In IT, we always talk about how important backups are, but how often do we really review and test our backup plans appropriately?  In 2013, we should resolve to do a better job in protecting the data that we depend on daily.  Here are some important questions to keep in mind when reviewing your policies…

• What needs to be backed up?
• How often does it need to be backed up?
• How much space is available to store backups?
• What is your retention policy?
• How many backups do you keep on hand for emergency situations?
• Do backups need to be stored offsite? If so, should they be stored in a different geographical location (East Coast vs West Coast)?
• How quickly can you recover and restore those backups?
• Have you tested your backup plan?
• Have you tested the restore process of those backups?

These are the basic questions you should be asking when coming up with a Disaster Recovery plan.  The answers will guide you to creating the disaster recovery plan that you need for your business.  It will also give you the peace of mind that your data is protected and will never be ‘lost’.

If you need assistance in creating, reviewing, implementing, or testing your Disaster Recovery plan then send us an email at sales@egroup-us.com and we will be happy to help!

eGroup, in collaboration with a few of our manufacturing partners – Cisco, VMware and EMC – hosted a high touch event specifically designed to guide and inform our customer executives on the most critical and impactful innovations.

The Forum, titled “Building Organizations with Technology to Achieve High Performance and a Distinct Competitive Advantage”, took place against the beautiful backdrop of the Inn on Biltmore in Asheville, NC.  The content theme focused on “Three Mega Technology Trends: BYOD, Collaboration, Cloud” impacting our customer’s business and how they can leverage for a competitive advantage.

To see more photos from the event, please click here.

VMworld 2012 is less than a week away, and eGroup will be there in full force so you don’t have to be! The eGroup team will be your eyes and ears for all that’s hot, trending and newsworthy.

Join the eGroup Roundtable for a live discussion from WMworld 2012 on Wednesday, August 29th at 9:30 am ET.

eGroup’s Rich Young (Marketing and Communications Manager) and Jason Webster (Application Services Manager) will provide an introduction to the new eGroup Roundtable series and give you the low down on what to expect!

Hear from technology thought leaders Ian Jones (Data Services Practice Area Lead, eGroup) and John Flisher (Senior Technical Consultant, eGroup) on all of the hottest topics and breaking news LIVE from VMworld. There will also be an opportunity for Q&A from the audience!

Join us, and be one of the first to be “in the know”!

MEETING INFORMATION:

Space is limited. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/382426928

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Cisco’s Unified Computing Systems (UCS) has acquired the reputation of leading the next-generation of data center platforms by merging together the IT needs of computing, networking, storage access and virtualization into one unified system.  

Now until October 29, 2011, Cisco has announced (11) extensively discounted UCS B-Series Blade Server and C-Series Rack-Mount Server Bundles that are fully configured and ready to be implemented in any data center.  This is a great opportunity for any company to experience the next-generation of data center platforms with Cisco’s UCS at an exceptionally low entry point.

UCS B-Series Smart Play Promo Summary 

The Smart Play UCS B-Series Bundles have (8) options that range from an introductory priced B200 bundle to a high performance B230 Bundle which all include the Cisco M81KR Virtual Interface Card.  

Read more >>

A blog post I read this morning spurred on some thoughts today — I’m using a Mac now at work and I need to make it user friendly!

Step 1 – Get good software. Check out this blog post from @Scott_lowe and also let me add two more suggestions.  The first is CoRD and the second is Chicken of the VNC.

Step 2 – Map network drives (from http://j.mp/qy8UrH)

This method maps a network drive that will disappear if the network connection drops or if you reboot your Mac:

From the Mac OS X Finder, hit Command+K to bring up the ‘Connect to Server’ window.  Enter the path to the network drive you want to map, ie: smb://networkcomputer/networkshare and click ‘Connect’.  Enter your login/password and click “OK” to mount the network drive.  The drive will now appear on your desktop and in the Finder window sidebar

This method allows you to reboot your Mac and have the mapped network drive automatically remount and appear on the desktop, this is more persistent than the above method:

From the Finder, hit Command+K.  Enter the path to the network drive you want to map, ie: smb://networkcomputer/networkshare and click ‘Connect’.  Enter your login credentials and click “OK”.  The drive is now mounted, but continue on to map for system reboot persistence.  Now enter into System Preferences, from the Apple menu.  Click on ‘Accounts’.  Click on “Login Items”.  Click on the + button to add another login item.  Locate the network drive you previously mounted and click “Add”.  Exit out of System Preferences