Backups are important. Most enterprises have redundant backup systems. But even individuals and families need some form of backup system. It need not be expensive, and I think I have a workable solution.
I remember getting my first x86 computer and saying 40MB of hard disk space was a lot. Then the next one came with 130MB. And then 250MB... A 1GB hard drive was a big deal. These days, you could get a 4TB external hard drive from Costco for about $130. Granted, these are spinning disks. Some new computers come with flash storage, which are still expensive. But overall, storage is very cheap.
You could even get free storage online. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, to name a few, all provide free storage in some form or another. There are some restrictions, for example, in file size, or total storage, or types of files. But they can give these away because storage is so cheap.
The trouble with these online services is that bandwidth is not cheap. I am paying for the highest available speed from my current provider, which is 45Mbps. They have put a cap on my monthly internet usage. It is at 600GB a month. Luckily, I don't stream movies via Netflix, but I do watch YouTube occasionally, as well as Amazon.com Prime Video. If I used online backups or moved to online file storage exclusively, I would easily use up my 600GB allocation.
And these free services are only for file storage. You can pay for true online backup services for as low as four dollars a month for 50GB and around $30 for 1TB, and it grows from there.
For a home user like me with lots of music and photos, I would simply recommend starting with one external hard drive, preferably a powered one, for regular backups. Both the latest Windows and Mac OS have backup software included, and should be easy to set up.
After a while, buy a second portable USB-powered hard drive that you can keep offsite. Copy your important files, like photos and music and documents, into this drive, and then store it in the office or somewhere else outside of your home. Bring it home periodically, say, every month, and refresh your copy.
If you want, you can have two portable hard drives that you can rotate, so at least if one goes bad, you still have the other.
So, for an initial outlay of $130, you can have a working backup system, and for another $100 or $200 down the road, you can have multiple backups that you can use to recover your entire computer or just the important files.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Monday, February 22, 2016
Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast
A quick Google search of this phrase will tell you it has military origins.
I first encountered this phrase when I attended a firearms safety course required to participate in shooting competitions. The thought was that, we have all seen videos of professional shooters who draw their pistol and shoot at a target lightning fast. But attempting to do so the first time is both dangerous and futile.
The general idea is to go slow first and build muscle memory. Practice, safely of course, drawing your pistol from your holster slowly, pivoting your shooting hand towards the target slowly, pushing your pistol forward slowly while joining your weak hand to stabilize, and then acquire your sight picture. I may be simplifying the steps, but the idea is to start slow, and over time, with repetition, your muscles will learn the move instinctively and you will be able to go faster and faster, and still be safe.
The next time I encountered this phrase was from an autocross driving instructor. Similar to building muscle memory, approaching a corner in a car with a significantly large rear weight bias, beginners are best advised to brake early, before the turn, and be on the gas as you enter the turn. This seems counter-intuitive, because in autocross or in any racing situation, you want to go as fast as possible. But for a rear-engine car and a novice driver, this is the fastest approach.
So how does this all relate to the business at hand?
When we launch new processes along with new applications that replace old processes and old applications, one measure of success is how fast can we go back to normal transaction volume. This is a valid measure. However, it must be balanced with how well we are processing the transactions.
The new processes may be more rigorous and require more work upfront to get right. We may reach normal transaction volumes, but if a large portion of transactions require rework, team morale and customer satisfaction will suffer. There must be another metric for rework, or repeat transactions, and of course, as appropriate, customer satisfaction survey results.
I first encountered this phrase when I attended a firearms safety course required to participate in shooting competitions. The thought was that, we have all seen videos of professional shooters who draw their pistol and shoot at a target lightning fast. But attempting to do so the first time is both dangerous and futile.
The general idea is to go slow first and build muscle memory. Practice, safely of course, drawing your pistol from your holster slowly, pivoting your shooting hand towards the target slowly, pushing your pistol forward slowly while joining your weak hand to stabilize, and then acquire your sight picture. I may be simplifying the steps, but the idea is to start slow, and over time, with repetition, your muscles will learn the move instinctively and you will be able to go faster and faster, and still be safe.
The next time I encountered this phrase was from an autocross driving instructor. Similar to building muscle memory, approaching a corner in a car with a significantly large rear weight bias, beginners are best advised to brake early, before the turn, and be on the gas as you enter the turn. This seems counter-intuitive, because in autocross or in any racing situation, you want to go as fast as possible. But for a rear-engine car and a novice driver, this is the fastest approach.
So how does this all relate to the business at hand?
When we launch new processes along with new applications that replace old processes and old applications, one measure of success is how fast can we go back to normal transaction volume. This is a valid measure. However, it must be balanced with how well we are processing the transactions.
The new processes may be more rigorous and require more work upfront to get right. We may reach normal transaction volumes, but if a large portion of transactions require rework, team morale and customer satisfaction will suffer. There must be another metric for rework, or repeat transactions, and of course, as appropriate, customer satisfaction survey results.
The goal, of course, is to reduce the rework by taking the time to learn the new process, to go slow the first few times. Give some time to build muscle memory, especially for new processes and policies.
If a company replaced their aging CRM application with Salesforce, ensure that reports and dashboards measure both transaction volume (Quote Count for example) and rework. Let's say that to rework a quote, one must withdraw it by changing the status to Withdrawn, making changes, then submitting it again. An administrator can create workflows that will flag or stamp the quote record with a date and time when these events happen. He can then create reports and dashboards based off those time stamps.
The administrator can also add a required Reason field whenever a quote is withdrawn. And then focus on the ones with the highest incidence. And for those situations, it may be worth slowing down, learning to be smooth, in order to become fast.
If a company replaced their aging CRM application with Salesforce, ensure that reports and dashboards measure both transaction volume (Quote Count for example) and rework. Let's say that to rework a quote, one must withdraw it by changing the status to Withdrawn, making changes, then submitting it again. An administrator can create workflows that will flag or stamp the quote record with a date and time when these events happen. He can then create reports and dashboards based off those time stamps.
The administrator can also add a required Reason field whenever a quote is withdrawn. And then focus on the ones with the highest incidence. And for those situations, it may be worth slowing down, learning to be smooth, in order to become fast.
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