Waterproof Hard drive

Preventing Data Loss from Flood, Sprinkler Systems and Fire Hoses
Protecting your business computer systems from water or flood is just as important in business continuity planning as is protecting from fire. As over 90% of fires have water present, data loss from these elements can have a profound effect on business resumption.

A waterproof hard drive is the best hardware to ensure data recovery after sustaining water damage. Backup hardware that has been tested rigorously for protection during flood and complete submersion conditions makes the most sense as you plan your data backup and recovery strategy.

Water Protection Data Backup Strategy
ioSafe USB fire safe hard drives as well as the R4 Network attached storage SATA drives are encapsulated in a waterproof barrier capable of direct immersion in freshwater or saltwater up to 30 feet. When installing backup and recovery hardware in basements, low lying areas or flood zones, having this extra level of waterproof protection is well worth the investment.

Even during a fire situation, the ioSafe hard drives and data backup hardware will protect your data during and after the blaze has been extinguished. The unique engineering of ioSafe hardware makes these products truly unique and special for all aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery.

Data Recovery after a Disaster

Data recovery is a very important aspect for business continuity at businesses of all sizes. No matter if you run your own business from home or work remotely outside of the big city, the possibility of a hard drive crash is inevitable. Proper planning will ensure that you can recover your data from a simple drive crash to even a fire or flood situation.

Backing up your data
Whether you work from a laptop or desktop workstation the first step to data recovery is making sure you have a backup copy of your files. A simple spare hard drive, flash drive or backup DVD or CD is a great place to start. For the best fireproof hard drive protection choose a fire safe USB drive or NAS device.

Storing your backup copy
Once you've made your backup copy you'll need to properly store the information to ensure you can recover your files. If you have a fireproof hard drive this step you've pretty much got covered. However, if you do not have one of these devices it is generally a rule of thumb to store your data offsite in either a bank deposit box, or at least in another location. This will help reduce the risk of total data loss in the event of a fire or flood.

A combination of both on-site and off-site data storage is always the most solid approach. Every business is unique and one plan may work better for you than the other.

Data Recovery Service
Data recovery in some instances can be as simple as reverting to a backup copy from last week or months CD / DVD or tape. In other situations, such as a fire or flood this could mean that more serious steps must be taken to recover your data from your hard disk drive. Data storage hardware like ioSafe comes standard with a data recovery service in the purchase price. However if you have yet to incorporate a complete solution into your backup strategy then you will need to contact a professional service company to assist.

There are many companies who specialize in data recovery and below you will find a fairly comprehensive list:
On Track
Drive Savers
Salvage Data
Data Recovery Group
Vantage
Computer Medic - Ann Arbor, MI
Total Recall (not the movie with Arnold)
CBL data recovery service
ACR Data Recovery

To find a data recovery service company in your state, check out this complete guide:
http://www.datarecoverycompanies.com/stateguide.html

Fire Safe USB Hard Drives

Sentry Group has recently teamed up with Maxtor to develop their own version of a fire resistant and waterproof USB hard drive. This truly validates the market on many levels for other manufacturers of similar storage devices.

This new product by Sentry Group comes in at a very attractive price for the consumer level use. With storage capacity limited at 160GB the product won't be sufficient for business and enterprise use, however it is great to see that other safe manufacturers understand the value and support further development of the market.

The full press release can be found here:
http://www.sentrysafe.com/content/news.aspx

Enterprise Data Storage: Servers and Hardware

Enterprise level storage at many levels has traditionally been quite complicated. Take your exchange servers, file servers, and domain and user group sharing security issues and toss in your DR strategy and we're talking lots of equipment, lots of dollar signs and plenty of headaches.

Enterprise Storage Hardware Simplified.
Step 1. Deploy ioSafe NAS server
Step 2. Enjoy enterprise class features, remote administration, flexibility in mixed environments all in a fireproof and waterproof aircraft black box for disaster recovery.
Step 3. Look at your bottom line cost savings for administration, mitigated security risks associated with tape and DR plan that meets business goals as your company moves forward.
Step 4. High five your consistently happy boss.


ioSafe hardware alloys the enterprise to rapidly deploy simple DR / data storage / backup hardware at remote and branch offices without the headache or hassle of tape.

Backup Storage Security has Many Meanings...Consider them all.

Hard Disk Backup Storage Security has Many Meanings
From the IT Engineer to the business continuity team at a large enterprise, the meaning of storage security has a wide variety of connotations. Facilities managers often conclude that this means physical security, locks, secure storage racks, or a data center that has the proper access control is rightfully secure. When looking at the larger picture and considering business goals it's important to take every point of view into consideration. When analyzing new hardware purchases across the enterprise or for a pilot testing program it's a safe bet that many people in the chain of command will take part in the decision making process.

The IT Security Perspective
Network files services and security are usually a primary concern at an IT level. Whether that means encrypted network logins, secure socket layer (SSL), NFS (v2, v3), HTTPS, or share and user level domain security level access, the meaning of disk storage security is certainly far more technical. As business data storage requirements grow and technology changes, the IT personnel should be getting a few more pats on the back for their input on analyzing new disk based data storage hardware.

