Agility Disaster Recovery Tip #13

Pay it forward.

Prepare your business financially for long-term interruptions. Encourage direct payroll deposits for all staff in the event that mail is either interrupted or employees are not reachable due to displacement. Business owners should also decide on the levels of accessible cash required to maintain business operations and be able to provide cash advances to employees in dire need.

Agility Disaster Recovery Tip #12

Always evolve.

A recovery plan is not meant to be written, filed away and then forgotten. Review your plan at least quarterly to ensure your recovery preparations are keeping pace with the changing needs of your business. Every time your IT network and hardware change, update your plan. Every time there is an organizational change or you hire new people, update your plan to reflect any changes in responsibilities and contact information. Your company is always evolving, and your recovery plan should keep pace.

Throwback Rotary Phone / Future Faucet Concept

This is a faucet designed like an old rotary phone. Instead of dialing phone numbers, you dial up the number of seconds you would like the water to flow. Check it out here.

T-Mobile Upgrade 3G Networks

T-Mobile has announced that they're rolling out their super speedy HSPA+ network to over 100 metro areas covering 185 million people in 2010. More than half of that will be complete by the middle of the year. That's aggressive.

HSPA+ is an easier roll out than 4G, because it's overlaid over T-Mobile's existing 3G footprint. It also gets competitive speeds; its 21Mbps is three times what you're used to from current 3G technologies. And in the few regions it's currently available, like Philadelphia, it really does fly. Even better, most current T-Mobile devices are already compatible with HSPA+, meaning that customers won't need to upgrade their smartphone to get an upgraded network experience.

Products that'll get the HSPA+ treatment include a Dell Mini 10 netbook—welcome news, given that it's our favorite of the current crop. It'll only be available in limited markets to start.

There's also the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick, available next week, which is the first HSPA+ stick available from a major carrier.

For phones, there's the Nokia Nuron, and the Cliq XT, and most enticingly the HTC HD2.

There are also plans for personal Hot Spots, although nothing concrete was announced today, and the execs were totally mum on tethering.

T-Mobile to Rollout the Nation's Fastest 3G Wireless Network with HSPA+ to More than 100 Metropolitan Areas in 2010

T-Mobile delivers home broadband-like experiences on-the-go when surfing the Web, accessing multimedia features, sharing content and more

LAS VEGAS and BELLEVUE, Wash. - March 23, 2010 - Today at International CTIA Wireless 2010, T-Mobile USA, Inc., showcased the nation's fastest 3G wireless network on its latest mobile broadband devices. The company unveiled plans to upgrade its national high-speed 3G service to the High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) technology, which will deliver customers data speeds faster than the current 3G network technology1 . By the end of 2010, T-Mobile expects to have HSPA+ deployed across the breadth of its 3G footprint, covering more than 100 metropolitan areas and 185 million people.

T-Mobile hosted live demonstrations of the home broadband-like HSPA+ data speeds on a variety of products including the new Dell™ Inspiron™ Mini 10 with T-Mobile® webConnect™ - T-Mobile's first netbook - which launches March 24 online and in T-Mobile stores in select markets.2

"Consumers want a mobile broadband experience that's easy and as good as their connection at home on the best wireless devices available," said Neville Ray, senior vice president of engineering and operations for T-Mobile USA. "This year T-Mobile will upgrade its national 3G network to HSPA+ which will support faster speeds and give customers a superior wireless data experience when they access their mobile social network, stream videos or share content. T-Mobile's network is primed to deliver the speeds that today's data users crave."

T-Mobile successfully launched its HSPA+ network service in Philadelphia last fall providing customers access to one of the fastest and most modern wireless networks in the U.S. T-Mobile now has made HSPA+ commercially available in new markets including major areas of New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and suburban Washington, D.C., with deployment in Los Angeles coming very soon.

The company will continue to aggressively expand the availability of HSPA+ in additional 3G markets, putting the necessary backhaul capacity in place to support the very fast speeds. Today, its 3G high-speed data network covers more than 206 million people.

