Many people confuse workflow automation with process automation, as both technologies aim to automate business processes. However, they each differ in their approach and functionality. While workflow management refers to the processes involved in streamlining business operations, robotic process automation (RPA) refers to the use of software to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks.

Workflow management and RPA serve different purposes, and businesses should carefully consider their applications to choose the technology that best suits their needs. 

So read on, as this resource will explain everything you need to know about RPA and workflow management and how you can get the most out of each.

What is workflow automation?

In the business world, workflows refer to the repeatable steps implemented in a specific order to perform a process. That said, workflow management involves using software to plan, coordinate, execute, and monitor workflows. Generally, workflow management optimizes business processes through—you guessed it—workflow automation.

While traditional business workflows carry out tasks manually, passing information like approvals from one person to another can be a time-consuming and error-prone process. But workflow automation can allow information to be passed between systems, enabling businesses to improve the efficiency and accuracy of their operations. 

Businesses can use workflow automation technology to streamline workflow processes by automating the flow of information and tasks between people, systems, and departments. By automating these steps involved within a workflow, this technology ensures that the correct actions are performed appropriately, in the proper order, and by the right people.

How is workflow automation used?

Workflow automation can be applied in various ways to help business teams accomplish their processes quickly by performing some of the repeatable tasks within the workflow. As a result, businesses can automate parts of their work to save their workers time and effort while improving overall productivity.

Workflow management software solutions can be configured by businesses to automate specific tasks and workflows, and they can be integrated with other systems. The right tools can automatically perform these repetitive processes, maintain the correct order of task execution within the workflow, and keep track of uncompleted tasks.

Workflow automation can be applied to many industries for a variety of purposes. For example, report generation, document approval, and customer service requests are all tasks that can be optimized by workflow automation. In addition, organizations that implement workflow automation can quickly and easily adapt their workflows to meet new requirements, making them more responsive to changing market conditions.

Who is workflow automation best for?

Workflow automation is best for businesses looking to improve their workforce productivity with tools that can keep their teams on track and help them streamline their work processes for optimal results.

Workflow automation is ideal for tasks that involve decision-making, human collaboration, and interaction. Additionally, it is most successful when applied to processes requiring high flexibility and customization.

What is RPA?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology that also uses automation to improve business efficiency. However, it supports workers by pushing certain tasks off to software robots to perform—thereby freeing up the team to focus on high-priority tasks. 

That’s right, RPA technology uses software robots to quickly and accurately perform rule-based, repetitive tasks for workers without the need for human intervention. These RPA robots are designed to mimic human actions to carry out tasks. RPA bots can be programmed to perform actions based on predefined rules. For example, they can interact with various systems and applications to access data and make decisions based on said data.

This automation technology also benefits businesses by reducing the time and costs necessary to complete these tasks. RPA can increase productivity, reduce errors, and improve compliance when applied to business processes. In streamlining business processes, RPA can help save time and reduce manual work for employees, enabling them to focus on more critical tasks.

How is RPA used?

Robotic process automation technology enables businesses to design robots that perform tasks that would otherwise be monotonous and time-consuming for employees. The robots can work across application user interfaces and interact with systems to carry out tasks on a worker’s behalf. 

RPA is best suited for automating simple, highly repetitive tasks involving little or no decision-making or human interaction. Examples include inputting data automatically and triggering actions across systems on the employee’s behalf. More specifically, this can consist of activities like data entry, data extraction, and invoice processing. 

RPA can be implemented in different ways, depending on the organization’s needs. It can also be integrated with other software tools and used in conjunction with other technologies, such as Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Who is RPA best for?

RPA technology is useful for businesses with workflows that involve monotonous, routine, and non-complex tasks. RPA can also be ideal for organizations seeking user-friendly automation technology, as even nontechnical professionals can quickly and easily utilize it.

Furthermore, the low cost of RPA technology means that it can be scaled up or down depending on the organization’s needs, making it a flexible solution for growing businesses.

Comparing RPA and workflow automation

So, what are the similarities and differences between RPA and workflow automation?

Similarities

Both workflow automation and RPA can support businesses by optimizing processes and streamlining operations. The technologies each offer businesses a way to automate their workflows and can perform tasks involved in regular processes to speed up and increase efficiency within the company’s overall execution.

Differences

However, these technologies do have significant differences that set them apart. Each technology can be successful in automating tasks, but this depends on the task’s nature, complexity, and the level of human intervention required. 

Workflow automation is useful for processes involving human collaboration, decision-making, and interaction. It is also ideal for tasks that require a higher level of flexibility and customization by humans. On the contrary, RPA technology can automate highly repetitive tasks completely, as long as they require little to no decision-making or human intervention.

Workflow automation is also more suitable for complex processes involving multiple steps. This is especially true for processes requiring decisions, approvals, or collaboration between departments or individuals. On the other hand, RPA can be successful in carrying out simple tasks, like repetitive or rule-based actions. However, to carry these tasks out completely for humans, RPA technology must be applied toward actions that do not involve complex decisions or approvals.

Another difference between the two technologies is their implementation. RPA is an inexpensive technology that can be quickly and easily applied and scaled to meet a business’s needs. But while workflow automation is more complex and expensive, it can be a worthy investment for larger organizations looking to manage multiple workflows.

How to choose between RPA and workflow automation 

Workflow automation and RPA are two technologies that provide powerful results for businesses—when implemented appropriately. While workflow automation is most successful when utilized for streamlining complex processes involving human collaboration, RPA is best implemented to automate rule-based tasks that are simple, repetitive, and do not require human interaction. 

If you are looking to choose an automation technology for your business, you should evaluate your automation needs. Doing so can allow you to identify the technology best suited for your organization’s requirements. The right automation technology should help your organization reduce its costs and improve the quality and accuracy of its business processes.

While RPA often requires a specialized software, workflow automation is a common feature in project management software. So if you’re not quite sure about robotic process automation but would like to implement more workflow automation, we have a list of top project management software to get you started.

Related articles

• IPA Boosts RPA in Hyperautomation Strategies
• Best Workflow Management Software
• What Is CRM Workflow?

The post RPA vs. Workflow Automation (2024) appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Effective project management is vital for organizations to achieve their objectives, and it can involve many moving parts. Understanding, coordination, and collaboration are all necessary components of a successful project management approach. 

For this reason, many project management software systems have begun to feature dashboards, which provide higher visibility for project managers and team members. These dashboards are designed to streamline project management processes by providing real-time representations of project data, insights, and metrics. But are dashboards really that beneficial for use in project management?

If you’re curious about the benefits that project management dashboards can provide, read on. This article will take a deeper look into the top benefits of project management dashboards and how they can revolutionize project management practices throughout multiple areas of the project’s life cycle.

By understanding the advantages of these powerful tools, organizations can harness their benefits and enable their teams to deliver successful projects on time and within budget. 

What is a project management dashboard?

Project management dashboards are typically accessed through project management software tools and enable teams to improve the organization and execution of their processes. These dashboards visually represent project information in a consolidated view within a project management software system. 

