I have posted an article the other day about an increased number of trucks since the economic downturn. I thought it was a good sign of the economy's getting better. I had an opportunity to speak to a young guy at a bus stop. He was waiting for the same bus with me. I often see him there on the way back home. He said he was working for a transportation company. Then I said to him that there are more trucks than before that are running across the bridge. He said, "There ain't nothing inside, but you see many. Dey are just runnin," he said.
The situation has been like this here in the Tokyo area (including Saitama, Chiba and Tochigi). I have had no project to be engaged with for the past 8 months since this April. What I can do now in my office is to do some translation on legal documents, notices, presentation materials, etc.
I am also learning about disaster recovery/application hosting solutions. This is because my company is about to launch services on that. Many of you here may have heard about "cloud computing" or "SaaS." That is exactly what our compnay is going to deal with.
Disaster recovery is to have your data replicated as your second storage at a remote location, which is far enough from your production site. Your data is updated either up to date or periodically according to your needs. By doing this you will have your business continue even if your site was struck by a disaster (i.e. flood, eathquake, fire, computer virus, or a physical attack). The good news is that you don't need to purchase your own server, which eventually cuts down your maintenance cost. This service is often explained that it is like utility services, such as electricity or water that you don't need to have your own power plant at your company. Some say it is like you deposit your cash in a bank system instead of keeping it in your house. Other good thing about cloud computing services is you don't need to worry about your pc spec (thin client pc). So don't think about how much memory your pc has. Your application is out there at a remote datacenter, which is under control by 24/7/365.
Disaster recovery is not just about the 9/11 or wars that have happened across the ocean. We are living on an IT economy. It is true that IT based society has become highly developed as well as its effectiveness can be lost all at once. It is even said a large scale of earthquakes are expected to hit anywhere in Japan. What if this causes a huge scale of power outage or destruction? What if a huge tsunami hits on your company or the area you live? As the climates have changed noticeable, there is an apocalyptic mood here and there. Even if a disaster will not hit on you, there is an aspect on the comuter networking society as being unreliable or fragile. Anyone can delete by mistake the most important folder that covers a company group's information. Computer virus or crackers can destroy a corporate operation or a corporate trust.
