Disaster Recovery Tip #34

The First 72 Hours.

What were you doing five years ago today? If you lived in southern Florida, you may have been recovering from a Category 1 Hurricane that crossed over the state earlier in the week. But on August 27, 2005, this storm - better known as Katrina - was gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico and would devastate New Orleans on Monday, August 29th (click to see and hear the stories of a few Agility members).

Five years later, as the rebuilding continues, there’s no better time than the present to think about how best to prepare ourselves for another event of this scale. As FEMA recommends, we all need to be prepared with adequate supplies for the critical first 72 hours after a disaster. This includes operating under the assumption that utilities (phone, electricity, gas, etc.) as well as public safety (police and fire departments) may be unavailable. FEMA recommends keeping on hand: food, drinking water, a first aid kit, a working fire extinguisher, flashlights with batteries, and a weather radio. And that's just to get started.

Agility is incredibly privileged to have an expert speak on this very subject next week - Former FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison will kick off Agility’s National Preparedness Month program with a free webinar, “Can you go alone for 72 hours?” on this Wednesday, September 1st. To register, please click here.

Disaster Recovery Tip #33

Spread the word.

Last week we discussed how social media can help companies communicate with the public and customers during disasters. This week we're focusing on the internal communication benefits that social media offers through the often overlooked resource of SMS messaging.

We know that cellular networks are often crippled during a disaster by increased traffic and sometimes even physical damage to the network infrastructure. Many times the only information able to sneak through overloaded systems are small packets of data like those in text messages.

Setting up a protected Twitter account for employees and instructing them on how receive mobile updates is one way to build a free text messaging resource. Whether it's about a delayed opening due to icy roads, or that your building has burned down (GULP), a Tweet can spread the word simply and efficiently.

Another alternative is Agility's own Alert Notification System (available to Member's free with every ReadySuite package). Agility's Alert Notification system can send both SMS and email alerts at the touch of the button.

Disaster Recovery Tip #32

Speak out.

Besides revolutionizing interpersonal communication, the social media movement has found its way into businesses in a short amount of time. But how can organizations use social media when developing their disaster recovery plan?

Over the next two weeks we'll discuss some ways that you can use free online resources to improve your response during an interruption. This week we're focusing on the public relations benefits that social media can bring.

One thing your business can do immediately is to setup Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, and recommend that all employees, suppliers and even customers follow them. Why? During an interruption, a representative can send out status updates using just a mobile device, and instantaneously bring people up to speed on the operating status of the company. Last year AT&T used Twitter as their primary means of communication with the outside world during a disaster and benefited by being seen as forthcoming and more transparent to their customers. On the flipside, ignoring social media and not using it effectively has the potential to be horribly damaging to a business.

Disaster Recovery Tip #31

Keep learning.

In today's fast-paced environment, it's hard to find time for continued education. But the world of business continuity is constantly evolving and Agility strives to keep you ahead of the pack. That is why we (Agility) offer free educational webinars and other opportunities to hear and learn from some of the best in the business.

Phone lines surviving natural disater

This is not a Photoshop. It's not an optical trick. And it's not an illustration. It's just a simply great photo taken near the Linevo village, in the Volgograd region of Russia.

A wild firestorm went through the village and its surroundings, destroying 80 houses. Nobody knows what was the origin, but at least the phone lines are still working. [Igor Podgorny via English Russia]

Google Instant Search

It will take a couple days for Google Instant to be available to everyone on Google.com. Check back soon if you do not see it yet.

Try It Now

or, set Google as your homepage

Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search

seconds

Average Time to Enter a Search With Google Instant Before Google Instant

Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. We are pushing the limits of our technology and infrastructure to help you get better search results, faster. Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

The most obvious change is that you get to the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback. You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.

Benefits

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

RIM Wants Billboards That Know How Fast You're Driving

You're flying down the highway at 70MPH and you notice a billboard that reads "LIFE'S BETTER WITH BBM." The next day, crawling along that same stretch during a traffic jam, the billboard enumerates a BlackBerry's many features. That's RIM's vision.

In a patent filing for "Adaptive roadside billboard system and related methods" (there's one for pedestrian billboards, too), RIM looks to make the most of those huge LED ads by making them aware of the speed at which you're passing them by. The idea, roughly: the slower you're going, the more dense the advertising they're showing.

RIM mentions several methods for tracking traffic speed near the ads, including using the GPS sensors in commuters' mobile phones, though it's still a kind of a curious idea coming from a major phone manufacturer. But I've already figured out how to beat their system: drive faster. [Unwired View] via Gizmodo.

GMail Priority Inbox

Get through your email faster

Email is great, except when there’s too much of it. Priority Inbox automatically identifies your important email and separates it out from everything else, so you can focus on what really matters.

Automatic sorting

Gmail uses a variety of signals to identify important email, including which messages you open and which you reply to.

