Undoing disaster

Do you have a disaster recovery plan - if your Web applications bite the big one, your company's future as well as your own are on the line.

So, let's start with the basics: How do you backup your Web server content? If you have no answer or honestly answer with " Huh? " then you might like to check out SiteRecorder from Lockstep Systems www.lockstep.com/products/siterecorder/sr-product.html.

SiteRecorder is a backup utility specifically designed for Web servers. It will backup a Web site and keep a version history so if something goes wrong with a Web application you can " roll back " the changes to recover a previous configuration.

Another neat feature of site recorder is its ability to detect content changes and, when they are found, send you notification of the changes by e-mail. This is a great way to keep an eye on a Web site that has multiple contributors or might be subject to the attention of miscreants.

The report generated for change detection consists of a list of links so you can check out the changes easily. SiteRecorder backs up any site regardless of operating system or Web server and also can back-up multiple Web sites.

SiteRecorder works by FTP, FrontPage Server Extensions, or shared folders and a license to back-up one Web site costs $795.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. Gibbs is also co-conspirator of the Vitally Important Information Web site.

Gibbs can be contacted at webapps@gibbs.com. Press releases to pr@gibbs.com.

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