Generally speaking, dashboards are designed to provide project managers, team members, and other stakeholders with an at-a-glance overview of the project’s status. They commonly feature critical project data and metrics, which may be represented using visual elements like graphs, charts, and tables that indicate project metrics. 

By including metrics like budget, utilization, resource allocation, milestone achievements, and task completion, these tools enable viewers to quickly and easily determine which areas may require attention or action. 

Project management dashboards can facilitate communication across all involved members and improve decision-making based on data-driven insights, significantly impacting project outcomes. In addition, the enhanced transparency and visibility provided by these tools are valuable assets for project management and contribute to the team’s overall success. 

What are the benefits of project management dashboards?

There are a wide variety of benefits that can apply at any given time, and we’ve gathered a robust list. Not all of these may apply to your business or team, but you can at least get a glimpse of what’s possible.

Enhanced visibility and transparency

Team members and stakeholders can gain a real-time, centralized view of project data and metrics using project management dashboards.

This can provide stakeholders with enhanced visibility into project progress, performance, and status, and it promotes transparency among team members and stakeholders, allowing them to quickly and easily assess the project’s overall health. Furthermore, centralized data can enable team members to quickly understand all the crucial factors in their project processes.

Improved data-driven decision-making

Project management dashboards can improve data-driven decision-making by providing at-a-glance information regarding key project metrics. Project managers and team members can easily analyze and interpret data from the dashboard to reach informed decisions quickly, identify potential risks or issues, and take corrective actions to support the project’s success and avoid delays.

By reviewing performance metrics, data trends, and patterns, teams can identify areas for improvement and manage task statuses. In addition, project teams can take actionable steps to continuously refine their processes, leading to successful project outcomes.

Additionally, project management dashboards can visually represent resources allocated to projects, tasks, and team members. This enables project managers to easily understand the resources used for specific activities and make informed estimates of which resources are necessary for future projects.

Efficiency and productivity

Project management dashboards streamline project monitoring and reporting processes. By consolidating project data within a single, accessible location, this automation eliminates the need for manual data gathering and reporting.

This can save organizations costs for hiring manual labor, save team members time and effort, and allow teams to focus on their core tasks. Altogether, automatically consolidating data within dashboards can increase efficiency and productivity and minimize human error and compliance issues.

Better risk management

Risk assessment and tracking features make it easy for project managers to identify and mitigate potential risks proactively.

When included within project management dashboards, these features offer a clear visual representation of potential risks and issues so project teams can take preventive measures and manage risks before they impact project outcomes. Tracking features can also inform teams of existing problems so they can resolve them.

Communication and collaboration support

Project management dashboards can contain features that facilitate communication and collaboration among team members and stakeholders. Features may include status updates, messaging, commenting, change requests, and tools for project data sharing. 

By providing a centralized platform for communicating and sharing project data, project dashboards promote effective communication, encourage collaboration, and reduce confusion throughout the project life cycle. They can act as a single source of truth, ensuring all viewers’ understand the project scope.

Project management dashboards can also serve as a visual communication tool for stakeholders and promote transparency and understanding. Team members, clients, and executives can access current, accurate, and centralized data to help them reach decisions together. Team members can also use this data to create reports on current information, forecasts, and historical data for clearly communicating concepts to external individuals.

Real-time project monitoring

Project management dashboards provide real-time updates on project progress, allowing viewers to monitor them closely. This capability supports decision-making and ensures that any delays or issues are promptly identified and addressed to improve team performance, promptly resolve areas of improvement, enable timely project delivery, and prevent potential delays or cost overruns.

Targeted data views

Customizable project management dashboards allow users to select and customize the data and metrics they want to monitor, allowing stakeholders to focus on the information most relevant to their roles and responsibilities.

This flexibility brings users’ attention to areas they need to see, ensuring that the dashboard supports their needs. Additionally, this flexibility supports scalability for organizations, as users can adjust their dashboards based on the KPIs and other aspects necessary for achieving growth.

Optimized scheduling and prioritization

Project management teams can optimize their scheduling of tasks and deadlines through the project management dashboards. Viewing schedules can enable them to identify scheduling conflicts, prepare for upcoming events, keep track of deadlines, and optimize resource availability.

Easier time and activity tracking

By viewing the completion status of multiple projects, users can ensure their timely completion and identify which projects require prioritization or extra attention. Milestone tracking through project management dashboards is another way to quickly determine the health of a project based on its progress.

Smarter project spending

Financial and budgeting data provided within project management dashboards can tell viewers a lot about the project’s spending activity. For example, users can track spending to avoid going over budget before the project’s completion and view KPIs to reach valuable insights about the project’s profitability, rate of growth, and sales forecast. This way, teams can budget wisely and practice more innovative financial planning in the future.

What should a project management dashboard contain?

A project management dashboard can contain a wide variety of key data and metrics. However, teams should seek out project management dashboard tools that contain necessary information and provide a comprehensive overview of the project’s real-time status and success. These are just some elements that a project management dashboard could include that may be necessary for your team.

Descriptions

Descriptions that outline the purpose of the project may be included on project dashboards. This can briefly explain why the project is being implemented, the business objectives and goals, and how the project is being executed.

Project progress status indicators

The status of the project can be represented through visual indicators that represent a general overview of its real-time status. For example, charts or progress bars can indicate whether the project is on track, delayed, or completed, providing an at-a-glance view of its status. Some software solutions allow users to include details or files regarding the project status within this section for easy reference.

Key performance indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurable metrics that indicate the project’s performance, provide insights into the project’s overall health and help identify areas that require improvement. Some of the features included within this list, like resource allocation, task completion, and budget utilization, can be represented by measurable KPIs.

Milestones and timelines

Dashboards should display projects with tasks, sub-tasks, and milestones necessary for their successful completion. A timeline or chart can help team members and project managers to visualize the project’s schedule, including milestones and deadlines. These should also provide the start and end dates of each project, task, sub-task, or milestone.

Dependencies and impacted metrics

Projects, tasks, and sub-tasks should all be displayed in relation to one another and their linked objectives. This can also include information about delayed deliverables due to dependencies. 

Resource allocation and estimates 

Dashboards should include a visual representation of the resources allocated to different tasks or team members. This can consist of estimates of those resources and the time necessary for task completion. Information regarding the task’s owner should also be communicated so viewers can see who is in charge of which project.

Budgets and financials

Project management dashboards can also display budget information and real-time data tracking of project spending activity. This information can be shown in various ways to indicate the percent budget spent, percent complete, and the forecasted total project cost. In addition, some project management dashboards can include tools for tracking financial KPIs, like the Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, and sales forecasting.

Risk status and issues

Viewers should be able to access information about potential risks and issues identified throughout the project via the project dashboard. This section should indicate the severity and status of these risks and their impact and likelihood of occurring.

Custom views and features

Customizable dashboards enable project team members to customize their dashboard views based on the information that is most relevant to them. Additionally, some software can allow users to create personal to-do lists. 