T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is outperforming competing 3G wireless networks with speeds up to three times faster. Blazing fast actual peak download speeds3 were demonstrated today in Las Vegas using both new and current mobile broadband devices, including the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket™ USB Laptop Stick, the first HSPA+ capable device from a national U.S .wireless carrier; the Dell Inspiron Mini 10; the HTC HD2; the Motorola CLIQ XT™ and the T-Mobile myTouch® 3G.

"The webConnect Rocket and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 are the latest mobile broadband products that deliver real customer benefits with faster speeds available today," said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer for T-Mobile USA. "And the great thing about T-Mobile's 3G network evolution is its backward compatibility - most of our 3G smartphones will deliver a better mobile Web experience. Customers don't have to spend money on a device upgrade, which is a rarity in consumer electronics."

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with T-Mobile webConnect
T-Mobile's newest mobile broadband product, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, features built-in access to T-Mobile's 3G network, Windows® 7 - Microsoft Corp.'s latest operating system - and the Intel® Atom™ processor N450 for easy Web surfing, instant messaging, e-mail, social networking, photo sharing and superb multimedia playback in one small, ultra-portable device. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is small and lightweight, weighing just three pounds, and its integrated six-cell battery easily provides up to eight hours of continuous usage. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 also comes preloaded with T-Mobile's webConnect Manager software to help customers manage usage and connections, including connecting to T-Mobile's 3G network, Wi-Fi and access to thousands of T-Mobile HotSpot network locations nationwide.

Pricing and Availability
The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 will be available tomorrow nationwide online at http://www.t-mobile.com and in T-Mobile retail locations in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami for $199.99 with two-year contract and qualifying webConnect data plan.

For more information about T-Mobile's webConnect family of products, including the webConnect Rocket and Dell Inspiron Mini 10, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com/webconnect.

3G coverage is not available everywhere. For more information about T-Mobile's 3G services, mobile broadband products, device features, or the offers and services mentioned, see http://www.t-mobile.com.

Disaster Recovery Tip #11

Hold the line.

Small disruptions can cripple a business. And communications are typically the most severely impacted. Evaluate your ability to restore network communications prior to an interruption. Consider solutions that redirect phone lines and provide automated answering services in the event your network becomes compromised. Setting up remote links (VPNs to a data center) and phone solutions (automated attendants or custom call flows) in advance can save you valuable time and resources during a recovery. Industry jargon calls this “pre-engineering.” We call it smart continuity planning.

Nightshift: 'Different lifestyle in reverse'

CNN Editor's note: Saeed Ahmed is a newsdesk editor at CNN Wire whose workday begins shortly before midnight. Watch "Nightshift In Focus," a one-hour special hosted by Tom Foreman, at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on CNN.

Every night when America puts on its PJs and heads to bed, I -- and thousands of others like me -- head out the door.

We are part of a sizable, but largely invisible, army of workers that clocks in after dark: cops and cabbies, DJs and deliverymen, jailers and journalists.

You call us "graveyard shift-ers." We call you "9-to-5-ers" or, if we're feeling envious, "normal."

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll found 46 percent of Americans have worked the night shift at some point in their lives. And, not surprisingly, more than half of those who did said they hated it.

Living life backwards is a challenge.

We rest best when our body is secreting high levels of melatonin, the hormone that regulates our awake and sleep cycles. And, says Dr. Thomas LoRusso, those levels begin to increase around 10:30 p.m.

"Between 2 to 4 o' clock in the morning, that level peaks. So, it's real easy to fall asleep between 2 to 4 in the morning," says LoRusso, a pulmonary sleep specialist at the Northern Virginia Sleep Diagnostic Center.

"And when you come home from a night shift, you're trying to fall asleep at a time when there's bright light. And bright light naturally suppresses those melatonin levels."