Sections keep you organized

Incoming email gets separated into sections: important and unread, starred, and everything else. Don’t like these? Customize them.

Predictions improve over time

Over time, Priority Inbox gets better at predicting what’s important to you. You can help train it using the buttons.

Read more here.

Disaster Recovery Tip #30

Final destination(s).

Building a robust recovery plan is all about establishing redundancies (for your staff, technology, communications, etc). These redundancies need to extend to recovery sites as well. When considering a temporary office recovery site you must think of the worst case scenario. Fact is, your obvious first choice may not be available during a large-scale event (think New Orleans post-Katrina, and Manhattan following 9/11).

Take some time to brainstorm multiple location options. Think creatively about how isolated vs. local vs. regional disasters may impact where and how you recover. For example, do you have a good relationship with a vendor in your supply chain? Maybe they can help you out in a pinch. Do you have access to flexible office space like the offerings that Agility provides? Can your employees work remotely? If so, how long before inefficiency creeps in?

The bottom-line is - don't hinge your entire plan on a single recovery site. Flexibility is key.

Blackberry Torch 9800 coming soon

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Research In Motion unveiled the much-hyped BlackBerry Torch 9800 on Tuesday, a new touch-screen BlackBerry smartphone with a pull-out keyboard and a significantly updated operating system that is designed to compete with the likes of the iPhone and Android smartphones.

The new phone will hit U.S. stores August 12 and will be priced at $199.99 for customers who purchase a two-year service agreement. RIM said the Torch will be available to international customers "in the months ahead."AT&T (T, Fortune 500) will be the exclusive carrier of the Torch 9800, the first BlackBerry to run RIM's modernized operating system, BlackBerry OS 6. The new operating system gives BlackBerry its first full Web browser, as well as other features that are common on most of today's smartphones like social networking integration, universal search and multiple home screens.

The new phone also includes a 5 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, and video recording at up to 640x480 resolution. RIM estimates that the phone's battery charge will last for 5.8 hours of talk time on 3G networks. (Follow Fortune.com's live blog of the BlackBerry launch.)

Like the iPhone, the BlackBerry Torch will be covered by AT&T's metered data plans. The less-expensive DataPlus plan allows 200 MB of data each month for $15, with the pricier DataPro offering 2 GB of data for $25.

The Torch is RIM's (RIMM) first attempt at a combination touch-screen/physical keyboard hybrid, and looks somewhat like the Palm Pre. Verizon Wireless' (VZ, Fortune 500) BlackBerry Storm and subsequent Storm 2 were RIM's preliminary tries at a touch-screen, but without a physical keyboard, they never appealed to RIM's core customers and failed to live up to the "iPhone killer" hype.

With the Torch 9800, RIM hopes it has a phone that will appeal to both its dedicated corporate customers as well as fickle consumers that are constantly in search of the new best thing.

The Torch allows users to preview e-mails, appointments, texts and social network updates in one location. The phone has a much-improved media experience with Wi-Fi music synchronization, a new podcast app and an easy-to-manage photo gallery with a pretty neat two-finger tap function for selecting multiple images. Social media is easier too, with a feed that integrates Twitter, Facebook and other sources.

The phone's 624 Mhz processor is fast compared to previous BlackBerry devices, but not compared to the 1 Ghz speeds available in other $200 smartphones like the iPhone 4, HTC Evo and Motorola Droid X. No new third-party apps for the Torch stood out at RIM's unveiling of the device, but the company said it has made the app development process much easier, which should help it compete with bolder and richer app selections on the iPhone and Android app stores.

In all, the Torch is certainly the best BlackBerry available and a marked improvement over previous versions, but it's more of a catch-up device than a leap forward compared to its smartphone competitors.

"If you like BlackBerry, you'll look at this design and think it's a nice upgrade, but it's not going to convince anyone that's looking for an iPhone to change their minds," said Ken Dulaney, analyst at Gartner. "The Torch is a market-holder rather than a market-expander."

BlackBerry has been able to make significant inroads with consumers in past years with low-priced models like the Pearl and Curve. For users who text a lot -- especially teens -- the BlackBerry keyboard is a hit, as is the BlackBerry Messaging service.

Still, the momentum has shifted in the mobile world towards Apple and Google. Despite BlackBerry's commanding lead in the smartphone market, with double the market share of the nearest competitor, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), BlackBerry's growth has stalled in recent quarters.

Apple and Google had bested RIM's devices in terms of ease of use, availability of third-party applications, touch-screen technology and Web browsing capabilities -- to name just a few critical smartphone components. Plus, newer iPhones and Android phones offer secure Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail and calendar support -- the hallmark of RIM's devices.

The good news for RIM is that more than half of its business comes from the slow-to-change enterprise space. Though some are starting to dabble in iPhones and Android phones, BlackBerry remains the corporate smartphone brand.