04 Feb 2015
By Bob Pusateri

Proud To Be A 2015 Friend of Red Gate!

Community, Software
I am very fortunate to have been accepted as a Friend of Red Gate for a second year! If you're not familiar with "FoRG", Friends of Red Gate work with the Red Gate development and product teams to provide feedback on existing products, new tools, and feature enhancements. You can also find us speaking at events and writing articles on Red Gate tools and how they have saved our bacon and allowed us to accomplish our tasks more quickly. Red Gate is a tremendous organization. Not only do they make some amazing tools and books, but they're also very community-oriented. They sponsor…
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09 Jul 2013
By Bob Pusateri

Farewell To TechNet (Again)

Software
Last week Microsoft announced that they will be retiring their TechNet Subscriptions service. This is very disappointing and will profoundly affect myself and many others. What Is TechNet? If you're not familiar with TechNet, it's a program Microsoft offers that contains "Resources and Tools for IT Professionals". Most notably it has a subscription service that provides copies of software for development and evaluation purposes. Need to create a test environment with older versions of software? TechNet has you covered. Windows 3.1, FrontPage, Access 2003, it's all there. (Though sadly I don't see Microsoft Bob available for download.) TechNet is also…
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20 Feb 2013
By Bob Pusateri

Verifying File Copy/Move Operations With Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier

Software, Tools
Being a DBA and data professional doesn't mean I always work with SQL Server - sometimes I'm not working with databases at all. We've recently acquired some new storage at work (aka Daddy Warbucks bought us a new SAN) and I've been charged with moving things to it. Some aspects of this are easier than others and there will be a few more posts coming about that in the future. For now though, let's talk about copying files. Lots of files. Server logs, audit logs, things like that. Mostly they were small in size but large in quantity. I ended…
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22 Feb 2011
By Bob Pusateri

Another Case for Offsite Backups

Cloud Storage, Software
If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I've written quite a few posts about the wonders of cloud backups and why you should be doing them to protect your precious data and memories. This doesn't just apply to personal computer use - businesses should be taking advantage of offsite backups as well. Large businesses typically have this under control, but I've found that small businesses (especially those without an IT staff) tend to be the most vulnerable. Owners of many small businesses know just enough technology to do what they need, and rarely have the time or desire…
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03 Feb 2011
By Bob Pusateri

New Pricing for Mozy

Cloud Storage, Software
A while back I did a few posts covering my favorite cloud backup solutions, and one of my favorites was Mozy. That very well may change now that Mozy has announced they are changing their pricing structure. They claim that "the backup market has changed" since 2006 due to people taking more photos and videos than ever before, and even though the majority of their users back up 50GB or less, the few that greatly exceed that number are ruining it for everyone. Gone are Mozy's days of backing up unlimited data for a flat rate. Instead of $4.95 per…
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