Deadline Extended for Businesses to Comply with New, Tough Standards

March 10, 2009 – Linda McGlasson, Managing Editor

For the second time in four months, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has pushed back the implementation of its new data protection law – one of the toughest in the nation.

Yet even with the new deadline of January 2010, many of the businesses impacted by these stringent data protection requirements won’t be compliant, say industry experts familiar with the new regulation.

Read more about … http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/articles.php?art_id=1261

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

http://www.morganstreetdocuments.com/videos/msds_tour_s1_768x576.html

Morgan Street Document Storage

As your wealth increases, managing life becomes more complex—with a multitude of advisors and thousands of pages of financial, legal, business and personal documents.

Morgan Street Document Systems simplifies your life by organizing all of your critical information into an easily accessible, completely secure, digital vault.

Individuals use Morgan Street to protect and share all of the information that’s critical to their lives. In addition to financial and legal information, our clients are using their vaults to preserve and share more personal legacy items—photographs, family trees, memoirs, correspondence, personal histories and family videos.

Family offices, insurers, banks, wealth advisors, brokers, and other advisors use Morgan Street to streamline their back office operations, deepen their client relationships and provide superior service to their highy valued clients. Morgan Street enables advisors to go paperless, optimize their business processes and automatically distribute documents electronically to their clients’ vaults.

Read more about … http://www.morganstreetdocuments.com/videos/msds_tour_s1_768x576.html

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

Germany’s top court to re-examine data storage law

CETGermany’s highest court has begun examining a controversial data storage
law, in what is the country’s biggest ever lawsuit.

The constitutional court must decide the legality of keeping phone and
internet records after more than 34,000 people, including the current
justice minister, filed an action to over-turn the law.

Since 2008, German telecom firms have been required to store all phone and
internet usage for six months – something Police and supporters say is
crucial to help prevent terrorism and crime.

That data is not supposed to be recorded, listened to or read, just kept to
see who emailed or phoned whom, and what websites were visited.

Opponents however claim the room for abuse or error is huge and more than
10,000 took to the streets of Berlin recently calling for the laws
abolition.

Copyright C 2009 euronews

Read more about …
http://www.euronews.net/2009/12/16/germany-s-top-court-to-re-examine-data-st
orage-law/

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary
_____________________________________________________
Cary F. McGovern, CRM
FileMan

December 15th, 2009 admin Author: Mansi Aggarwal

Source: articleage.com

BPO Business Process Outsourcing is a very common phenomenon these days and like mushrooms. BPO can be defined as the fulfillment of the responsibilities of a society by some outside agent. For example, a company can ask or hire an outside agency to obtain his old records and accounts. The phenomenon of outsourcing has not been well established a decade ago. First, some of the jobs relatively small and low quality as the old record storage company were to be issued in the United States. Gradually with the budding success and confidence, valuable and important functions such as payroll, human resources tasks include step – recruiting, training and staff development fray. Outsourced jobs in general, those who must be performed regularly or daily. The company no longer meets the tasks they used to provide your own. As the rental received from a consulting firm for the training of new employees, the ads from advertising companies to make seas. Outsourcing has many advantages. Allows a company to identify and focus on their core competencies. The Company, any other activity that can be dealt with outside agencies to outsource and that much time and energy (for example, requires the training of new employees to the recruitment, marketing and manufacturing of products, etc.). This gives the possibility that the company fully on their core business, with this competency. Along low heat factor cost, is equally important. Companies in the United States and Europe by outsourcing their work in countries like India, Japan and China, huge profits are in the form of cost savings. These cost savings are in the form of cheap labor and skilled manufacturing or production of goods, etc. This in turn is the result of changes in the wage structure in globe. Outsourcing prove very useful and appropriate at the time of crisis economy of a country. When profits are in danger and it is essential to reduce costs, outsourcing is perhaps the best way, without costs of mutilation, while for the high quality of work. Besides this BPO also big business-oriented working without any problems or issues, so they are more focused and streamlined to improve its non work. There different sectors, which handles outsourced. These are the financial sector, IT, telecommunications, advertising, courier services and support services. An example of this can SpectraLink is committed to the fact that many of the essential tasks (insurance, telecommunications, etc.) for customers in the United States and Europe. But the outsourcing process is not acceptable to everyone due to its complementary disadvantages. Often people think that leads, payroll outsourcing, to the outsourcing of jobs for dehydration. It is presumed that an acute unemployment for skilled professionals, payroll outsourcing, who create many nations. There is also the risk of work after the deadlines and objectives and, above all, that the loss of confidential information is always lurking in overseas outsourcing to take. The company also did not get to confront or directly with their major customers, even more, depending on their offshore agencies. Like any other publication is to communicate in outsourcing, the economy has the tail of ethics attached to it. However, the truth is that it is expanding one of the best ways for a company to minimize its growth and expenses. But a company must not only through the merits of outsourcing will be enchanted, but should also take into account the pitfalls.Mansi Gupta writes Outsourcing topics.