Collaboration tools

Project management dashboards can include communication and collaboration tools like commenting, messaging, and update-sharing features. For example, Smartsheet allows team members to collaborate on shared sheets. Project dashboards can also store change request information for users to view the transformation of projects as they have been adjusted over time.

Choosing a project management tool

A project management dashboard should clearly and concisely represent critical project data and metrics that enable effective monitoring, decision-making, and stakeholder communication.

When choosing a project management dashboard software, teams should identify their goals to stay competitive within their business environment. This will help them determine the KPIs and features they should seek in a project management dashboard solution. 

From enhanced visibility to optimizing data-driven decision-making, the right project management dashboard can offer many advantages that positively impact project outcomes and overall organizational success.

Many general project management tools include dashboards that can pull information from project boards and individual tasks. If you’re shopping around for project management software, review our list of top project management tools to see which fit your needs.

The post Top Benefits of Project Management Dashboards (2024) appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Jump to:

• An introduction to hybrid work
• The effects of hybrid work on productivity
• How companies utilize hybrid work software to see positive change in the workforce
• Hybrid work models increase productivity — if done right

An introduction to hybrid work 

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations had no choice but to adapt to conducting work remotely to comply with social distancing mandates. Remote work occurs when an employee performs their job duties from a location separate from the traditional workspace.

Instead of commuting to a work location provided by their job, this arrangement allows employees more freedom to accomplish the same work tasks elsewhere. A hybrid work arrangement may include working on-site only part of the time. When in-person social contact was limited, these arrangements were essential for many organizations.

The effects of hybrid work on productivity

Not all organizations and companies measure productivity by the same performance standards. But, employee productivity is usually dependent on the positive behavior of their staff members and their abilities to meet the employee performance goals and objectives set out by management.

Therefore, the primary way hybrid work situations may influence production is through the work arrangement’s effects on the working staff, including workers who adopt a hybrid work model and the colleagues who may be affected by the change. 

In addition, a strong workforce relies on feedback and collaboration in order to meet smart goals and maintain good performance. And when part of the team is working remotely, this may influence the team’s overall production.

How hybrid work improves productivity

Many workforce managers have seized the opportunity to benefit from hybrid work even before the pandemic. Since lockdown, however, the push for hybrid work has increased. 

Data from Accenture’s Future of Work Study 2021 shows positive feedback from hybrid workers regarding their hybrid work model. Of 9,326 surveyed workers, 83% stated they prefer a hybrid work model that allows them to work remotely at least 25% of the time.

One of the largest reasons for this preference may be the flexibility that hybrid work offers. Each person can work in the environment that makes them most productive. Factors like lighting, sound, temperature, and seating can have a major impact on each worker’s productivity, and it’s difficult to adapt those elements to each person’s preferences in an office setting. When workers have direct control over their environments, it’s easier for them to focus on the work at hand.

How to avoid productivity barriers with hybrid work

As with any change in work structure, challenges with adapting to hybrid work may become barriers to productivity.

First, collaboration and team-building are generally more difficult in a hybrid work model. Teams may experience communication gaps when working remotely, especially if they’re accustomed to asking questions or providing updates in passing conversations. Whether they’re in-office or remote, workers must make a conscious effort to engage teammates through other channels, so everyone can stay up-to-date on important details.

Similarly, new or training staff members may feel left behind if they are not sure how to find answers to work-related questions. Ineffective or unclear direction and feedback can be especially difficult to navigate in a hybrid work environment. To properly complete tasks and meet goals, staff members need easily accessible resources and transparent expectations. Implementing hybrid work with the right tools and technology can improve and alleviate these issues. Solutions like video conferencing software, messaging applications, collaboration software, and other forms of management technology can create new communication channels and maintain valuable teamwork for hybrid teams.

Read next: Best Team Collaboration Software

Implementing hybrid work effectively to avoid decreases in productivity 

As with any change in work structure, difficulties can arise that may decrease overall productivity. In addition, some negative attributes to hybrid work are bound to occur if the work model is ineffectively applied.

One drawback to the hybrid work model is that some workers prefer to communicate with their colleagues more quickly and efficiently in a shared workplace setting. Especially when confronted with the idea of collaborative work, staff members may experience difficulties with communication when working remotely. New or training staff members may feel left behind if they are not sure how to answer work-related questions. Ineffective or unclear management direction can be especially harmful to the productivity of a workplace when employees are doing hybrid work. To properly carry out tasks, staff members need to have information about management and expectations available to reference.

However, executing hybrid work with the right tools and technology can improve and alleviate these issues. By providing clear management expectations for workers and open communication channels between staff members, lapses in productivity due to lack of direction may decrease. Utilizing the correct tools can be helpful, as collaboration can occur through video conferencing software, messaging applications, collaboration software, and other forms of management technology. Many workplaces have used technology and hybrid work software to amend these issues that can harm productivity and instead harness more benefits to the hybrid work structure that may increase productivity.

How companies utilize hybrid work software to see positive change in the workforce

Many organizations and companies have turned to the use of hybrid and remote work software to effectively manage their remote workers and increase the productivity of their staff. An optimized digital workplace can assist workers with many aspects of hybrid working.

Project management

Work coordination is essential to a productive workforce structure. According to Reworked.co, project management programs like Smartsheet help organize employees’ individual goals around a centralized task. 

Additionally, communication and collaboration are made simpler for remote workers through Intranet programs like Powell Software, which allows for interactive communication between staff members.

Training 

In addition, digital adoption platforms like Walkme and other training software like ezTalks Cloud Meeting help teach skills or conduct lessons to train staff members. Many of these software systems can help employees with their professional development by providing training for employee growth and career development opportunities.

Analytics

Some software programs offer helpful analytics for human resources (HR) and leadership to review staff data, provide feedback, conduct performance appraisals, and develop plans to increase productivity and reach employee goals. For example, Scalable Software’s hybrid work system uses relational analytics to help HR leaders understand shifts in team dynamics and assess hybrid working capabilities. 

Performance management

A performance management system enables management teams to provide constructive feedback and conduct effective performance appraisals regardless of where employees are located. 

For example, BambooHR’s performance management features let managers streamline a number of tasks for their hybrid teams. These include tracking employees’ accomplishments, setting refined goals for improvement, and alerting employees of goal progress. 

When all of this information is in one place, remote workers can feel confident that they’re on the right track toward meeting their goals.

Hybrid work models increase productivity — if done right

By adjusting their workforce structure to a hybrid model, companies and organizations can leverage the benefits of having both in-office and remote teams. Employees that have more control over how and where they work are more likely to be satisfied in their jobs and, by extension, more productive in their day-to-day.

However, team members’ success with hybrid work requires proper tools for communication, feedback, and collaboration. The right hybrid work software can offer tools to support these needs and improve productivity for teams no matter where they work.

Top Human Resources Software Recommendations

The post The Impact of Hybrid Work on Productivity appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

In this article, we will look at the features and functionalities of GoDaddy and several of its best alternatives. Popular web hosting vendors like Bluehost, Domain.com, Dreamhost, and HostGator offer similar services to its clients. We’ve done the job of analyzing these GoDaddy alternatives based on multiple factors, so you don’t have to.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy provides its users with a structured system for building websites and online digital spaces. Their drag-and-drop website creation system grants members an easy, user-friendly experience, and their unlimited disk space lets members limitlessly execute their ideas.

