You can stop laughing, solar flares are very real. And while they may not be the actual culprit of MY wireless communications device’s deviant ways – they do have the ability to wreck havoc with satellites and power grids.

Basically it works like this: The sun spits a big giant piece of its atmosphere at us at 5 million miles an hour (which is 5 times faster than solar particles usually travel) and that slams into the earth’s magnetic field. It’s that fluctuation (or “tsunami in space” as the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA calls it) in the magnetic field that can affect our communications technology and power systems.

Before you brush this off as a “never gonna happen,” make note that in 1989, a solar flare knocked out the electrical systems in Quebec, Canada.

There’s an upside to this sci-fi weather forecast too however. The after-effect of the sun’s spitball is that many areas of the world are privy to stunning Northern Lights — Aurora Borealis – displays that would normally be reserved for less inhabited regions of the earth. Much of Great Britain is in awe of the astonishing night sky. (See Images here)

And similar to the tornado or hurricane categories, solar storms geomagnetic intensity is ranked on a scale from 1 to 5, five being the most extreme. The solar storms of late rank in the 3 range, meaning that NASA claims they COULD cause technology glitches such as isolated reboots of computers on board Earth-orbiting satellites and interfere with polar radio communications.

So the good news is that their effect is minimal for you and I, unless of course you’re tracking your GPS in centimeters and not feet, or planning your next vacay on the International Space Station.

At least this year.

Tom Bogdan, the director of NOAA, says the sun is going from a quiet period to a busier cycle for solar flares and an increase in the number of such blasts is expected over the next three to five years.

And if that wasn’t enough to start putting sunscreen on all your technology, “The Daily Telegraph disclosed that NASA has warned countries face widespread power blackouts from the once-in-a-generation ‘space storm’ next year.”

Hmmm. So much for my latest iphone theory. It’s off to the genius bar I go, but I’m taking my sunglasses — just in case.

Here’s some incredibly interesting video of the recent solar flares.

There’s an interesting article in the October issue of the Economist that spotlights the challenges that large enterprise has to manage the use of technology in their workforce. It paints an interesting – albeit somewhat disturbing — picture of the state of technology at work today. The days of corporate-wide devices and programs are disappearing quickly as today’s technosavvy employees are bringing their own applications and devices to the office.

While the evolution of our mobile society certainly falls on the good side of the equation, it also has its ramifications for the IT staffs that serve them. As the article states several research studies show that the use of personal devices to access business information has not only grown sharply, but continues to do so exponentially. While making the people who run the companies more accessible and productive, it also opens doors to security breaches and mobile malware for the company’s infrastructure. To make matters worse, the research shows that while many people would never go to bed at night with their doors unlocked, they don’t consider password protecting it – or if they do, it’s combination rivals the 1234 level of difficulty. And that’s just asking for trouble.

CIO’s are recognizing that rather than trying to inhibit the use of various technologies and devices, they should take steps to put reasonable security on them and let their staff play to their strengths. Virtual desktops that allow people to use devices but maintains all the data on a remote server behind a firewall are becoming en vogue, as well as software that enables IT departments to not only manage a wide range of mobile devices, but also to monitor what devices are accessing their proprietary networks.

The other concern this raises is data protection. If employees can move data to these new devices, what sort of data protection is in place. Inside the corporate environment, there may be good firewalls, antivirus, and data backup in place, but what happens when that same device becomes connected to say — the Wireless Network of the Chattanooga Tennessee Metropolitan Airport Authority? At that point your corporate information no longer has the data protection that you may need. Backup and disaster recovery solutions are a part of what is required. Data encryption, data security and other data protection mechanisms are also needed. We’ll be covering these ideas in the GDV Data Protection Blog over the next few weeks.

The article is a great read and accurately portrays the challenges facing corporate IT departments and the solutions they are deploying. Read it in its entirety here.

There will come a time in your computer life where you either have a computer crash, a large scale network disaster or simply have to reinstall an operating system. In any of those dreaded events, you will thank your lucky stars if you have these 12 things preserved, backed up and reinstalled before you begin the rebuilding process:

1) Passwords – If you keep your passwords on your computer, make sure you have this file backed up, printed out, whatever you need to ensure that your entire online life doesn’t come to a grinding halt.