Read more about … http://outsource.devdd.com/2009/12/outsourcing-is-picking-pace/

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=11015847&gid=1815294&trk=EML_anet_qa_ttle-cnhOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA

RIMAW 2010 – Africa’s first Dedicated Information Management & Security Event (27 August 2010, Sheraton Hotels & Towers, Lagos).

The Records and Information Management Awareness Workshop & Exposition Africa (RIMAW 2010), where information management and security professionals address the trends and challenges of today whilst tapping into the huge potentials of the IMS market in Africa.

Connect and contribute in the unrivalled free education programme in Africa, where prominent global experts excite debate and industry practitioners share case study experiences. Enjoy the vibrant ambiance where international solution providers like you showcase current and emerging technologies and deliver practical, professional & technical expertise that proffers solutions to information management and security business challenges.

Why Exhibit?
RIMAW Africa provides the fastest path to market your current products or services to the emerging IM market in Africa and is the perfect promotional platform/avenue, with captivating audience who has immediate purchasing needs. Meet directly with your market and build on current or new partnerships in the exciting and vibrant atmosphere of RIMAW 2010 Africa.

Register before January 31, 2010 to enjoy the old rate. We assure you that we will work with you to help you achieve virtually all your marketing goals at the same time.

Additional details, please visit: http://www.rimaw.org/Exhibition.php and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Records-and-Information-Management-Awareness-Workshop-Exhibition/168327532894

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

http://www.irontontribune.com/news/2009/dec/11/judges-not-looking-additional-funds/

Judges not looking for additional funds

By Teresa Moore | The Tribune

Published Friday, December 11, 2009

The judges say they are making do.

During budget hearings earlier this week, Lawrence County Juvenile Probate Judge David Payne and Lawrence County Municipal Court Judge Donald Capper told the Lawrence County Commission that while their offices and understaffed are overworked, they understand the county’s financial plight and have tried to live within their budgets in the year coming to a close.

Neither asked for additional money in next year’s budget. The budget hearings are meant to determine what each office’s needs are and how all these needs can be met with the county’s dwindling revenues.

Commissioners anticipate having $1.5 million in its general fund due to sluggish sales taxes, anticipated cuts in state allocations and a drop in interest income.

Payne said there are two vacancies in juvenile court.

Those vacancies will not be filled; the duties of those jobs will be given to other employees who is taking on the additional work assignments.

“As much as is possible we’d like for you to fund our budget,” Payne told the commissioners.

Payne does have outside sources of revenue that can be used during the year to pay salaries and other expenses, but he needs the commission’s money at the beginning of the year and can likely transfer money back to the general fund later on as he obtains the federal and state monies.

Payne said in previous years, it was almost as if he were penalized for staying within his budget.

If he stayed within his budget and was able to give money back at the end of the year, then his budget was cut the following year.

Capper said while he is mindful of the county’s budget constraints, he is understaffed and probably needs at least one probation officer as well as a clerk.

Capper said he may be able to save money by partnering with the Lawrence County Common Pleas Court for home confinement. Right now the Cabell County, W.Va., probation agency handles in-home confinement for Capper’s court but charges Lawrence County for the electronic supervision units whether they are in use or not.

“Home confinement is better financially but if something bad happens, you get the blame,” Stephens said “I don¹t envy your position.”

Capper said one of his most pressing concerns is that of record storage. He is almost out of room at his courthouse for storage of records that must be kept. Commissioners said there may be room for record storage at other county buildings.

Capper said in the past he has dipped into his capital improvements line item to make ends meet in other areas, and is not putting money into that account.