When you think about this in more detail, even the backup options for redundancy are a measure of disk storage security. Can the hardware be used with the current data backup software that is already in place? Does the backup hardware have built-in Snapshot Support in case of a complete server crash? Is there an integrated backup manager for ease of use?
This of course includes options for RAID 0,1, or 5 as well as removable disk backup for scalability as your data storage requirements continue to grow.

Ultimately what is important is that the IT team works together and has a great synergy with the rest of the company who must also evaluate the storage hardware on different levels.

The Regulatory Compliance / Security Perspective
Today, more than ever, it's crucial to manage your IT infrastructure and comply with Federal Regulations (HIPAA, SOX, California Privacy Act, Payment Card Procession, etc), while maintaining a solid plan for data backup security. Most enterprises are faced with a myriad of regulations to ensure both physical security and limited access control, but must also demonstrate the importance of data disaster recovery. Best business practices include fire protection as well as waterproof or flood protection to ensure availability of data in a natural disaster to meet federal regulations. From a security perspective this can even mean that data must be kept on site or at least secured within a WAN between neighboring data centers.

While the team members understand that the federal regulations do include their fair share of red-tape, it's vital to the business to keep working together and understanding the business needs from this point of view. Ultimately a large enterprise can save millions of dollars by implementing the right data storage hardware across the enterprise the first time.

The Physical Security Perspective
Storage security analysis from the physical perspective in the simplest of terms means theft protection and access control. Storage hardware that is rack mountable, removable storage disks that have limited access or a data center with tight CCTV or digital video recording systems to monitor who can access the data on a daily basis are all part of the this process.

When considering the physical security of storage hardware your facilities managers' input is crucial to remember, and by doing so at the start of storage hardware evaluations you'll have less hassle and headaches in the end.

What is the Point?
The point is that best practices should include disk backup systems that are trouble free, dependable, scalable and require no additional training or staffing, meeting storage security requirements across the board.

Plug and Play solutions that dovetail into your current IT environments and platforms are key to leveraging your disk storage hardware investments in ways that achieve compliance across multiple sets of regulations and drive the business forward - meeting goals and objectives for growth and success.

Aligning the business IT systems with overall business objectives and goals is of great importance as storage gets cheaper and data becomes priceless.

Small office, home office backup: Which method is right for you?

2007 (Computerworld) -- There are many techniques and technologies for implementing a regular and sound backup regime at a small office or home office (SOHO) and while on the road. But there are also many hazards. Small devices, such as portable disk drives, are exposed to conditions that cause failures far more often than business-class systems, and while portable units are convenient, they sometimes lack security features such as password protection or encryption that could leave your data open to theft.

Read the Complete Computerworld Story

If you already have a good backup regime, look to see how you can improve it to protect more data in a shorter amount of time. If you do not have a regular backup regime, now is the time to start.

Greg Schulz is founder and senior analyst at The StorageIO Group and author of the book Resilient Storage Networks (Digital Press, 2004).

Considerations of Fireproof Hard Disk Drive and NAS Technology

Reliability of Hardware a Top Concern Among IT Professionals
What happens when you take active computer electronics and put them inside a fire safe? Most IT professionals would agree that you get a build up of heat - one of the top reasons for hard drive failure and a core reason for fan cooling of servers, laptops and business class computer equipment.

As the new industry of disaster ready data storage emerges there are several considerations that need to be taken into account. When engineering a reliable piece of data storage hardware that can also withstand a raging fire, flood, or even water sprinkler systems there are many fundamental concerns that come to mind.

Heat Build Up / Heat Transfer
Cooling the backup hard disk drives is of utmost importance inside a fireproof safe - whether by fan or other means your hard drives don't like heat!

Storage Capacity
Your data storage requirements are continually growing. When your business invests into data storage hardware a scalable solution that allows for this growth provides the greatest return on investment (ROI). Consider a product that allows room for growth!

Data Disaster Recovery
When your primary or even your backup disk goes through a disaster like fire or flood how will you get your data recovered? What type of data recovery service is available? Can data be recovered from a disk that has been through a fire or flood? Yes it can, and here is a very interesting video example on YouTube told by Steven Hill of Network Computing Magazine.

Hard Disk Recovery
Everyone knows that hard drives fail, it's the nature of computer hardware. But how do you recover your data if your drive fails inside a fireproof hard drive or NAS?

Data Redundancy
Even if your business has invested money and time into a data backup device and plan for recovery you still need to consider your strategy for recovery from fire or flood. In this type of situation you can simply add a fireproof hard drive to your current system and store your most business critical data on this external backup device. This will ensure that you are prepared for any disaster that might occur.


Every day there are examples of business fires occurring in the local newspaper and while your insurance policy can replace your desks, tables and chairs, how can you replace your data? This question alone should raise a few eyebrows as according to various studies 90% of businesses fail after a data disaster.

Plan ahead and prevent business data loss from disaster. When you consider the purchase of a fireproof hard drive or fire safe NAS (network attached storage) device make sure you take the above points into consideration.