2) Financial records – If you have spreadsheets, invoices, QuickBooks or other, you need to have access to that financial data.

3) Documents – Personal and professional, goes without saying that if you don’t have these in a safe place, life could get really difficult.

4) Calendar – Wow, can you imagine if you lost your contacts, calendar or task list? That would be enough to give anyone a nervous tick.

5) Have a website? Make sure you have those files preserved in a safe place. Any XML, XSLT files, archived pages and pages in draft that you may have on your computer are on your computer for a reason.

6) Network settings – Keep a copy of all your network connection settings and passwords both locally and as provided by your ISP.

7) Config files – If you’ve created your own configurations for you DNS or web server, it might make you cry if you have to make those available to you again.

Photos, videos and audio files – The pain of losing these goes without saying. You can’t replace memories — or in the case of business, client testimonials. Don’t torture yourself with the agony of not having these in multiple back-up locations.

9) Email – If you archive your emails, make sure you know how to save and restore these from your email program. You never know when you might need these for a lawsuit.

10) Web bookmarks – With the advent of Stumble Upon and Reddit and Pinterest, you may be bookmarking in different ways, but I’ll bet that you still have a long list of bookmarks on your browser or even an excel spreadsheet that you sure would like to keep.

11) Purchased software and downloads – If you’ve paid for programs, you certainly don’t want to lose these. No one’s made of money.

12) Music and media files – Ripping those into digital files is time-consuming and I’ll bet you don’t want to do it twice. You may not even have those CD’s anymore. Save yourself a headache and backup all your media.

A good online data back-up can lead to a happy new operating system, a faster reinstall and a content computer user. May you go forth and compute with peace.

It’s one of an IT department’s and computer users worst nightmares: having to reinstall an operating system. You KNOW that it won’t be the same. You’ll lose personalized settings. You’ll spend hours updating drivers. You’ll overwrite files. It will be messy. You will not be a nice person. If you’re doing it for someone else, they will be unappreciative of the “upgrade” because nothing will run the same again.

The thing is, you never really know when you might have to reinstall an OS, so it’s always wise to prepare for that fateful day in advance. Take some screen shots of start up menus, control panel, firewall, etc. And download your installers in advance, that will allow you to reinstall cleanly to the new OS.

Now the task of backing everything up. If you’re a small business, there are four logical steps you need to take before you begin your data backup project:

1) Identify and record all data and its locations – consider the obvious (desktops, laptops, servers, etc) but don’t overlook smart-phones, tablets, websites and social network properties.

2) Determine your data backup solution: how much data needs to be backed up, how often you need to back it up, is there any data that falls under data retention laws, what is your budget and how will you ensure the backups are encrypted?

3) Where will you backup your data? An online backup solution provides additional security against any site-wide disaster. Online data backup solutions are often automated as well so you don’t have to have additional staff dedicated to your back-up plan.

4) Determine how you will monitor the accuracy and reliability of the backups (online data back up or on-site), and when and how you will assess what data needs to be backed up (additions, changes) on a regular basis.

Check back to see our list and tips of a dozen to-do’s when backing up your files. Just a few essential files that you need to remember to backup or your online life could get pretty uncomfortable: your website files, your passwords and your calendar…

There’s a lot of discussion about the “cloud” and what that means in regards to your data storage. We’ve even overheard conversations among business professionals stating that the “cloud” is not safe, but other solutions where the data is still being stored offsite, are.

So let’s clear up the confusion: Whatever you want to call it – when you are storing data outside of your premises and inside a data center, it’s technically “the cloud.” Where the confusion lies is that some private cloud solutions have branded themselves with a proprietary name and are positioning themselves as an anti-cloud alternative. The devil’s in the details so let’s break it down:

Just when you thought you understood it all, let’s mix it up a bit. There is another type of cloud, hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud environment consists of multiple internal and/or external providers and is actually quite typical for most enterprises.

