Stephen J. Richards

Online Compliance and Government Regulation

With business being conducted more and more so online and the use of the Internet having primary relevance in today's society comes the need for regulation and protection in a way never needed before. As new ways of doing business online grow so do the da... Read >

Outsourcing Technical Support

Technology, we all have to have it to run our businesses more efficiently. Although technology has allowed us significant increases in productivity and efficiency, they have not come without cost. The level of sophistication necessary to resolve technical... Read >

Databases and Maintaining Their Uptime

Databases provide a convenient means of storing vast amounts of information, allowing the information to be sorted, searched, viewed, and manipulated according to the business needs and goals. A computer database relies upon software to organize the sto... Read >

Securing Your Computer’s Information

It is no secret that there are computer hackers out there and any information on our computer systems is susceptible to attack. Ensuring confidentiality of sensitive information is critical to any organization. Any compromise of information about your bus... Read >

Centralizing Data Storage

Management of business data is becoming ever more complex and important with increasing pressures of security, regulatory compliance, and corporate governance. Technology is allowing businesses to create and store exponentially more data. Understanding h... Read >

How and Why Databases are Reorganized

Administration of IMS full function and Fast Path databases can have a significant impact on the overall performance and usability of critical business applications. Databases must be recognized to modify the database schema so that physical disk space c... Read >

Outsourcing and archiving your data

Whether a company relies heavily on database activity for critical everyday business operations or only for select requirements, the loss of data due to technological failure can have far reaching negative implications. The loss of valuable information an... Read >

Backing up your computer verses archiving

The concepts of backing up a computer and archiving documents often get confused. To clarify the difference, let's start with what a backup is. Generally, a backup is a short-term retention copy of a file or record that is made in case the original is... Read >

Computer Memory and How It Works

All computers have memory. Without it, we would just have a devicethat does fixed operations and it would be more like a calculator. Sowhat is computer memory and how does it work?Technically, computer memory is any form of electronic storage. Thereare ma... Read >

Backup Technology and Its History

Computer data backup is an ever-changing and sophisticated field, especially as technologies become more complex. This complexity is due to two factors; first the cost/performance versus size of various memory-storage systems and second, the way users org... Read >

The History of Computers

Computers, it seems as if they have been around forever. Yet it wasn't until the 1981 that the first personal computer was introduced by IBM - only twenty six years ago.So who invented the first computer and how did it evolve to what it is today?The defin... Read >

Redundant Internet Access for Businesses

Businesses are increasingly reliant on internet availability for their critical business operations and revenue generation. What were once brick and mortar stores targeting customers in their local geographic area are now interactive websites offering pro... Read >

Challenges to Data Retention

Record keeping is almost as old as human existence! From cavemen painting on cave walls and the ancients writing on papyrus or on their tombs, we have detailed records of their time and their lives. Today, we have more sophisticated methods of record keep... Read >

Battery Backups for Data and Equipment Protection

In today's technology reliant business world, companies are becoming increasingly responsive to the need to protect and retain valuable business data. One often overlooked means of protecting against data loss and equipment damage is the utilization of qu... Read >

RAID – An Overview

RAID stands for "redundant array of independent disks," or sometimes "redundant array of inexpensive disks." RAID refers to a hardware arrangement that allows for the storage of data in multiple places on two or more disk drives used in combination. The u... Read >