So what do you do? If you're my co-worker, you sip a glass of wine with your cereal to relax. If you're me, you pull tight your blackout curtains and hope the beagle doesn't howl.

"It is a different lifestyle in reverse. Eating patterns are all off, your sleeping patterns are all off," says Michael Fitten, who operates a tram that ferries passengers between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island in New York from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

But night shift work is more than just an inconvenience. Research has shown that it makes us prone to diabetes, obesity, heart disease, even cancer.

A study published last year in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that night shift work causes the body's internal mechanism to go amok.

It produces less leptin, the hormone that tells us when to stop eating.

Blood pressure shoots up. Glucose and insulin levels skyrocket.

Still, about 21 million workers continue to work hours outside the norm, the U.S. Labor Department says.

For some, it's a matter of choice.

We like the pace of the shift and the close relationships we cultivate with the handful of workers who're up in the dead of night. The counter-commute doesn't hurt. Neither does the differential pay.

Others who toil in the dark don't have much say.

Lynette Slaton has worked as a baker in New York for three years. The hours are a necessity: the goods have to be ready for sale by dawn. But Slaton finds the timing has an upside: She has a hand in raising her children during the day.

"When I look at them, I want them to have so much. But right now, with the way the economy is and everything, I just feel more secure being able to be with them and not having to put them in a day care setting so young."

I have always worked nights. First, as a newspaper reporter covering cops and crime. Now, as an editor at CNN Wire, keeping an eye on the world while America sleeps.

Despite the years spent in this cycle, I still gulp gallons of coffee and sneak a 15-minute power nap in a darkened conference room from time to time.

I suspect I sabotage myself by trying to keep "regular" hours on days off:

My internal clock keeps resetting itself, throwing off my circadian rhythm.

Working nights allows me to be a stay-at-home dad during the day spending time with my 7-year-old daughter, Zahra, and 2-month-old son, Samir.

"Books and bottles by day; bombs and bodies by night." That's how I compartmentalize my life.

Like my fellow night owls, I've had to make some trade-offs for this privilege, not just psychologically and physiologically but socially.

I get to spend little time with friends and family here. On the other hand, the time difference means my parents in Bangladesh -- 11-hours ahead of Atlanta -- can share with me what they had for lunch while I snack on a chocolate bar in the middle of the night.

Across the country, we night denizens do what we do to keep life well-oiled and running for everyone else.

At Philips Arena in Atlanta, workers race against the clock to convert an ice rink into a basketball court when the Atlanta Thrashers and the Atlanta Hawks have back-to-back games.

"When everybody else is asleep, this is when this building can change from one thing to the next," says Barry Henson, the arena's vice president of building and event operations.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, Kevin Hentzell works nights replacing burnt or nonworking signs in the neon capital of the world. It's hard work -- the temperature easily exceeds 140 degrees by the signs and Hentzell must exercise caution so he's not electrocuted by the 15,000-volts zipping through the light bulbs.

Why do it at night? It's easier to spot outages in the dark.

Sure, it's an unusual way to live, but we take comfort in small victories.

This weekend, when Daylight Savings Time rolls around, you will lament losing an hour's sleep.

I will rejoice and leave work early.

For the original article, click here.

Disaster Recovery Tip #10

Roll call.

Do not assume your employees will be available after a disaster. Try to anticipate their availability during certain scenarios and plan accordingly. For example, during severe pandemics, businesses potentially face 40 percent absenteeism in the workforce due to employee illness and children unable to attend school. How would your business continue operations with 40% absenteeism?

How Do I Prepare for a Fire? Part 3

Surviving the Aftermath
A fire isn't limited to smoke and flames. Related problems include water damage from sprinklers or fire hoses, smoke damage, and security breaches. Fire protection means preparing your business for all contingencies, from data recovery to emergency power systems. Consider this:

Smoke damage can destroy paper documents and electronic equipment, like laser printers and hard drives. Due to its unique behavior, smoke damage is often difficult to understand. Like any hot air, smoke migrates to cooler areas and upper levels of a structure, and is not confined to the area affected by the fire. Smoke often flows through plumbing systems, using holes around pipes to go from floor to floor and damaging equipment throughout a building.