For those newer to website building, the GoDaddy website builder provides a variety of templates and customizable themes as well as mobile designing and editing. In addition, users can manage all of their online presences, including their website, email, and socials, from the GoDaddy integrated platform. At the same time, businesses benefit from their personalized marketing tools and the option to upgrade their memberships for e-commerce features.

If you just want to register your domain elsewhere, customers can purchase a domain name from Google Domains for as little as $7/year.

Here are a few GoDaddy alternatives to consider:

Best GoDaddy Alternatives

Product	Free Domain Name with Plan Purchase	Managed WordPress Hosting	VPS Hosting Plans	Dedicated Servers
Bluehost	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Domain.com	Yes	No	No	No
DreamHost	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HostGator	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Who are the top GoDaddy competitors, and do they provide better hosting than GoDaddy? To answer these questions, we have evaluated several GoDaddy competitors and alternative website hosting providers to see how they stack up based on their features and services.

Bluehost – Best for WordPress Hosting

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Pros

• Free domain name for the first year
• One of the most affordable options on this list
• Intuitive user interface and good customer support

Cons

• No cloud hosting options
• Renewal price is much higher than the entry rate

Talk to an expert

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Key features

1. One-click WordPress installation: Bluehost offers a seamless experience for users looking to set up a WordPress site. With a single click, users can install WordPress and start building their website.
2. Free domain name: Bluehost provides a free domain name for the first year when users sign up for their hosting plans, allowing users to start their online journey without additional costs.
3. 24/7 customer support: Bluehost is known for its reliable customer support, available 24/7 to assist users with any hosting-related queries or issues.
4. Built-in security features: Bluehost offers a range of security features, including free SSL certificates, daily backups, and protection against DDoS attacks.
5. Unmetered bandwidth: Bluehost plans come with unmetered bandwidth, ensuring that websites can handle traffic spikes without any additional charges.
6. cPanel access: Bluehost provides users with cPanel access, a popular web hosting control panel that allows for easy management of websites, domains, and emails.

Pricing

. BASIC

• Purpose: Ideal for a single site.
• Discount: 75% off
• Promotional Price: $2.95/mo* (for a 12-month term)
• Regular Price: $11.99/mo
• Renewal: Auto-renews at the regular rate

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2. PLUS

• Purpose: Suitable for multiple sites.
• Discount: 67% off
• Promotional Price: $5.45/mo* (for a 12-month term)
• Regular Price: $16.99/mo
• Renewal: Auto-renews at the regular rate

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3. CHOICE PLUS (Recommended)

• Purpose: Comes with additional privacy and security features.
• Discount: 75% off
• Promotional Price: $5.45/mo* (for a 12-month term)
• Regular Price: $21.99/mo
• Renewal: Auto-renews at the regular rate

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4. PRO

• Purpose: Offers enhanced speed and processing power.
• Discount: 51% off
• Promotional Price: $13.95/mo* (for a 12-month term)
• Regular Price: $28.99/mo
• Renewal: Auto-renews at the regular rate

Why we chose Bluehost

A great Bluehost feature for business needs is digital marketing services like advertising, website SEO, social media marketing, and business visibility. Managed WordPress hosting and e-commerce hosting options are available for users to make their business and marketing websites, and they boast a 99.99% uptime and Cloudflare integration for faster website loading. In addition, their features for ensuring speed and reliability make them a good option for users who want a website built for speed, customization, and reliability and do not mind the lack of automated daily security backups.

Bluehost is a drag-and-drop site builder with unlimited disk storage and data hosting. It is easy to use and customize with its intuitive control panel. Bluehost memberships include the general features of similar hosting platforms, such as a free domain name for users, easy-to-use website creation, and WordPress integration. However, Bluehost provides more email accounts than GoDaddy as well as unlimited databases.User and website data is safe with multiple disk data mirroring through their dedicated hosting plan. Additionally, there are numerous other options for ensuring security, such as password-protected directories, IP address blocklists, digital certificates, and private key management. Users can decide which security measures they would like to take. The drawback is that they must do daily security backups themselves as Bluehost’s services do not include automated daily security backups.

Domain.com

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Pros

• One of the most affordable options
• Includes automatic weekly backups
• Free SSL certificate with all plans

Cons

• High renewal prices
• No monthly billing for shared hosting

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Key features

1. Domain registration: Domain.com is primarily known for its domain registration services, offering a wide variety of top-level domains (TLDs) for users to choose from.
2. Web hosting: Domain.com provides various web hosting solutions, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and WordPress hosting, catering to different website needs.
3. Website builder: Domain.com offers a user-friendly website builder that allows users to create professional-looking websites without any coding knowledge. It comes with customizable templates and drag-and-drop functionality.
4. SSL certificates: For enhanced website security, Domain.com provides SSL certificates, ensuring encrypted communication between the website and its visitors.
5. Professional email services: Domain.com offers email services that allow users to create custom email addresses using their domain name, enhancing their professional image.
6. 24/7 customer support: Domain.com is known for its dedicated customer support, available around the clock to assist users with any queries or issues related to their services.

Pricing

Refer to Domain.com’s pricing page for a specific quote.

Why we chose Domain.com

The platform has dependable uptime and free domain name registration for one year, although the domain extension will cost a fee after the year is up. Furthermore, it takes care of security for its users through free SSL certificates, so users and business owners especially can feel safe in their website transactions, making it a great option for e-commerce businesses looking for GoDaddy competitors. Their security also includes a password-protected directory for easy and secure access.

Domain.com supports its users with unlimited databases, FTP logins, and add-on domains. They also have hosting plans for shared accounts and WordPress hosting. Shared hosting plans are available for higher-tier memberships and allow users to host multiple websites on a shared server. Users can also create unlimited subdomains and utilize the free cloud storage and scalable bandwidth through the system.

While Domain.com has many great features, they fall behind when it comes to accessibility and integration. For example, their system has WordPress hosting but lacks options for Windows-based, cloud, reseller, and dedicated servers. But if that doesn’t deter you, you can use the software’s e-commerce tools, unlimited storage, and WordPress hosting plans to help your business thrive.

DreamHost

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Pros

• 100% uptime guarantee
• Free domain name registration for the first year
• Unlimited bandwidth and 50GB of storage

Cons

• No phone customer support available, only live chat
• Few server locations

Talk to an expert

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Key features

1. Unlimited bandwidth and storage: DreamHost offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, allowing users to host websites without worrying about exceeding any limits.
2. 97-day money-back guarantee: DreamHost is confident in its services and offers a lengthy 97-day money-back guarantee for its shared hosting plans.
3. Free domain name: DreamHost provides a free domain name registration with its hosting plans, allowing users to establish their online presence without additional costs.
4. One-click installer: DreamHost features a one-click installer that makes it easy for users to install popular applications and CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
5. Free SSL certificate: DreamHost includes a free SSL certificate with its hosting plans, ensuring that websites are secure and can be accessed via HTTPS.
6. 24/7 customer support: DreamHost offers round-the-clock customer support to assist users with any issues or queries they might have regarding their hosting services.