Being in the business of disaster recovery, we take note anytime a survey is released of business preparedness. This particular report presented interesting results.

The survey included businesses all located in the South West and conducted by Climate SouthWest. They discovered that 8 out of 10 businesses confirmed that they had been affected by extreme wet, cold, hot, dry or stormy conditions. One respondent even said, “Heavy rain and strong winds greatly reduce my IT effectiveness. This can be, albeit temporarily, catastrophic.”

Survey respondents cited more impacts from snow, frost and ice than any other weather types, complaining of restricted access to their business as the most common effect, but also noting damage to property and traffic related incidences. Certainly no surprise to our office as the last two winters have been bone-chilling in this part of the country, and we had more than our fair share of widespread disruption of all kinds due to a healthy dumping of snow and ice.

But what we found particularly disturbing is that despite more than one-third of respondents stating that they had experienced extreme weather related issues in the past – including losing customers, incurring repair costs and a plethora of health and safety issues — they have done nothing to prevent the business interruptions in the future.

Thankfully the news wasn’t all grim. Some businesses are reviewing their health and safety procedures, creating or improving their Business Continuity Plans and seeking further advice in order to prepare themselves for future extreme weather. Survey participants said information on weather and climate, financial grants and general advice would help them prepare for impending extreme weather.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has a nice checklist of things you can do to prepare for winter’s onslaught of ice and snow, visit here. For more survey results, visit here.

How are you preparing your company for the return of winter?

While people continue to debate the merits of global warming and its impact on our everyday lives, researchers are far more confident about the prospect of more intense heat waves, heavy downpours, earthquakes and even volcanic eruptions in our near future.

But no matter which side of the fence you’re on, the Washington Post reported last week that the new analysis also speaks to a broader trend: The world is facing a new reality of more extreme weather, and policymakers and business alike are beginning to adjust.

All the hubaloo about global warming came to the forefront again when a recent special report was released on the human impact of extreme weather events by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The very detailed report talks of the correlation between global temperatures and the impact on everything from wind patterns to earthquakes. The IPCC warns for better civic planning as we should expect more of the same weather-related disasters experienced in 2011. (see our previously related story) The concern is that these crazy weather extremes will overwhelm their target locations, making them unlivable.

Unlivable is one thing, another is how the businesses within those communities can be resilient after an unexpected natural disaster. A September 2011 study by Climate South West stated that 63% of businesses surveyed have taken some kind of action to prepare for extreme weather. Of the study respondents, most (76%) of the largest businesses have created or improved their Business Continuity Plan, compared to only 8% of the smallest businesses. Many larger businesses have also reviewed their health and safety procedures and/or sought advice on the issue.

At Global Data Vault, our daily focus is planning for disaster. But we know that it’s not something that most companies address as nearly as frequently. So we’re curious, has your company taken any new measures to ensure against extreme weather disasters? IT, HR or otherwise?

According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the United States has experienced a record number of billion-dollar disasters – and of those, at least 10 are approaching a total of $50 million dollars in costs.

Considered the “nation’s scorekeeper,” the NCDC tracks and evaluates climate events in the US and globally that have substantial economic and societal impacts. They report in the last 31 years, the U.S. has experienced 110 weather/climate-related disasters where overall damages and costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. And are you sitting? The total standardized loses exceed $750 billion.

Oftentimes when we consider of significant weather-related disasters, we automatically think earthquakes and hurricanes on the fringes of our country. But as you’ll see below, the Midwest took a significant beating this year from tornadoes.

Here are the top 10 most costly disasters to hit our country in 2011 — so far, in order of costs/damages:

1. Southeast/Ohio Valley/Midwest Tornadoes, April 25 – 30. Over $7.3 billion insured losses, total loses greater than $10.2 billion, 321 deaths.

2. Southern Plains/Southwest Drought, Heat Wave and Wildfires, Spring-Summer. More than $10 billion and counting, at least 4 deaths.

3. Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes, May 22 – 27. More than $6.5 billion insured losses, total loses greater than $9.1 billion, and 177 deaths.