This has left him with little cash for such things as parking lot repairs. He also needs to upgrade some computer software.

Better software could alleviate the burden on his small staff.

He credited his staff with making a bad situation work. He said sometimes staff members work off the clock to get work done.

“We’re busy, we’re really busy,” Capper said. “We’re trying to be self-sufficient. We collect (in fees and court costs) about what we take out (of the general fund). We don’t like to raise fees but the ones who use the court ought to be the ones paying for it.”

Read more about … http://www.irontontribune.com/news/2009/dec/11/judges-not-looking-additional-funds/

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

To register for the free seminar click the link in the article.

Media Alert: Changes in Federal Records Management – Are You Ready for Compliance?

Published Friday, December 4, 2009, 13:34

Media Alert: Changes in Federal Records Management – Are You Ready for Compliance?

Iron Mountain to sponsor complimentary Webinar in partnership with ARMA

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM), the global leader in information protection and storage services, will sponsor a complimentary Webinar on Dec. 9 on what it takes to meet updated regulations from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for protecting federal information.

Hosted by ARMA International, this Webinar will offer federal records officers and records managers recommendations on best practices and investments in infrastructure, security and environmental controls that can speed records management compliance with the 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1234 requirements (formerly 36 CFR Part 1228, subpart K). These updated regulations cover the protection of all records, including paper documents, photos, and other types of records, including electronic.

for more read:  http://www.your-story.org/media-alert-changes-in-federal-records-management-%E2%80%93-are-you-ready-for-compliance-64263/

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

Mad Dog 21/21: The Fox in IBM’s Storage Henhouse

Published: November 30, 2009

by Hesh Wiener

Moshe Yanai became successful by taking enterprise storage business away from IBM. He led the team that created the EMC Symmetrix, which became the leading storage product at IBM’s glass house accounts. EMC and Yanai parted ways in 2001 and after a decent interval Yanai founded a new storage venture, XIV (pronounced Ex Eye Vee). IBM acquired XIV at the start of 2008, naming Yanai an IBM Fellow. Yanai may be able to clobber EMC for IBM, but to succeed he will also have to kill off IBM’s flagship DS8000 array with his XIV boxes.

The reason XIV just might be revolutionary, at least by IBM standards, is that it is a disk array that has some of the attractive characteristics of just about every kind of array in the alphabet soup of today’s storage industry. Basically, an XIV box has a front-end based on X64/Linux servers with software and interfaces that let the machine talk over Fibre Channel, Ethernet, iSCSI (which uses Ethernet), and if there were a need, any other fast hookup the market might want. Behind the gateway machines sit a pile of X64 servers that talk to large SATA disk drives. Today the drives are 1 TB each; tomorrow they will be 2 TB and maybe in 2010 or 2011 they will go to 4 TB. The hardware components are standard and cheap. Each XIV box can have up to 180 drives; this complement of disks yields 79 TB of storage capacity after deductions for internal mirroring and spares. Total cache in each box can be up to 120 GB. (Details galore for the XIV storage cluster can be found in IBM’s XIV Redbook.) But as all the hardware is based on industry standard technology, it is the software that really adds value.

The XIV software duplicates data (making the machine RAID 1) and scatters it across the full set of drives in the cabinet. This, says IBM, lets the box rebuild a failed drive quickly (20 to 30 minutes) and accurately. Data scattering makes it very unlikely that a whole file or dataset gets clipped if a drive fails, but a two-drive failure, which is a very unlikely event, can cause a whole box to lose viability. There has been a blog rant about this but people who read through the material will most likely end up trusting the disk subsystems more than the bloggers.

The actual machine is not quite this simple but neither is it as elaborate as the DS8000 boxes IBM sells to its high-end server customers, including mainframe and Power Systems shops and including AIX 6.1, Linux, and i 6.1 (the latter through the Virtual I/O Server partition) on the Power boxes. IBM says the XIV is a bargain and that it also is less power hungry than alternatives. While IBM’s salesforce makes these claims when comparing the XIV to non-IBM alternatives, the very same comparisons can be made to the DS8000, which remains in the spotlight in part because it is the only large IBM disk array that z/OS will talk to.

