Digital Design Solutions Is Now A Dealer For Newer Technology

Atlanta, GA – July 16, 2007 – Atlanta based Digital Design Solutions, LLC has established a dealership with Newer Technology, Inc. also known as NewerTech. Based in Woodstock, IL, NewerTech manufactures high quality peripherals for use in conjunction with Apple Macintosh and iPod products. This new partnership helps put Digital Design Solutions in an even more favorable position to serve their growing client base. Jarrod Skeggs, Co-Founder and V.P. of Sales and Marketing said, “This relationship allows us to better serve our clients growing needs. NewerTech has products relevant to the Home Macintosh and iPod user as well as some really great valuable products for the SMB market. We’re excited about the opportunity this presents us.”

Digital Design Solutions, LLC is an Atlanta based Apple consulting firm that specializes in serving the needs of Apple users throughout the United States. For more information about the firm and its products and services please visit http://www.digidsolutions.com

Beep, Beep, Beep...Part 1

(Look out Mama, Daddy’s backing up): Part 1

Is there anything in the way or can I backup?

Backup plan? Sure, adjust the mirrors, look behind the car, put it in reverse, and away we go……Beep, Beep, Beep.

This particular backup plan resembles that of most personal computer users in the world today. The point here is that most of us have no real backup plan in place to protect and preserve the important data that resides on our computer’s hard drive. Be it digital photos, vacation videos, a music library, or simply text documents and spreadsheets that took endless hours to create, very few of us implement a true backup plan. Even when we lose files due to a problem with our hard drives, many of us still fail to take action on this subject once everything is operable again. Its one of those daunting tasks that we all know is important but just can’t bring ourselves to actually follow through on.

Hey wait a minute, I’ve got copies of important files…….(somewhere)

Now, I’m sure there are some of you reading this that are saying, “Wait a minute, I back up my important files by copying them to an external hard drive, or burning them to a CD or DVD.” To those of you making this statement, I applaud you for at least taking some action. In light of that, I’ll take this opportunity to make the point that there is a big difference between copying important files occasionally and a true backup plan. Don’t get me wrong, making copies of important files is better than doing nothing, but there is a better way. You see, the problem with copying files manually is that it relies too much on a human being’s ability to remember to do it with regularity. Those of you who have embraced iCal, PDA’s, “smart phones” (I use this term loosely), or the smartest phone, aka iPhone, understand and realize that the human memory cannot be trusted. As busy as life is these days, there are far too many events, appointments, and the like for our memory to keep up with every single one. That is why you need a true backup plan rather than just a copy of a file.

What does a solid backup plan look like?

A solid backup plan could look vastly different from computer user to computer user but ultimately the plan should include the following components:

Structure

Regular backup intervals are the backbone of a solid backup plan. Whether backups are made daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or any combination thereof, consistency and regularity will prove to be the saving grace in the unfortunate event that you suffer a loss of data but are able to utilize a recent backup to restore your files.

Redundancy

Many would argue that creating a backup copy of a file would qualify as redundancy but, in the case of a backup plan, redundancy refers more to having multiple backups of the same files. I’ll add a little more detail about this in Part 2 of this blog, but suffice it to say that depending on the nature of your data, multiple backups are far less expensive than having to do double work, i.e., recreating what has been lost.

Multiple or Off-site location

This goes hand in hand with redundancy. Creating multiple copies of a backup is far more effective if at least one of those copies is located in a different physical location or off-site. There are a number of options available for off-site backups that will be discussed in Part 2 of this blog.

Stay tuned...

In an effort to cover this subject in depth and to keep from boring you, our readers, I will complete this blog over a number of easily digestible parts. In the next installment I will discuss more about backup software options and how to decide the who, what, when, where, how, and why when it comes to designing and implementing a solid backup plan. Until then, try not to lose any sleep over the potential loss of your data. If you find yourself doing so, contact us; we’ll help give you a little peace of mind and accountability.

Jarrod Skeggs is one of the principles of Digital Design Solutions, an Atlanta based Apple Consulting Firm and authority on Rich Media Publishing. When he’s not blogging about all things Apple he enjoys the finer things in life like bicycling and trail mix.