• Though not required, it is highly recommended that all drives in a RAID array are the identical size, speed, and manufacturer to maximize performance and stability. It is also recommended for manufacturer support.
• Hardware RAIDs (Arrays created on physical RAID controllers) perform better than Software RAIDs (programs that act like RAID controllers) but are more expensive.  

• Modular Messaging - Effective December 8, 2014 
• Application Enablement Services (AES) 6.1 & 6.2 - Effective June 2, 2014 
• Common Servers Release 1 DL360G7_R610 - Phase 3 - Effective August 25, 2014 
• Common Servers Release 1 DL360G7_R610 - Phase 4 - Effective December 8, 2014 
• TN763D & TN4290D Circuit Packs - Effective June 2, 2014 
• One-X Attendant Release 3.0 - Effective June 2, 2014 

1. Do you have any firewall rules that enable SAL Gateway to communicate with Avaya SAL Enterprise?
2. Does your environment have a proxy server?
3. Does your SAL Gateway use DNS to communicate to Avaya?

NOTE: Firewall and proxy setting within the customer network can be made immediately in preparation for the migration.  

Based on the answers to the above questions, the network settings decision table in PSN004098u will aid you in the required changes.

For questions or assistance please contact support at 847.427.2365. 

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Steve Kahan, Unitrends | Modern Backup 2 Blog 

As chairman of the Disaster Recovery Preparedness Council, I'm proud to announce that we've issued our first annual report on The State of Disaster Recovery Preparedness. Based on hundreds of responses from organizations worldwide, the 20-page 2014 Annual Report provides a close look at how companies are doing when in comes to disaster recovery best practices based on our ground-breaking benchmark survey launched in 2013.

You can download the report for free at http://drbenchmark.org/ 

First, the bad news: For some it may come as a shock that three out of four companies taking the survey are at risk, failing to properly prepare for recovering their IT systems in the event of an outage or disaster. Others may not be so surprised. The report, however, does highlight some sobering statistics when it comes to the damage companies are suffering when they are unprepared.

Here's a few examples of the consequences:

• One-third of respondents experienced outages reported stated that critical applications were lost for hours and sometimes multiple days.
• Even more alarming was that one in four respondents said they had lost most, if not all of their datacenter for hours and in some cases days.
• Nearly one in four respondents never tested their DR plans, and one-third of those surveyed tests their plans only once or twice a year. When companies do test, more than 65% do not pass their own DR tests.

Clearly we have a long way to go in fully preparing our IT systems to backup and recovery vital applications. I'll go into what the report identifies as some of the causes for the dismal state of DR preparedness in my next blog. In the meantime, be sure to visit our website to get a free copy of the 2014 Annual Report. And while you're there, I urge to take the benchmark survey yourself.

Click here to learn about Backup & Recovery solutions from CCC Technologies, Inc. 

PC World - There are no more lifelines. In a few days, Microsoft will pull the plug on Windows XP support for consumers. With no more updates or security patches available (other than some bare-bones malware support), it's forecast to be open season on the legacy operating system. But just how bad will the "Windows XPocalypse" be? We spoke to several security experts to find out.

The real risk: relentless attack

The end of support may not seem like a big deal. Windows XP has been under almost constant attack from malware and cyber criminals since it was released in 2001. Windows XP users have managed so far to defend themselves with relative success, so what will be different once Microsoft support ends?