Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment


Book Description

The latest tested and proven strategies to maintain business resiliency and sustainability for our ever-growing global digital economy Here is a comprehensive study of the fundamentals of mission critical systems, which are designed to maintain ultra-high reliability, availability, and resiliency of electrical, mechanical, and digital systems and eliminate costly downtime. Readers learn all the skills needed to design, fine tune, operate, and maintain mission critical equipment and systems. Practical in focus, the text helps readers configure and customize their designs to correspond to their organizations' unique needs and risk tolerance. Specific strategies are provided to deal with a wide range of contingencies from power failures to human error to fire. In addition, the author highlights measures that are mandated by policy and regulation. The author of this text has worked in mission critical facilities engineering for more than twenty years, serving clients in banking, defense, utilities, energy, and education environments. His recommendations for maintaining essential operations are based on firsthand experience of what works and what does not. Most chapters in this text concentrate on an individual component of the mission critical system, including standby generators, automatic transfer switches, uninterruptible power supplies, and fuel, fire, and battery systems. For each component, the author sets forth applications, available models, design choices, standard operating procedures, emergency action plans, maintenance procedures, and applicable codes and standards. Extensive use of photographs and diagrams illustrates how individual components and integrated systems work. With the rapid growth of e-commerce and 24/7 business operations, mission critical systems have moved to the forefront of concerns among both private and public operations. Facilities engineers, senior administrators, and business continuity professionals involved in information technology and data center design should consult this text regularly to ensure they have done everything they can to protect and sustain their operations to reduce human error, equipment failures, and other critical events. Adapted from material the author has used in academic and professional training programs, this guide is also an ideal desktop reference and textbook.




Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment


Book Description

The new edition of the leading single-volume resource on designing, operating, and managing mission critical infrastructure Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment provides in-depth coverage of operating, managing, and maintaining power quality and emergency power systems in mission critical facilities. This extensively revised third edition provides invaluable insight into the mission critical environment, helping professionals and students alike understand how to sustain continuous functionality, minimize the occurrence of costly unexpected downtime, and guard against power disturbances that can damage any organization's daily operations. Bridging engineering, operations, technology, and training, this comprehensive volume covers each component of specialized systems used in mission critical infrastructures worldwide. Throughout the text, readers are provided the up-to-date information necessary to design and analyze mission critical systems, reduce risk, comply with current policies and regulations, and maintain an appropriate level of reliability based on a facility's risk tolerance. Topics include safety, fire protection, energy security, and the myriad challenges and issues facing industry engineers today. Emphasizing business resiliency, data center efficiency, cyber security, and green power technology, this important volume: Features new and updated content throughout, including new chapters on energy security and on integrating cleaner and more efficient energy into mission critical applications Defines power quality terminology and explains the causes and effects of power disturbances Provides in-depth explanations of each component of mission critical systems, including standby generators, raised access floors, automatic transfer switches, uninterruptible power supplies, and data center cooling and fuel systems Contains in-depth discussion of the evolution and future of the mission critical facilities industry Includes PowerPoint presentations with voiceovers and a digital/video library of information relevant to the mission critical industry Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment is a must-read reference and training guide for architects, property managers, building engineers, IT professionals, data center personnel, electrical & mechanical technicians, students, and others involved with all types of mission critical equipment.




Introduction to Business


Book Description

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.




Ace the IT Interview


Book Description

Proven strategies for getting hired as an IT professional This practical guide for developing winning interviewing skills has been fully updated and revised to focus on today's most sought-after IT jobs. Go behind the scenes of the IT interview process and get inside the mind of potential employers. You'll find out how to make a great first impression and stand out from the competition. Ace the IT Interview features hundreds of questions that are likely to come up on your next technical interview along with key points to include in your answers so you can practice your responses based on your strengths and experience. Present yourself as a truly valuable IT professional and get a great job with help from this real-world guide. Understand the hiring manager's perspective Create a first-rate resume that highlights your skills Get past gatekeepers and get the interviews you want Make a great first impression and stand out in the crowd Master sticky questions about your work history Prepare for different types of interview settings, including telephone and video-conference interviews Ask intelligent, relevant questions Ace the interview follow-up Evaluate your offers, negotiate salary, and close the deal




Site Reliability Engineering


Book Description

The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use




Countering Cyber Sabotage


Book Description

Countering Cyber Sabotage: Introducing Consequence-Driven, Cyber-Informed Engineering (CCE) introduces a new methodology to help critical infrastructure owners, operators and their security practitioners make demonstrable improvements in securing their most important functions and processes. Current best practice approaches to cyber defense struggle to stop targeted attackers from creating potentially catastrophic results. From a national security perspective, it is not just the damage to the military, the economy, or essential critical infrastructure companies that is a concern. It is the cumulative, downstream effects from potential regional blackouts, military mission kills, transportation stoppages, water delivery or treatment issues, and so on. CCE is a validation that engineering first principles can be applied to the most important cybersecurity challenges and in so doing, protect organizations in ways current approaches do not. The most pressing threat is cyber-enabled sabotage, and CCE begins with the assumption that well-resourced, adaptive adversaries are already in and have been for some time, undetected and perhaps undetectable. Chapter 1 recaps the current and near-future states of digital technologies in critical infrastructure and the implications of our near-total dependence on them. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the origins of the methodology and set the stage for the more in-depth examination that follows. Chapter 4 describes how to prepare for an engagement, and chapters 5-8 address each of the four phases. The CCE phase chapters take the reader on a more granular walkthrough of the methodology with examples from the field, phase objectives, and the steps to take in each phase. Concluding chapter 9 covers training options and looks towards a future where these concepts are scaled more broadly.




A Methodology for Client/server and Web Application Development


Book Description

Bring discipline and power to all your Web & C/S projects! Roger Fournier's. A Methodology for Client/Server and Web Application Development shows you how to impose needed discipline on even the most complex Web and client/server development projects. Fournier's start-to-finish methodology walks you step-by-step through every phase: survey, analysis, design, construction, implementation and beyond. Master powerful techniques for delivering finished software faster, including iterative/incremental development, prototyping, timeboxing and joint facilitated user sessions. With extensive examples, checklists and worksheets, Fournier demonstrates how to: Build an enterprise architecture with true scalability and flexibility. Leverage object-oriented programming techniques to the fullest. Establish an effective testing process. Promote reusability with DCOM/ActiveX (TM), CORBA, and JavaBeans (TM) components. Implement technology infrastructures that support Web and C/S development. Discover specific ways to mitigate the risks that lead so many Web and client/server projects to fail. Learn how to improve communication with users, design databases and Web database access more effectively, plan for user training and data conversion and much more. There are no silver bullets, but this book's systematic "best practices" approach, tips and techniques will help you take charge of your Web and client/server development-and deliver business results faster than ever before.




Rightsizing New Enterprise


Book Description




Management Information Systems


Book Description

Management Information Systems provides comprehensive and integrative coverage of essential new technologies, information system applications, and their impact on business models and managerial decision-making in an exciting and interactive manner. The twelfth edition focuses on the major changes that have been made in information technology over the past two years, and includes new opening, closing, and Interactive Session cases.