There's a whole range of advice here, from ensuring that your physical security is in place and effective, to using encryption.
There are also some less well used solutions, such as ensuring that your backups and archiving solutions are also secure (and the method used to transfer and store tapes is also secure).
Best of all, he argues that ensuring that the mechanisms used are not a barrier to actually using and accessing the data.
The whole Windows Live thing seems to be passing me by.
Some of these I probably use already (Windows Live Messenger, for example) and I've tried some of the new tools (I really like certain elements of Windows Live Writer, the blogging tool), others I don't even comprehend from their names (Windows Live Agora - apparently it's a marketplace for Windows Live tools, but that hardly seems obvious from the name!). You can get a list of the current services from The big list of Windows Live services.
The whole Windows Live thing seems to be passing me by.
Some of these I probably use already (Windows Live Messenger, for example) and I've tried some of the new tools (I really like certain elements of Windows Live Writer, the blogging tool), others I don't even comprehend from their names (Windows Live Agora - apparently it's a marketplace for Windows Live tools, but that hardly seems obvious from the name!). You can get a list of the current services from The big list of Windows Live services.
I used to bank with First Direct here in the UK, an arm of the massive HSBC, and they were one of the first to offer a mainstream and comprehensive online banking service. I've been using their online banking service since it was first announced - certainly for five years or more. There are some things to love about the service - for example, they have an integrated SMS service that I can control through my Internet banking interface, so I get a message on my mobile when the balance is getting low, there's been a big payment or deposit, and at regular intervals so I can keep an eye on my finances without having to login. Everything is coded, so it's impossible to tell, even if a stranger had stole my phone, what account the message is referring to.
I used to bank with First Direct here in the UK, an arm of the massive HSBC, and they were one of the first to offer a mainstream and comprehensive online banking service. I've been using their online banking service since it was first announced - certainly for five years or more. There are some things to love about the service - for example, they have an integrated SMS service that I can control through my Internet banking interface, so I get a message on my mobile when the balance is getting low, there's been a big payment or deposit, and at regular intervals so I can keep an eye on my finances without having to login. Everything is coded, so it's impossible to tell, even if a stranger had stole my phone, what account the message is referring to.
When I started writing this blog series at the beginning of the week, one of my posts was going to be on the effects of those wall bricks, warts, or other euphemisms for the power adaptor that powers numerous pieces of equipment in your home and office.
These units use power whether the DC power they are providing to the device is being used or not, and much of that disappears as heat (something you'll know if you've ever picked one up while it's on).
The problem is that these things have become a vital part of any type of electronics -- from the PSU in your desktop computer through to your laptop, speakers, printers along with mobile phones, PDAs, cameras and all sorts of things in between.
When I started writing this blog series at the beginning of the week, one of my posts was going to be on the effects of those wall bricks, warts, or other euphemisms for the power adaptor that powers numerous pieces of equipment in your home and office.
These units use power whether the DC power they are providing to the device is being used or not, and much of that disappears as heat (something you'll know if you've ever picked one up while it's on).
The problem is that these things have become a vital part of any type of electronics -- from the PSU in your desktop computer through to your laptop, speakers, printers along with mobile phones, PDAs, cameras and all sorts of things in between.
When I started writing this blog series at the beginning of the week, one of my posts was going to be on the effects of those wall bricks, warts, or other euphemisms for the power adaptor that powers numerous pieces of equipment in your home and office.
These units use power whether the DC power they are providing to the device is being used or not, and much of that disappears as heat (something you'll know if you've ever picked one up while it's on).
The problem is that these things have become a vital part of any type of electronics -- from the PSU in your desktop computer through to your laptop, speakers, printers along with mobile phones, PDAs, cameras and all sorts of things in between.
The average data center uses the equivalent about 2 tons of coal (or 80 barrels of oil) per day; a datacenter with 2,500 servers uses enough electricity in a month to power 420,000 homes a day for a year. A 30,000 square foot data center with 1,000 racks needs $4.2 million a year to power and cool the computing processing power you are using (including maintenance and amortisation costs).
Those figures are from HP, Sun, the Carbon Trust and Forrester Research, and make disturbing reading.
The result the of latter example would also generate 44,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere; in the EU you can offset that using the Emissions Trading Scheme, but it would cost you an additional 700,000 Euros to do so.
The average data center uses the equivalent of about 2 tons of coal (or 80 barrels of oil) per day; a datacenter with 2,500 servers uses enough electricity in a month to power 420,000 homes for a year. A 30,000 square foot data center with 1,000 racks needs $4.2 million a year to power and cool the computing processing power you are using (including maintenance and amortisation costs).
Those figures are from HP, Sun, the Carbon Trust and Forrester Research, and make disturbing reading.
The result the of last example would also generate 44,000 tons of carbon into the atmosphere; in the EU you can offset that using the Emissions Trading Scheme, but it would cost you an additional 700,000 Euros to do so.