Stephen J. Richards

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.

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 issues has also increased; therefore, when a problem occurs, end users generally are not able to fix it themselves and must turn to professional support for help.

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 storage of data.

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.

Administration of IMS full function and Fast Path databases can have a significant impact on the overall performance and usability of critical business applications.

Businesses are increasingly reliant on internet availability for their critical business operations and revenue generation. Today, many businesses rely solely on the internet for their mere existence, making internet availability a critical element of their business strategy.

Much like the way the index of a book makes finding a topic easier, database indexes make locating a queried piece of data easier. Indexes may be unnecessary for smaller databases, where the queries can locate data quickly and easily.

Instead of moving emails, documents and other business records onto tape, companies may be advised to store data on disk systems for longer periods of time. Coupled with the right archiving software, disk systems can reduce data retention, reproduction and management.

Explains the use of battery backup for data retention and equipment protection, provided by Neon Enterprise Software, a leading provider of mainframe disaster recovery and data retention technology.

Examines problems businesses face due to unavoidable database maintenance and ways to increase database uptime for operational and data retention purposes.