Pricing

• Shared Hosting:
  • Discount Price: $2.95 per month
  • Regular Price: $6.99 per month
• WordPress / DreamPress Hosting:
  • Discount Price: $16.95 per month
  • Regular Price: $19.99 per month
• VPS Hosting:
  • Discount Price: $13.75 per month
  • Regular Price: $15.99 per month
• Dedicated Hosting:
  • Price: $149.00 per month

Why we chose DreamHost

One of the best features of DreamHost is its ease of use from the start. Their one-click installation process means that new users can get started with their website building fast. They have various app integrations, including WordPress sync, and their file transfer protocol (FTP) is a part of the installation process. In addition, their intuitive navigation set-up uses navigation trees to help lead their users to their destinations and provides preloaded themes for website building.

DreamHost provides users with unlimited internal storage and bandwidth as well as content and email hosting capabilities. Security is taken care of with a free SSL certificate for every site hosted. Additionally, users are protected by the software’s auto backups, which save website data automatically.

The platform is designed for the average user’s use, rather than an expert in website design. For example, they provide users with access to an administrator dashboard, which is less cluttered than a cPanel but offers fewer options. If you’re a new user without much experience who values simplicity and limited features over complicated customization options, then DreamHost might be right for you.

HostGator

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Pros

• Free domain name registration for the first year
• Responsive 24/7 customer support
• Very affordable prices

Cons

• Only offers US-based servers
• Windows servers aren’t available with all hosting plans

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Key features

1. Reliability: HostGator is known for its 99.9% uptime guarantee, ensuring that websites hosted on their platform are consistently accessible to visitors.
2. cPanel control panel: HostGator provides a user-friendly cPanel interface, making it easy for users to manage their websites, domains, and emails.
3. One-click installations: With the QuickInstall tool, users can easily install popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal with just a single click.
4. Website builder: HostGator offers a drag-and-drop website builder that allows users to create professional-looking websites without any coding knowledge.
5. 45-day money-back guarantee: Unlike many other hosting providers that offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, HostGator extends this period to 45 days, giving users more time to test their services.
6. 24/7 customer support: HostGator prides itself on its round-the-clock customer support, available via phone, live chat, and email, ensuring that users get timely assistance whenever they face any issues.

Pricing

Refer to HostGator’s official pricing chart for a quote.

Why we chose HostGator

HostGator is on top of security for its users and has business safety features aligned with the values of the majority of its users. This includes features like free SSL certificates and the Virtual Private Servers, which keep sites secure and private. While smaller businesses can operate on shared servers, dedicated servers are also available. Large enterprises that require advanced online business security and more bandwidth can benefit from using dedicated servers, but this option does come at an increased cost.

HostGator is a good GoDaddy alternative for website hosting, especially for business owners looking to use a website to develop their brand. Their plans come with credits for advertising on Google and Bing, and their system can allow unlimited traffic to your websites. Managed WordPress hosting is also available.

Unfortunately, a lot of the unique features of HostGator come at hidden costs. For example, their lower-cost plans allow for just one domain name rather than unlimited domains. However, the lowest plan still meets the basic hosting necessities for small business websites. Users also have access to the free content management system, various helpful resources for web development, and easy one-click integrations with other apps and tools.

Top Features of Web Hosting Services

Web hosting platforms offer different options and features to provide for the needs of their users. So instead of asking yourself what the best GoDaddy alternative is, consider which factors would be most helpful for you to have in your website building experience.

Ease of Use vs. Advanced User Options

Ease of use is important for users that are looking for simple and effective website building options. Features like one-click installation and intuitive navigation help users to make their sites quickly, with less confusion. However, these features may come at the sacrifice of advanced user options. For example, Dreamhost has an easy-to-use dashboard feature rather than a control panel that would allow for more website customization options.

Reliability and Speed

Web hosting platforms must be fast and reliable to keep your site running quickly and smoothly for visitors. Reliability can be calculated as a percentage that reflects the average uptime of a website’s server. For example, Bluehost reportedly has a 99.99% uptime, reflecting reliable website functionality, and features like their Cloudflare integration help with website loading speed.

Shared and Non-shared Server Options

Some users may wish to utilize non-shared servers, usually referred to as private or dedicated servers. Generally, larger businesses have websites operating on their servers, which can improve their security and performance. However, non-shared servers can be more costly through web hosting platforms and may require more technical knowledge to operate.

Accessibility and Integrations

Accessibility and integrations are essential for sharing data and working with external systems. Many hosting platforms offer one-click integrations for programs like WordPress and other marketing and content management systems. However, Domain.com is an example of a platform with WordPress plans, but unfortunately lacks options for Windows-based or cloud servers.

Data Synchronization

Data synchronization allows users to move their sensitive data onto their website hosting software to access and utilize it there. While a lot of web hosting platforms have quick data synchronization options. Network Solutions takes it a step further, providing domain name transfer and website forwarding for their users.

How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Provider

When considering GoDaddy alternatives, you should look for a web hosting company with comparable reliability, ease of use, speed/web performance, and additional features.

The best features for your needs may depend on the type of website you wish to build, your user experience level, and the magnitude of your operations. For example, if you have experience with website building and are planning to create a website for a large enterprise, look for software with a non-shared server option. On the other hand, if this doesn’t sound like you, and you’re just dipping your toes into website design and management, it’s wise to begin with a more user-friendly, shared hosting platform as a suitable GoDaddy alternative.

Read next: Best Website Hosting Services & Companies

How we choose our top picks

At TechnologyAdvice, we assess a wide range of factors before selecting our top choices for a given category. 

To make our selections, we rely on our extensive research, product information, vendor websites, competitor research and first-hand experience. We then consider what makes a solution best for customer-specific needs.

For our GoDaddy Alternatives list, we looked at 15 options before whittling them down to the five that cover all domain hosting needs for startups all the way up to enterprises.

FAQs

Why look for GoDaddy alternatives?

While GoDaddy is a popular hosting and domain service, alternatives may offer better pricing, customer service, or specific features tailored to individual needs. Exploring alternatives allows you to find a service that bst matches your requirements.

What should I consider when choosing a GoDaddy alternative?

Consider factors like pricing, customer support, ease-of-use, scalability, and specific features like WordPress integration or domain services when choosing an alternative to GoDaddy.

The post Top GoDaddy Alternatives & Competitors appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

While SAP‘s  ERP software can streamline your organization’s operations for optimized efficiency, there are potentially better alternatives depending on your business’s needs. After all, a business’s production, finances, and output quality are not areas to be taken lightly, and ERP solutions can handle even more business aspects than that.

So, if you’re searching for alternatives to SAP’s ERP solution, be sure to consider the key features offered by many ERP products and how they could best work for your enterprise management needs.

