Re: Tech writing data storage pet peeve

[Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

I've been in my current job for 4 years now and in all that time ALL work has
been done on the server (including help using a HAT) with no discernible spped
reduction (perhaps I'm just slow at typing!).  Backups are done daily and stored
in a fire safe, weekly backups go off-site and so on - a simple but effective
system.  With the worst possible disaster we'd lose a weeks work (assuming we
got new PC etc up and running in that time!).

As for security, isn't this the responsibility of the IT/IS department.  Here
all released docs are on the server with most people having read access (TW have
read/write access).  TW then has its own workspace which cannot be accessed by
others (via IT in an emergency) so the only people we need to worry about
changing files are other TWs!  We use long file names and all projects are
appropriately named and also include the relevant ref number (all our docs are
17nnn) so even work in hand should be easy to find if you need to take over
somebody elses work.  We also have a set of transfer directories on the server
for easy transfer of file. Works quite well.  I know that the server CAN go down
(we have 3 so we can regenerate work quickly if one dies) but usually not for
long and when it does, there's always that backlog of paperwork to take care
of...

I do admit to keeping some copies on my hard drive, mainly of help files. This
is habit from when HATs weren't as reliable and any "experimental" tweaking was
best done where it could have no impact on the current version!

Damien Braniff
Technical Author
PAC International


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