices of this caliber available today is ShadowProtect by StorageCraft, which has been PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice for over four years for enterprise backup software.

Like other drive-imaging software, ShadowProtect frewuently saves an “image” of your entire hard disk, allowing you to restore your computer to any one of the previously saved versions after a malfunction, or to copy specific files from that image that may have been lost or altered. But ShadowProtect also offers many unique features that set it apart from other backup software, such as hardware independent system restores and a virtual boot option.

Most server software for backup can only run on the system on which it was originally installed because Windows often won’t boot up on unfamiliar hardware, but ShadowProtect can be run on any hardware. And its virtual boot feature lets you run a backed-up system version as a virtual machine using the free emulation software VirtualBox. These two features insure users against hardware damage like that experienced by FEMA by allowing continued access to files and software even after a complete system failure, allowing any business server to continue running after a disaster.

If FEMA had been using a more trustworthy and powerful enterprise backup software like ShadowProtect, they would have been able to quickly recover the years of lost data and restore system functionality with maximum ease and efficiency.

Technorati Tags: business server, enterprise backup, Server Software

Change management or change control is the scheme in which all the modifications done to the system are made permanent and useable. The Change control scheme is accomplished by means of a system that employs use of a pre-determined structure that’s why it is also called as such. The scheme employs change management software, a software that is very useful in validating whatever noteworthy modifications performed in an well thought-out means with the intention of completing managerial modifications in addition to investigating whatever latent solutions to any probable difficulties interrelated to the computer system network’s bad performance.

This change management software gives consideration to the dislike that a person has with regards to change, while still controlling the network or system through the use of a configuration manager who supervises the database contained by training and testing atmosphere and the real-world atmosphere also.

This configuration manager makes the most of the configuration management practice that is centered on construction and sustaining performance system control at a particular time. The configuration manager does this by means of the operational information that the change management software has, such as firmware, documentations, security features, tests and test materials.

The configuration manager also upholds the four necessary tasks so as to execute the necessary any changes in the network. First, configuration identification differentiates all of the characteristics that categorize each facet of the configuration point such as the user objective that system’s hardware and software has.

Configuration control is the inventory of practices and stages of approval necessary in amending a configuration point’s characteristics and getting them back to a baseline point. Meanwhile, configuration status accounting is the skill that the manager needs in order to file and handle the associated baselines of each configuration point at any point in time. Configuration audits have two features which are functional audits and physical audits. The first takes care of the functional and presentation characteristics of the configuration point. In contrast, physical audits double-check the configuration point so it is set up consistent with what is entailed by the detailed design records.

In general, configuration management that is administered by competent individual using great change software will enable you to make the most of the way your system and networks performs.

Managing an enterprise network a company can be a headache without the right software tools. Change management software can catalog all changes made while configuration management will gaurantee your changes won’t conflict, easing your headache in network management.

Technorati Tags: business, business software, computers, Computers:Networks, intranet, networks, PC Security, Server Software, Technology