Best SAP ERP Alternatives for Financial Management Features

The SAP ERP software provides several features for financial management processes, such as working capital management, financial planning and analysis, budgeting, efficient billing and business models, continuous accounting, and the ability for users to connect their finances to their entire company.

Features such as these allow users to benefit from a streamlined and integrated financial process. Therefore, it’s important to see how SAP alternatives compare in terms of financial management features.

Sage X3

Sage Business Cloud X3 grants users full access and control over their organization’s entire financial management processes. It provides real-time data visibility over financial data with analytics, notifications, alerts, and configurable inquiries on any data table, so users can gain actionable insights.

Organizations can track their fixed assets throughout their life cycle with traceability of capital expenditure. The other financial management features include cash flow management, bank management, budgets, commitments, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cost and analytical accounting.

Oracle Netsuite

Oracle Netsuite allows users to automate core financial processes like assets management, revenue management, and bank reconciliation. NetSuite’s financial, operational, and headcount data provides real-time visibility and can produce reports, budgets, and forecasts and model what-if scenarios, so users get the most from their financial datasets.

In addition, the system offers revenue recognition in compliance with accounting standards like ASC 606 and IFRS 15 as well as features for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) and financial consolidation.

Best SAP ERP Alternatives for Manufacturing Features

SAP provides users with ERP software to optimize manufacturing production processes. Its features involve real-time data insights, MRP (material requirements planning) and production planning, project manufacturing, manufacturing engineering, and collaboration tools.

Below are some alternative ERP solutions that provide their own services that support manufacturing operations.

Plex Systems

Plex Systems has a smart manufacturing platform, enabling users to connect with each area of their manufacturing processes across people, machines, systems, and supply chains. Users can track and analyze their data from each end of their productions to better understand their organization and maintain quality and control.

Moreover, the system automates manufacturing workflows and business processes like integrating processes with EDI (electronic data interchange) for accuracy in supplier actions. Users of the Plex ERP system can also minimize their risks with the tool’s features for maintaining compliance with statutory and industry regulations.

Epicor

Epicor’s software for manufacturing enables users to streamline their manufacturing operations with real-time visibility across inventory and business and increase their uptime.

In addition, the solution has features for anticipating consumer demand to determine production capacity and cost management as well as financial tools for manufacturing-related processes. That way, teams can accurately plan their productivity to increase profits and revenue and accelerate their business growth.

A nice aspect of this software is that it enables users to leverage advanced technology in their manufacturing enterprise resource planning, like machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Best SAP ERP Alternatives for Supply Chain Management Features

Supply chain processes are not always easy to manage, but ERP systems can organize them in a way that provides control and visibility for users.

For example, SAP’s Supply Chain Management module is a part of their ERP tool that provides agile supply chain planning features like supply chain networking, coordination, logistics management, and information management. However, IFS and Infor CloudSuite also provide remarkable supply chain management capabilities for their users.

IFS

IFS provides supply chain management functions that help organizations meet customer demands, develop their business reputations, and simplify their inventory management among other capabilities. IFS also has features for managing inventory and improving margins and cash flow.

Users of the product can benefit from supply chain visibility across their entire ecosystem, enabling them to better manage their costs, shorten production life cycles, maintain quality, and accelerate turnaround times. This transparency can also make identifying and resolving issues and mitigating risks within the supply chain processes easier.

Infor CloudSuite

The Infor CloudSuite ERP solution for supply chain management offers end-to-end resources for streamlining supply chain orchestration. Users gain visibility over real-time supply and demand signals with predictive alerting for important events.

Its automation features can perform financial tasks like chargebacks, claims processes, and invoice processing and approval, saving time and effort for users.

In addition, the product life cycle management software uses data to produce insights for better decision-making, and the collaborative in-network execution tools are a significant aspect of the product, as users and suppliers can collaborate in real time on orders, forecasts, and capacity.

How to Choose an SAP ERP Alternative

There are many ERP solutions on the market, each of which come with its own capabilities to help users execute their resource and planning tasks. When deciding on the best SAP ERP alternative for you, consider what aspects of SAP’s product are essential to you and would be most beneficial to conducting and improving your organization’s business.

If there is a feature you prefer, look for products that also provide similar features or ones that offer the same result. For example, suppose you appreciate SAP ERP’s financial analysis tools. In that case, you may want to consider whether Sage X3’s financial data tables and analytic capabilities would provide the same benefit for your organization.

Furthermore, some alternatives to the SAP ERP software may offer their own unique features, which could be more advantageous for your organization. Oracle, for example, has asset life cycle management for determining the financial potential of your assets, which the SAP ERP software does not possess.

Analyzing your options based on the features that would be most beneficial to your organization’s ERP needs is an effective way to pinpoint the optimal ERP solution for you.

How we choose our top picks

At TechnologyAdvice, we assess a wide range of factors before selecting our top choices for a given category. 

To make our selections, we rely on our extensive research, product information, vendor websites, competitor research and first-hand experience. We then consider what makes a solution best for customer-specific needs.

For our SAP ERP Alternatives list, we looked at 13 options before whittling them down to the six that cover all accounting needs for startups all the way up to enterprises.

FAQs

What are some top alternatives to SAP ERP?

Top alternatives to SAP ERP include Sage X3, Oracle Netsuite, Plex Systems, Epicor, IFS, and Infor CloudSuite. Each offer unique features and benefits.

Why consider alternatives to SAP ERP?

While SAP ERP is a robust solution, alternatives may offer better pricing, easier implementation, industry-specific features, or superior compatibility with existing business systems.

The post Top 6 SAP ERP Alternatives appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Field Service Apps That Do Mobile Right

[cta-two]Which Field Service Management Software
is Right For Your Business?[/cta-two]

FieldEdge: Best for communication and notifications

FieldEdge is a field management service software tool that helps your team members both in the office and in the field. Its Performance dashboards and mobile app allows fast access to important features for purposes like developing service agreements and price presentation. An integrated CRM puts customer details at their fingertips, where techs can also access invoicing, review mobile payments, and create on-the-spot changes to jobs.

FieldEdge pros

• FieldEdge Mobile reminders for staff members to clock in and out
• Automatic invoice reminders
• Visual pricebook to provide purchase and quote information for technicians
• Integrated payment solutions, including QuickBooks integration

FieldEdge cons

• Difficult user interface
• No report customization capabilities
• No inventory management features

FieldEdge key features

• Automatic job status updates: FieldEdge monitors and updates the job status according to a tech’s movement through the app rather than relying on the individual to manually update the job status as it changes.
• dESCO ESC software: FieldEdge is the cloud-based field service management app from the company behind dESCO ESC. This mobile-ready app is designed to streamline communications with the office and reduce workflow-disrupting calls or trips back to the home office.

Why we chose FieldEdge

FieldEdge lets users apply automated alerts and communication to notify all relevant individuals of important updates. It also keeps the customer, the tech, and dispatch in sync with the latest job changes via notifications from the app.

