Data Design Systems has been through a year of change with seven new team members coming onboard, combined with expansion of our head office facilities. I am pleased to report that in our recent round of performance reviews, the staff was unanimous in their opinion that DDS has made significant improvements in team execution in the past year. I am confident that DDS is going to continue to experience exciting changes and growth in 2002. I would like to thank all of our customers for their continued support, and our distributors and helpdesk support organizations for their continued contributions to the success of DDS. More importantly, I would like to wish everyone a prosperous and happy new year.

Dan Crook, Chief Executive Officer

Disaster Recovery or Business Continuity?

Do we want to be reactive or proactive? That is the question. While the recent acts of terrorism pointed out the need for sound disaster recovery practices, there are plenty of lesser disasters that occur on a daily basis. These disasters are caused by the elements, and by disgruntled employees. Businesses do not have sound practices because these disasters have not affected their company's bottom line. Logical, right? Why would you pay for something you may never use?

Research conducted by NVT Computing found that among organizations that do not have effective contingency plans in place at the time of a disaster, 80% of these organizations do not survive for more than two years after the disaster. (Network World Fusion: Options for Disaster Recovery by Michael Osterman, October 17, 2001)

So, what is the difference between Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity? Well, your down time is considerably lower with business continuity, because there is no reaction time involved.

• Knowing what you will do before you need it.
• Ensuring that an event does not become a disaster.
• Covering a broad spectrum of business and technology issues.
• Guaranteeing required business process availability. (Compaq)

• Reacting to the disaster immediately.
• Covering a broad spectrum of business and technology issues.

Business Continuity is simply an extension of Disaster Recovery. There is no right or wrong answer in this case, but it is a wrong move if you do not have a contingency plan in place.

Christine Bonner, Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator

2001 IRUG Conference "Primary Colours"

Data Design Systems decided to add a splash of colour and contrast to this year's user group meeting at the Renaissance Hotel at SkyDome. Adding a new guest speaker, Craig Senior from CGI Group, to the conference and a touch of green during lunch, enabling conference attendees a chance to view the Toronto Blue Jays' baseball field. Client presentations were fantastic this year, including Brown and Company's Brian White and Chuck Loney's speech about the incorporation of Carr Scott's Disaster Recovery software with PrimeCode�. Optimark's Hector Olmeda outlined the importance of Automated Software Control Management in the workplace and finally, Robert Kaylor described the RMS process at J.P. Morgan Chase.