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Strong on technology and risks
Books Strong on technology and risks Disaster Recovery Planning Networks, Telecommunications and Data Communications by Regis J
'Bud' Bates, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993, 157pp, ISBN 0-07004128-8 This book is devoted to engineers and managers who recognize their organization's dependency on the communication equipment installed. The reader gets attracted by descriptions of historical disasters and alerted by the general absence of recovery plans. It is demonstrated that catastrophics may have various origins and reasons, i.e. people, environment, water and power supplies, etc. If there are no plans and facilities to prevent these disasters, a catastrophy may hit the communication equipment. Moreover, if there are no approved recovery plans, the chaos following the catastrophy will hit the organization even harder and decrease the chances of recovery. Thus, for most organizations, it is much more important to have plans for quick recovery than for disaster prevention, because it is harder to replace lost customers than to replace destroyed equipment. With this in mind, the book guides the reader step-by-step into a procedure for establishing a recovery plan. Steps, for example, include recruiting a recovery team, making an inventory of existing systems, looking at alternatives, exploring the maintenance and recovery strategies of vendors, carriers and manufacturers, analysing network topologies, etc. By following these steps, the reader gets a better sense of the critical points in his system environment. After having read eight chapters about the various steps, the reader becomes very eager to tie all these things together but he must learn that this is a hard thing to do, even if one has learned the lessons well before. The concluding section
contains some guidelines on the actions to be taken in order to resume daily work and business after a disaster. The steps to be taken must be planned precisely, and they must be tested, trained and maintained. Unfortunately, the book stops here, and leaves the reader with no word of consolation. The conclusions are not the strongest part of the book: the best parts are those which describe the communications technology, and the risks and consequences of a breakdown. This book has a good structure, and the text and figures are in good balance. The figures themselves are
informative and explained excellently. Even if you look at the figures only, reading just the text around them, you will still be able to follow the book. The writing style is clear and easy to understand, The book is devoted to all engineers and managers in industry and public administration who have to deal with recovery following disasters. Detailed information is given about communication systems, their vulnerability against disasters, and which steps are to be taken to prevent disasters and make plans for recovery. Jan de Meer G M D Fokus, Berlin Germany
Collection of on-going work Integrated Broadband Communications: Views from RACE - Usage Aspects edited by P Beyerley and S
Connell, North-Holland, Amsterdam, Netherlands', 1992, 461pp, ISBN 0 444 89391 1 The successful introduction of new technology is widely based on the acceptance in its user community. This has also been acknowledged by the Commission of the European Communities in the case of Integrated Broadband Communications (IBC), the concept of broadband communication technology standing for the European version of the convergence of data and telecommunications enforced by the deregulation of national monopolies. Preparing the introduction of this new technology, the commission has launched research activities to meet end-users' acceptance regarding the usage of ]BC services when these services are developed. Usage aspects have been one of the subjects in the first phase (1988-92) of the programme of Research and Development for Advanced Communication Technologies in Europe (RACE). The common
leitmotif of these activities is in contrast to, for example, the traditional way in which telecommunication services have been realized: the development, introduction and provision of the IBC infrastructure is to be implied by knowledge about the services that users will demand, not the other way around. This theme (and its implications) is presented in this book. The editors have arranged a comprehensive collection of presentations on ongoing work in a number of RACE I projects covering various areas of service usage aspects. In a conceptual framework, the relationships of service usage and design of IBC services - comprising their facilitating infrastructure is positioned. Essential to this approach is a conceptual service notion that describes a service as being based on the use of other services. Taking this perspective, the book spans from the data collection of service usage aspects in RACE pilot applications, service engineering which respects the operational requirements that originate from users' demands, and, thus, the impacts on
0140-3664194112/0889-02 ~ 1994 B u t t e r w o r t h - H e i n e m a n n Ltd computer communications v o l u m e 17 n u m b e r 12 d e c e m b e r 1994
889
'Bud' Bates, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993, 157pp, ISBN 0-07004128-8 This book is devoted to engineers and managers who recognize their organization's dependency on the communication equipment installed. The reader gets attracted by descriptions of historical disasters and alerted by the general absence of recovery plans. It is demonstrated that catastrophics may have various origins and reasons, i.e. people, environment, water and power supplies, etc. If there are no plans and facilities to prevent these disasters, a catastrophy may hit the communication equipment. Moreover, if there are no approved recovery plans, the chaos following the catastrophy will hit the organization even harder and decrease the chances of recovery. Thus, for most organizations, it is much more important to have plans for quick recovery than for disaster prevention, because it is harder to replace lost customers than to replace destroyed equipment. With this in mind, the book guides the reader step-by-step into a procedure for establishing a recovery plan. Steps, for example, include recruiting a recovery team, making an inventory of existing systems, looking at alternatives, exploring the maintenance and recovery strategies of vendors, carriers and manufacturers, analysing network topologies, etc. By following these steps, the reader gets a better sense of the critical points in his system environment. After having read eight chapters about the various steps, the reader becomes very eager to tie all these things together but he must learn that this is a hard thing to do, even if one has learned the lessons well before. The concluding section
contains some guidelines on the actions to be taken in order to resume daily work and business after a disaster. The steps to be taken must be planned precisely, and they must be tested, trained and maintained. Unfortunately, the book stops here, and leaves the reader with no word of consolation. The conclusions are not the strongest part of the book: the best parts are those which describe the communications technology, and the risks and consequences of a breakdown. This book has a good structure, and the text and figures are in good balance. The figures themselves are
informative and explained excellently. Even if you look at the figures only, reading just the text around them, you will still be able to follow the book. The writing style is clear and easy to understand, The book is devoted to all engineers and managers in industry and public administration who have to deal with recovery following disasters. Detailed information is given about communication systems, their vulnerability against disasters, and which steps are to be taken to prevent disasters and make plans for recovery. Jan de Meer G M D Fokus, Berlin Germany
Collection of on-going work Integrated Broadband Communications: Views from RACE - Usage Aspects edited by P Beyerley and S
Connell, North-Holland, Amsterdam, Netherlands', 1992, 461pp, ISBN 0 444 89391 1 The successful introduction of new technology is widely based on the acceptance in its user community. This has also been acknowledged by the Commission of the European Communities in the case of Integrated Broadband Communications (IBC), the concept of broadband communication technology standing for the European version of the convergence of data and telecommunications enforced by the deregulation of national monopolies. Preparing the introduction of this new technology, the commission has launched research activities to meet end-users' acceptance regarding the usage of ]BC services when these services are developed. Usage aspects have been one of the subjects in the first phase (1988-92) of the programme of Research and Development for Advanced Communication Technologies in Europe (RACE). The common
leitmotif of these activities is in contrast to, for example, the traditional way in which telecommunication services have been realized: the development, introduction and provision of the IBC infrastructure is to be implied by knowledge about the services that users will demand, not the other way around. This theme (and its implications) is presented in this book. The editors have arranged a comprehensive collection of presentations on ongoing work in a number of RACE I projects covering various areas of service usage aspects. In a conceptual framework, the relationships of service usage and design of IBC services - comprising their facilitating infrastructure is positioned. Essential to this approach is a conceptual service notion that describes a service as being based on the use of other services. Taking this perspective, the book spans from the data collection of service usage aspects in RACE pilot applications, service engineering which respects the operational requirements that originate from users' demands, and, thus, the impacts on
0140-3664194112/0889-02 ~ 1994 B u t t e r w o r t h - H e i n e m a n n Ltd computer communications v o l u m e 17 n u m b e r 12 d e c e m b e r 1994
889