Data Silos

Every business collects data during the normal course of business. This data comes in many forms and can be stored on computer and/or in the physical form. It is considered beneficial to minimize that number of data collection silos while maximizing the automated methods used to collect data. Siskiyou Media Council goal is to have an Internet enabled set of tools to manage data pertaining to the on going business operations. In achieving these goals, SMC will endeavor to articulate performance, methodology, reporting and data requirements. Efforts will be made to minimize the number of silos while maximizing the value of the data managed. Existing tool sets will be the first choice in meeting any new requirements.

John Cumming will act as the lead in researching, development and deployment of any and all data collection and management systems. This is an ongoing project.

Data Silos

Subversion

DabbleDB

GotWiki

GMail

QuickBooks

Microsoft Small Business Accounting

Silicon Sorcery MediaServer

Paper

Amazon S3

Discussions

10/29/09 JC - I investigated and setup Sugar Sync with all out SVN Current files, Microsoft's VPN server and Open VPN on our communication server.

Sugar Sync turns out to be very slow at syncing files. Many customers have left the service due to worsening performance issues. I have security and accountability concerns using this form of online service.

Unfortunately, Windows XP Pro only allows for 1 VPN connection at a time and I found it to be unstable. Connections were difficult to make and often failed within a few minutes.

I successfully installed Open VPN on the communitations server and was able to make a secure connection from Windows Vista, Windows XP and Apple OS X. On the Apple I also reloated the SVN working copy and then successfully did a full update for the SVN server securely via Open SVN?.

At this point I am in favor of continuing to use SVN as our primary back, sharing and syncing service connected via Open VPN and managed using Smart SVN. All software is either open source or free.

Software Systems -

Hamachi

Hamachi is unreliable on Mac OS X

Hamachi is a network application that allows for the creation of Virtual Private Networks ( VPN ). For security reasons all holes in the COS firewall were closed, this resulted in the need for VPN software such as Hamachi in order to provide access to computers located at the College of the Siskiyous.

We use Hamachi on Mac's and PC's in order to provide file backup, syncing and sharing via Sub Version ( SVN ). There are many decencies in the chain to allow this to function correctly. On the Mac, the Hamachi client has proven to be problematic. It requires constant maintenance in order to keep it functioning.

Possible solutions:

1: SMC now has it own public IP address with full port control. We can provide direct computer to computer communications without the need for VPN software. This would allow both Mac's and PC's to communicate with the SVN server without the hassle of Hamachi's VPN. This is a much less secure solution.

2: Use an Internet service to backup, share and sync our files. I recommend Sugar Sync and reviewing many competitors in this new and growing market segment. Sugar Sync works well on Mac and PC. They have a 30Gb account for $49.95/year.

3: Replace Hamachi's hosted VPN service with Open VPN. This would give us all the security we need without the added cost of using a third party service. Open VPN works on just about every system.