RazorSync: Best for customer experience

RazorSync comes equipped for use on any device—mobile, tablet, or desktop—and is priced for both small businesses and enterprise companies looking to improve their mobile field service management. The app also has Quickbooks integration, mobile payments, work orders, and fast billing.

RazorSync pros

• Custom notifications for alerting customers and staff
• Time tracking to simplify payroll reporting
• Automated billing
• One-on-one trainings

RazorSync cons

• Glitchy mobile interface
• Not user-friendly
• No purchase order system

RazorSync key features

• Customer portal: The customer portal allows for increased communication and scheduling for better customer service. Both the office and technicians can see conversations and customer actions within the portal, and customers can self-serve scheduling, job updates, and billing.
• At-a-glance customer history: Users can quickly access important background information for customers to better serve their maintenance needs, like historical service records for customers’ service locations.

Why we chose RazorSync

RazerSync takes the cake for customer experience. The platform provides teams with easy access to all important customer info, so your workers can provide the best possible customer service. Like many of the options here, RazorSync tracks technicians as they move from job to job via GPS. This tool helps improve customer communication and dispatch efficiency. And one-on-one training provided by RazerSync can help them better serve their customers.

Miracle Service: Best for scalability

Miracle Service is a simplified service management tool for service industries to increase their efficiency and profitability. The solution comes standard with features like scheduling, contract management, and billing to keep the field service office under control. The mobile service option gives technicians access to a range of administrative tasks, greatly reducing the need for in-person check-ins with the office.

Miracle Service pros

• Preventative maintenance for field service equipment
• Document manager for digital files and images
• Profitability analysis for individual items or services
• Inventory management

Miracle Service cons

• Limited invoice formatting options
• No claims management
• No software updates for existing solutions

Miracle Service key features

• Modular capabilities: You can mix and match the important features your company needs and expand your options as your business grows. 
• Mobile technician management: This is the feature that makes Miracle Service a mobile app. It is an optional add-on, but it’s worth the extra charge for the flexibility.
• Integrations: Miracle Service also offers integrations to 20 accounting apps including QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics, and SAP, so organizations of all sizes can easily perform their accounting activities.

Why we chose Miracle Service

The Miracle Service system is suitable for growing companies, as it offers a wide range of features that customers can choose to implement within their ideal solution. Miracle Service is modular, meaning businesses are able to choose and only pay for the features they need. They can later adjust their solution to gain additional features as they grow and their business needs change.

Salesforce Service Cloud: Best for technician support

The Salesforce Service Cloud is a popular field service app that allows employees to work from anywhere, even without cell service. Offline features save to the phone and back up to the cloud later when the device connects to cell service or internet. Service Cloud is IoT-connected and can monitor machinery with connected devices, making it perfect for maintenance companies and facilities management teams that need to passively monitor systems.

Salesforce Service Cloud pros

• Automated scheduling for more streamlined dispatching
• Customer platform with automated service tools
• Offline mobile access
• Asset performance monitoring and management
  

Salesforce Service Cloud cons

• Learning curve
• May be too pricey for small companies and startups
• Slow UI responsiveness
  

Why we chose Salesforce

Salesforce Service Cloud includes supportive features to help your team members complete their work quickly and efficiently. For example, its scheduling and routing optimization feature automates scheduling and dispatching while reducing travel times by determining the best routes. And better yet, Salesforce’s Field Service mobile app will enable your workers to access necessary data and tools when they need them.

HouseCall Pro: Best for payment processing

HouseCall Pro helps users build better businesses by making mobile-connected field service easier for both the company and customer. HouseCall Pro enables users to harness customizable automations to simplify and accelerate their processes. It also handles scheduling on third-party apps like Facebook, Yelp, and your website, and the app provides automated marketing features such as email, follow ups, and direct mail.

HouseCall Pro pros

• Drag-and-drop workflow management to track customer lifecycles
• Customer intake flows for easy scheduling
• Robust reporting capabilities
• Online instant customer booking

HouseCall Pro cons

• Difficult to make adjustments to invoices and estimates
• Customer support could be more helpful
• Limited schedule customization capabilities

HouseCall Pro key features

• Instapay transactions: Collect payments, keep track of electronic invoices, and speed up the office’s invoice-to-cash cycle with Instapay, which makes fast transfers into the company’s bank account.
• Consumer financing options: Housecall Pro lets organizations provide consumer financing options. More financing options for customers, like instant financing or allowing payments over time, can help businesses attract more paying clients.
• Custom SMS messaging: Technicians can securely talk to customers and the office through a custom SMS messaging tool. With this tool, technicians don’t have to share their personal mobile numbers with customers.

Why we chose HouseCall Pro

Collecting payment from customers is easy with HouseCall Pro, as its one-click invoicing lets users instantly transform service estimates into personalized invoices for customers. The system files customer payment information and collects deposits prior to the start of the job to give your organization peace of mind. Its QuickBook integration also syncs data and information between the platforms for streamlined accounting.

FieldPulse: Best for team management

FieldPulse is a field service management software designed specifically for mobile teams. Its platform enables users to manage their jobs, perform scheduling, and even support their customer relationships. Its customizable invoices and payments also make it easy to bill clients for services.

FieldPulse pros

• Ability to customize invoices
• Mobile estimating software for contractors
• GPS vehicle tracking
• Easy invoicing

FieldPulse cons

• Report exporting could use improvement
• Steep learning curve for new users
• Non-intuitive UI

FieldPulse key features

• Item repository: FieldPulse makes building invoices fast with an item repository. Technicians can save their most common invoice items and add them quickly. This feature reduces office errors and results in faster billing cycles.
• User management: FieldPulses user management lets admins manage staff members in various ways, like assigning their teams, tracking their locations, and scheduling jobs directly within the app.

Why we chose FieldPulse

FieldPulse provides plenty of capabilities for service businesses to manage their contractors and teams. This includes Gantt-based scheduling for greater dispatch clarity, a GPS-driven employee time clock for reduced manual entry errors, and even commission tracking to motivate on-site selling. Teams can take payment on-site through Square and manage their books with QuickBooks-connected accounting tools.

What should I look for in field service management software?

To provide top functionality to users, mobile technology must keep up with workers’ demand for better software. As the number of field-based employees rises, companies need mobile apps to give them greater access to business-critical information outside the office.

Methodology

At TechnologyAdvice, we assess a wide range of factors before selecting our top choices for a given category. To make our selections, we rely on our extensive research, product information, vendor websites, competitor research and first-hand experience. We then consider what makes a solution best for customer-specific needs.

For our best FSM mobile apps list, we looked at 26 options before whittling them down to a handful that cover the various needs a business might seek. Features considered include connectivity, OS availability, cost, mobile functions, cloud backups, payments, and more.

Choosing the best field service App

FSM software is improving as fast as the industry is growing. Look for mobile apps that make life easier for technicians and the back office, as these will reduce job times and costly manual back-and-forth communications.

Looking for the latest in FSM solutions? Check out our Field Service Management Software guide.