There may be a performance case for the DS8000 compared to the XIV (and other high-end arrays), at least for certain kinds of workloads, but in practice there are no independent benchmark tests for big storage subsystems. Industry folklore suggests that a box like the DS8000 should shame the XIV in transaction processing applications, while the XIV would win when data is not structured. Unstructured (or inconsistently structured) data shows up a lot in pop culture sites like Facebook but also is the nature of medical records systems (with computer files, documents, photos, videos, scans, etc.) and insurance claims databases, to name only two of many applications where large disk arrays are used.

Regardless of widely held preconceptions, however, the XIV may be better than DS8000 advocates (such as users who have a big investment in the machines and some IBMers with careers tied to the product) seem to believe. Bank Leumi uses XIVs for everything, including transaction processing, and says it is getting great results. Recently, IBM has been holding dog-and-pony shows for users and analysts that feature a growing number of user organizations that have bet their strategic storage on XIV equipment. rnFor now, IBM is protecting its DS8000 base by not supporting XIV under z/OS. If you want to use a XIV on a mainframe, you have to hook it up using zLinux. (On Power-based servers, AIX and Linux can talk directly to the XIV arrays, but i 6.1 has to work through VIOS to reach the machine.) Clearly, direct links between Power Systems or mainframe machines and XIV clusters could happen just as soon as IBM is willing to let XIVs cannibalize the DS8000 base. Actually, the decision would not so much be IBM’s but that of high-end server shops, who will flee the DS8000 the minute they figure out that XIV is going to be the future of IBM enterprise storage, a process that is beginning to get underway.

Outside the mainframe base, there’s plenty of support for XIV. But for IBM, which is not the prime vendor to the Web 2.0 world of Google, Amazon, eBay, and their ilk, the strategic battle is the fight to store glass house data. And in that world, IBM has to grow by 50 percent to catch up to EMC.

In the second quarter of this year, which is the most recent quarter for which IDC has issued a public report, EMC had 21.5 percent of the market IDC calls external disk systems. IBM had 14.9 percent of this $4.1 billion (in the quarter) segment. Hewlett-Packard followed with 11.4 percent, Dell had 9.89 percent and NetApp had 8.9 percent. Gartner says more or less the same thing about the market, pegging EMC’s share of what it calls controller based disk storage at 21.8 percent in this year’s first quarter, IBM at 15.7 percent, HP at 10.3 percent, Dell at 9.2 percent, Hitachi (which also sells subsystems through HP and Sun) at 8.7 percent, and NetApp at 8.5 percent.

The 2009 market data describes a segment that’s headed for a year-on-year decline of 15 to 20 percent compared to 2008, which itself was not glorious. IBM’s mainframe sales data confirm times are tough in glass house country, and with banks dying like mayflies, the outcome for the industry, for each vendor and for various products is quite hard to predict. Nevertheless, it’s probably safe to say a story about cheaper storage will get users’ ears.

It’s very hard to tell just how cheap a XIV is compared to alternatives, in part because IBM reportedly pumped out so many evaluation machines, meaning freebies, to seed the market. Now EMC bloggers are not about to praise the XIV but they also are not going to put complete balderdash on their Webs because it’s hard enough for them to get eyeballs under the best of conditions. But IBM fans (and people who like to gripe about EMC) might want to discount Big Blue bloggers at least as much as those on the EMC propaganda squad. One of IBM’s (until recently, anyway) visible and often entertaining blogsters, Tony Pearson, seems to have just disappeared . . . or whatever you call it when a whole lot of Google pointers that formerly worked now take you to 404 country.

It’s possible that these developments in the murky world of storage marketing and persuasion stem from the heated discussions about the actual cost and real greenness of XIV. The dispute, which we found close to impenetrable, stems from the fact that a XIV box is at its most cost-effective and power friendly when it is fully configured. In fact, it may be the case that IBM builds every XIV fully loaded, the way it builds large servers with a full load of engines, and then turns on pieces of the machine based on how much a user pays.

It turns out that a serious prospect for the XIV or an alternative from IBM or one of its rivals can get good answers to hard questions quite directly. First, get IBM and any other vendor in the running to quote a five-year total cost including maintenance, software to provide all the required disk array functionality, etc., including mirror systems and whatever it takes to do mirroring if the mirror is going to be remote. At the same time ask the sales rep for power and heat data for the machinery as it will actually be configured. Anything less is just asking for ugly surprises.