4. Hurricane Irene, August 20 – 29. More than $7.3 billion in damages, at least 45 deaths.

5. Mississippi River Flooding, Spring-Summer. More than $3 – 4 billion, as many as 7 deaths.

6. Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes, April 4 – 5. Over $2.0 billion insured losses, total losses greater than $2.8 billion, 9 deaths.

7. Southeast/Midwest Tornadoes, April 8 – 11. More than $1.5 billion insured losses, total losses greater than $2.2 billion, thankfully zero deaths reported.

8. Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes, April 14-16. Over $1.4 billion in insured loses, total losses greater than $2.1 billion, 38 deaths.

9. Upper Midwest Flooding, Summer. More than $1 billion, at least 5 deaths.

10. Groundhog Day Blizzard, January 29 – February 3. More than $1.0 billion in insured losses, total losses greater than $1.8 billion, 36 deaths.

For more detail on each of these horrible tragedies, visit the National Climatic Data Center.

An earthquake. Strange for these parts but it was a wake up call for some business owners who think it “won’t happen to them.” They’re not alone, 54 percent of Americans don’t prepare because they believe a disaster will not affect them. What’s sad is that 82 percent of Americans agree “If someone could make it easy for me to be prepared, I’d do it”. Really? Easy is what it takes to get ready? Because as a business owner, you can’t take the “easy” way out.

• 15-40 percent of businesses fail following a natural or manmade disaster.

• 94 percent of small business owners believe a disaster could seriously disrupt their business within the next two years.

• 51 percent of Americans have experienced at least one emergency situation where they lost utilities for at least three days, had to evacuate and could not return home, could not communicate with family members or had to provide first aid to others.3

First and foremost, you need to protect your data off-site from your location. That’s mission critical to recovering in a speedy manner. You want to enable automatic online back-ups and disaster recovery systems, which by the way also protect you from employee theft or malicious acts.

But what else can you do to prepare for mother earth to toss your business like a salad?

• Keep phone lists of your key employees and customers with you and provide copies to key staff members.

• If you have a voicemail system at your office, designate one remote number on which you can record messages for employees.  Provide the number to all employees.

• Arrange for programmable call forwarding for your main business line(s). Then, if you can’t get to the office, you can call in and reprogram the phones to ring elsewhere.

• If you may not be able to get to your business quickly after an emergency, leave keys and alarm code(s) with a trusted employee or friend who is closer.

• Install emergency lights that turn on when the power goes out. They are inexpensive and widely available at building supply retailers.

• Back up computer data frequently throughout the business day.  Keep a backup tape off site.

• Use UL-listed surge protectors and battery backup systems. They will add protection for sensitive equipment and help prevent a computer crash if the power goes out.

• Purchase a NOAA Weather Radio with a tone alert feature.  Keep it on and when the warning signal sounds, listen for information about possible severe weather and protective actions to take.

• Stock a minimum supply of the goods, materials and equipment you would need for business continuity.

• Consult with your insurance agent about special precautions to take for disasters that may directly impact your business.  Remember, most policies do not cover earthquake and flood damage. Protect valuable property and equipment with special riders. Discuss business continuity insurance with your agent.

• Keep on hand: flashlights with extra batteries, a
first aid kit,
tools,
food and water for employees and customers to use during a period of unexpected confinement at your business.

Prevent or reduce disaster damage in your facility by taking precautions, such as:

• Bolting tall bookcases or display cases to wall studs.

• Protecting breakable objects by securing them to a stand or shelf using hook and loop fasteners.

• Moving large objects that could fall and break or injure someone to lower shelves.

• Installing latches to keep drawers and cabinets from flying open and dumping their contents.

• Using closed screw eyes and wire to securely attach framed pictures and mirrors to walls.

• Using plumber’s tape or strap iron to wrap around a hot water heater to secure it to wall studs.

Consider having a professional install:

• Flexible connectors to appliances and equipment fueled by natural gas.

• Shutters that you can close to protect windows from damage caused by debris blown by a hurricane, tornado or severe storm.

• Automatic fire sprinklers.

Tips respectfully shared from PrepareLA.org