Pop by Your Service Provider in the ...

Computerworld - ... wee hours of the morning to prevent a data disaster. Good advice, especially when it comes from the CEO of a Web hosting company who thinks your mission-critical online operations are at risk if you use offshore services or even U.S.-based ones that
clock out after sunset. "Go visit your hosting company at 3:00 in the morning and see if someone answers the door," suggests Mitch Gervis, the top executive at Dallas-based NeoSpire Inc. "Do it before you have a disaster." If your Web site delivers critical business functions 24 hours a day, the last place you want it is someplace whose systems administrators are all asleep in their beds at night, says Gervis, whose company hosts sites for Lowes Cineplex Theatres Inc., United Way of America, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and other users. Gervis argues that all the sophisticated remote diagnostic and management tools in the world can't supplant a smart human on the premises. He adds that users shouldn't just demand that data be backed up and restored for free, which he says NeoSpire does. They actually should request backups to verify that the hosting company's procedures work. NeoSpire does five to 10 data restores a week at the request of users, for example. And being a Southerner steeped in the region's tradition of hospitality, Gervis invites you to drop by his data center -- anytime.
Protect Your IP From Offshore ...
... developers who slip open-source code into your applications. It's not that Indian, Chinese or other programmers based outside the U.S. have malicious undermining of your intellectual property in mind, says Sridhar Balaji, CEO of SourceSentry Inc. in Houston. It's just that it's so easy to do. "Oftentimes, developers just grab something on the Web and put it in their code," Balaji says. His company has run scans of applications and discovered open-source elements. Inserting open-source code could upset your licensing plans, particularly if you intend to distribute your software but keep the source code proprietary. SourceSentry offers its BizCentury Methodology templates for ensuring that your offshore team follows strict security, privacy and best-practices procedures that go beyond standards such as BS 7799 . Balaji claims that there are thousands of start-up outsourcing companies in India alone, most of which need better controls. So choose wisely.

Sridhar Balaji, CEO of SourceSentry Inc.