What to Do if You Have Smoke Damage
If you have fire insurance, contact your insurance agent for suggestions and advice. If you rent, contact the owner so you both can assess the damage. The restoration process is greatly affected by the type of smoke and smoke damage in a fire. For the fastest possible response, business owners should familiarize themselves with the varieties of smoke damage.

Types of Smoke Damage
Fires create two types of smoke damage — visible soot and invisible odor. Because each fire is different, it's not possible to provide one set of guidelines on how to remove soot and odor.

• Wet Smoke - Low heat, smoldering, pungent odor, sticky, smeary. Smoke webs are more difficult to clean.
• Dry Smoke - Fast burning at high temperatures.
• Protein - Virtually invisible, discolors paints and varnishes. Extreme pungent odor.
• Fuel Oil Soot - Furnace puff backs cause fuel oil soot.
• Other Types - Include tear gas, fingerprint powder, and fire extinguisher residue.

Contact a reputable smoke damage repair service in your area, or your local chamber of commerce for more information on smoke damage restoration.

How Do I Prepare for a Fire? Part 2

Creating a Safe Environment
In addition to having the proper fire insurance, it is important to know how to prevent fires in your business. From building fires to forest wildfires, prevention starts with knowing the threats.

• Familiarize yourself with the buildings around your business. Are there businesses or buildings more highly prone to fire around you?
• Sprinklers typically reduce chances of fire-related deaths and property loss by one-half to two-thirds. Find out if your neighbors have sprinklers.
• Contact your local fire department to have your building inspected for fire code compliance.
• Both direct and indirect threats can be controlled through the creation of a safe environment:
• Working smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and escape plans are absolutely necessary for the prevention & survival of building fires.
• A safety zone can protect your building from wildfires. To create a safety zone, make sure your building is separated from flammable materials (like vegetation, refuse or lumber), either by dirt, concrete or other non-flammable material.
• Remember to have fire drills and practice your evacuation plan at least twice a year.

The Good and Bad of Sprinkler Systems
A properly installed and maintained automatic fire sprinkler system can save lives. Because fire sprinkler systems react so quickly, they can dramatically reduce the heat, flames and smoke produced in a fire.
However, sprinkler systems can also destroy important equipment and documents—and lead to mold and corrosion that can permanently damage your business. Because of this, water damage restoration and dehumidification are important factors in business recovery after a fire. Learn more about dehumidification and controlling water-damage.

How Do I Prepare for a Fire?

Insurance Considerations and Filing Claims
You need more than extinguishers to help your business survive a fire - you need information.

Many companies offer discounted fire insurance rates when security or sprinkler systems are installed in your building. The following suggestions will prepare you to file a claim after a fire:

• Create (and regularly update) a written inventory of the contents of your business.
• Videotape or photograph the contents of your business.
• Engrave larger equipment (servers, photocopiers, etc.) with identifying marks.
• Photograph or videotape the exterior of your building from several angles.
• Have special equipment appraised.
• Keep your insurance policy, inventory, appraisals, photos and videotape records in a secondary location, such as a fire-proof safe or safety-deposit box.
• Keep other important documents and electronic materials (such as server logs) in a secondary location. Also, remember to update your records periodically — set a specific date each year to review the inventory list and other records.

Disaster Recovery Tip #9

Who do you depend on?

Now is the perfect opportunity to talk to the businesses and organizations that your company relies on. These could include vendors, suppliers, partners or customers. Take time to evaluate their recovery capabilities following a disaster. Can you count on them to be up and running, back in business as usual, or do they need to work on their own disaster recovery plan? There's no better time than the present to ensure that both of you are prepared, increasing the odds of your mutual success.

Remember, you're only as strong as your weakest link.