Even when you have done that, you may not have all the answers unless you give vendors’ financing arms (and the handful of independents whose names come up if you search for “used IBM mainframe storage”) a chance to offer secondhand equipment. Just as you should in the case of new gear, you have to press the vendors of used disk arrays to quote total costs including maintenance and functionality software as well as power and heat.

Also, if you think you might be moving some or all of your work from one platform to another during the next few years, you need to get prices that include all the relevant interfacing hardware and software. While it ought to be sufficient to specify a standard such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI (over Ethernet), be specific. In this game, you can’t count on good surprises.

The result might cause a bit of a stir. On just about any measure where a XIV looks good compared to, say, a Symmetrix or Sun Microsystems StorageTek array, it is going to look great compared to a DS8000, if IBM’s flagship disk subsystem is in the running.

It’s not that IBM fellow Yanai wants the DS8000 to tank. It’s that he probably doesn’t have any choice if he wants his XIV device to emerge a winner.

Read more here          http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh113009-story04.html

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

Keep records longer, Pennsylvania auditor general says

By Brad Bumsted
STATE CAPITOL REPORTER
Wednesday, December 2, 2009

HARRISBURG — Forty percent of state computer documents Auditor General Jack Wagner requested for an audit were destroyed before the examination of $592 million worth of contracts began, a top official told a Senate panel Tuesday.

Anne Rung, a deputy secretary of the Department of General Services, said the documents were destroyed “rightfully and lawfully” because some records concerning contracts with Deloitte Consulting were older than three years and the state’s records retention policy doesn’t require keeping records longer.

The agency notified auditors about the lack of records in July, said Ed Myslewicz, press secretary for General Services.

“We were never told up front, at the beginning of the process” in mid-2008, said Wagner’s spokesman Steve Halvonik.

The Senate Communications and Technology Committee held a hearing about Wagner’s audit, issued in October, which found lax oversight of Deloitte Consulting computer contracts. General Services, which oversees state contracts, “fell down on the job,” Wagner said when he released the audit.

The audit found that $382 million worth of contracts with Deloitte shot up to $592 million from 2004 to 2007, as a result of change orders, emergency contracts and no-bid contracts.

The audit did not accuse Deloitte of anything improper. General Services officials sharply disputed the findings.

Wagner said he obtained 25 of 59 state contracts with Deloitte, and 33 contracts were purged or unavailable. He told the committee records should be retained for seven years.

State records typically are maintained three years, but losing bidders’ proposals are purged after six months. General Services Secretary James Creedon told the committee the agency plans to extend its retention of all records to four years. But he cited space as an issue, saying “one can’t keep everything.”

Republican Sen. Bob Mensch of Montgomery County, who worked in the computer and telephone industry, said later that storage space should not be an issue in an era of advanced computer technology. “There’s no space considerations once it is in gigabytes,” he said.

General Services makes available most records on the agency’s Web site, Creedon said.

Creedon said the agency implemented two-thirds of Wagner’s recommendations when it began reforming procedures in 2003. General Services denied 21 of 46 no-bid contract proposals and rejected 357 sole-source procurements since 2004, he said.

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan

Underground Vaults and Storage, Inc.

December 2, 2009

Year End Vital Records Storage Reminder

As we approach the end of the year, Underground Vaults & Storage, Inc would like to remind businesses of the importance of vital records storage and asset protection.  Underground Vaults & Storage, has been a valued provider of these services for over fifty years.  Businesses from around the world rely on the expertise and knowledge of our experience.  We provide secure, accessible, and cost efficient storage for your information.

Our storage options are economical and provide your business with the ultimate in off site storage.  With no monthly minimums, UV&S offers a more cost effective solution than most other storage alternatives, including mini storage units.  We can accommodate your records storage and information management needs with our highly trained staff and multitude of services and storage options available.

Underground Vaults & Storage, Inc (UV&S) is a privately-held information and records management company established in 1959, operating three underground and three above ground secure storage facilities.  It is perhaps known best for storing millions of items including movie film, data tapes, and paper records, within a 650-foot deep salt mine in Kansas.

Feel free to contact any of our sales representatives for a free consultation and evaluation of your information management and storage needs.

Compliments of FileMan Research

Cary

_____________________________________________________

Cary F. McGovern, CRM

FileMan