Best Practice Advice: Small Organization Backup
Some tools to help you inventory your hardware and software - worksheets
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 1:09pm | by RBirminghamIt is important to have an up to date inventory of your hardware and software. Knowing what you have can help you decide what to buy and when to buy it.
When you get new equipment be sure to update your documentation immeditately. It is much easier to do then.
Here are some good resources for starting your inventory:
www.techatlas.org Tech Atlas has a great online tool.
www.techsoup.org has a good worksheet at: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/techplan/page4903.cfm?cg=searchte...
If you have little or no funding that is no excuse not to backup!
Wed, 07/16/2008 - 3:03pm | by RBirminghamYou need to backup. It is not a question of if your computer will fail, but of when. Protect yourself from losing a crazy amount of time by backing up.
Some good options include:
MozyPro backup (online backup ) is just over $5 a month if you don't have much data (less than 5 GB).
Burn cd's if you have to. $.25 each.
Burn DVDs (up to 4.7 GB or more) for $.50 each.
Rick on using cd-rom disks for backup
Fri, 06/27/2008 - 9:59am | by RBirminghamRick talks about using cd-roms for backup and how the server hard drive failed. Rick discusses how the organization had to go a day without their data, but almost everything was saved.
Some tools to help you inventory your hardware and software - What are the specs of my Windows machine?
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 1:18pm | by RBirminghamIf you don't know how fast your computer is or how much RAM it has, there are several tools that can help you get an inventory of the hardware and software if you have a Windows PC
These are small executable programs that you can download to your machine and run that will give you a list of what is on it.
Belarc Advisor is free
www.belarc.com
TechSurveyor at www.techatlas.org is also free
(This requires signing up for a free "Basic" account with TechAtlas.)
The true cost of Free and low cost software for organizations
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 1:48pm | by RBirminghamMichelle Murrain has written a wonderful piece at Idealware on the true costs of free and low cost software. Michelle points out:
Roger on Testing Agency Backups
Fri, 06/05/2009 - 11:01am | by RBirmingham
Roger Hagedorn at the MCN Tech Conference in 2009 advises staff members to test their backups and not just assume the backups work.
Josh of Rebuild Resources on using Salesforce.com
Fri, 06/05/2009 - 11:12am | by RBirminghamAt the 2009 MCN Tech Conference Josh shares how Rebuild Resources in St. Paul is using Salesforce. Josh endorses Salesforce completely and talks a little about how organizations should look at the resources required to transition between systems.
Putting People Above Technology
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 1:01pm | by BHansonMike Mcintee, Executive Producer for The UpTake, talks about his organization's emphasis on the people behind the technology.
Playing Around with New Technology
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 1:03pm | by BHansonMike Mcintee, Executive Producer for The UpTake, talks about the importance of playing around with new technology as well as the best technology to experiment with.
Nonprofits and Purchasing the Necessary Technology
Thu, 09/17/2009 - 1:04pm | by BHansonMike Mcintee, Executive Producer for The UpTake, emphasizes finding technology that fits with your organization's needs, and that may not always be the lastest and greatest.