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The post Best Mobile Apps for Service Technicians appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Business intelligence (BI) solutions help business decision-makers plan their actions for the best possible outcomes according to their organizational data. So, how can organizations properly store their data, so it is readily accessible for analysis and reporting but also safe and secure from data loss or security breaches?

Business intelligence requires the use of raw data that is transformed into insights and actionable information, allowing organizations to make data-driven decisions. Therefore, organizations must store their BI data in accessible but secure locations.

Read on to learn how the best data storage solutions function to address the BI needs for organizations in 2023.

Explore Top Business Intelligence Job Opportunities

5 Top Data Storage Solutions for BI

Snowflake – Best for dynamic data sharing

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Pros

• Can scale up and down to match data workloads
• Architecture separates storage and compute
• Secure sharing of live data with other Snowflake users
• Multi-cloud platform

Cons

• Limited native ETL capabilities
• Moving large volumes of data into Snowflake can be challenging, especially from on-premises systems

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Key Features

Multi-cluster shared data architecture: This feature allows for separate scaling of compute and storage resources, providing flexibility and optimized performance.

Secure data sharing: Snowflake supports real-time data sharing across different units or with external partners, eliminating the need for data copying.

Zero-copy cloning: This feature supports instant and efficient duplication of databases, schemas, or tables, useful for testing, development, and data recovery.

Time travel: Snowflake enables access to historical data at any point within a defined period, which aids in easy data recovery and auditing.

pricing

Warehouse Size	Servers	Credit/Hour	Credits/Second
X-Small	1	1	0.0003
Small	2	2	0.0006
Medium	4	4	0.0011
Large	8	8	0.0022
X-Large	16	16	0.0044
2X-Large	32	32	0.0089
3X-Large	64	64	0.0178
4X-Large	128	128	0.0356

why we chose snowflake

The system allows organizations to query their semi-structured data with speed and flexibility. By running pipelines through Snowflake’s elastic processing engine and streamlining pipeline development through their language of choice, users can process their data without the need for excessive maintenance.

Data stored in the Snowflake Data Lake is secure, as users can protect their data across clouds with scalable role-based access policies. The system’s Classification feature lets it automatically identify sensitive data and enable secure collaboration with live, secure data sharing.

This cross-cloud data storage solution lets users access all of their data on one platform, including their structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data. Many different workloads can be supported through the system using the user’s choice of language, making it an accessible choice for a variety of users.

Oracle Autonomous Database – Best for automated management

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Pros

• Automates database tuning, security, backups, updates, and other routine management tasks
• Employs machine-learning algorithms for its self-securing capabilities
• Guarantees 99.995% availability

Cons

• Limited control over detailed system parameters
• Migrating existing databases to Oracle’s Autonomous Database can be complex, especially if coming from non-Oracle databases

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Key Features

• Exadata infrastructure: The Autonomous Database is built on Oracle Exadata infrastructure, providing superior performance and efficiency for Oracle Database workloads
• Machine learning integration: The platform provides built-in machine learning algorithms, allowing users to develop ML models directly within the database
• Converged database capabilities: The Autonomous Database supports multiple data types and workloads, including relational, JSON, XML, graph, spatial, IoT, and blockchain
• APEX application development: Oracle offers a low-code application development platform (Oracle APEX), enabling rapid development and deployment of data-driven applications

Pricing

Visit Oracle’s pricing page for a comprehensive price structure.

Why we chose oracle

This is a nice choice for non-experts and experts alike, as it offers robust data management capabilities while being a hands-off, autonomous system. With auto-scaling, auto-securing, auto-tuning, auto-backups, auto-repairing, and auto-patching, organizations can manage their data while reducing their administrative costs.

The solution also provides self-service data management tools, enabling users to easily load and transform their data to generate actionable insights. Additional features include machine learning capabilities, graph analytics, and spatial analytics.

Oracle offers many different data solutions for business intelligence. The Autonomous Database is an excellent solution for organizations that desire fast data storage and processing with a low likelihood of human error. The cloud database is fully automated and formatted to support fast database provisioning, extracting, loading, and transforming data.

Google BigQuery – Best for real-time analytics

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Pros

• Serverless model abstracts underlying infrastructure
• Highly scalable
• Integration with Google ecosystem

Cons

• Charges for data storage and processing
• Limited SQL dialect
• Limited ETL processes

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Key Features

• Geospatial data analysis: Google BigQuery has built-in support for geospatial data types and functions, enabling sophisticated location-based analytics.
• BigQuery ML: This allows users to create and execute machine learning models in BigQuery using standard SQL queries, simplifying the process of predictive analytics.
• BigQuery BI engine: An in-memory analysis service for BigQuery that allows users to analyze large and complex datasets interactively with sub-second query response time and high concurrency.
• BigQuery data transfer service: This service automates data movement from SaaS applications to BigQuery on a scheduled, managed basis, streamlining the ETL process.

pricing

Pay As You Go Model:

Standard Edition: $0.04 per slot hour, billed per second with a 1-minute minimum, no commitment required.

Enterprise Edition: $0.06 per slot hour, billed per second with a 1-minute minimum, no commitment required.

Enterprise Plus Edition: $0.1 per slot hour, billed per second with a 1-minute minimum, no commitment required.

1 Year Commitment Model:

Enterprise Edition: $0.048 per slot hour, billed for one year.

Enterprise Plus Edition: $0.08 per slot hour, billed for one year.

3 Year Commitment Model:

Enterprise Edition: $0.036 per slot hour, billed for three years.

Enterprise Plus Edition: $0.06 per slot hour, billed for three years.

why we chose google bigquery

BigQuery is designed to enable users to run analytic queries over large datasets. As a managed service, BigQuery automatically allocates storage for users as they move data into the system, so users only need to pay for the storage they utilize. The solution also protects users’ data from data loss by replicating it across multiple availability zones as well as encrypts all user data before it is written to disk.

Users can load their data into BigQuery through batch loading sets of data records, streaming individual records or batches of records, generating new data using queries or overwriting the results to a table, or by using a third-party application or service.

Google BigQuery is an enterprise data warehouse where organizations can store and analyze their data. The solution stores user’s data in a columnar storage format to support analytical queries. BigQuery automatically replicates its storage across multiple locations to provide high data availability.

IBM Enterprise Data Storage Solutions – Best for AI-driven data management

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Pros

• AI-Infused operations
• Data protection and disaster recovery capabilities
• Integrates well with various platforms, including hybrid cloud environments

Cons

• Hardware dependency
• Licensing models for storage solutions can be complicated to understand and manage
• Transferring data from existing systems to IBM’s storage solutions can be complex when dealing with non-IBM legacy systems

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Key Features

• IBM Spectrum Discover: This feature provides advanced data insight for unstructured data, enabling efficient metadata management, data analytics, and AI project acceleration
• IBM FlashSystem Family: These high-performance storage solutions provide low-latency, high-speed access to data, vital for AI applications
• IBM Spectrum Scale: This feature provides high-speed, reliable access to data across scalable storage systems, supporting large-scale AI workloads
• Storage for Data and AI: IBM’s solutions offer a suite of tools designed specifically to streamline the data pipeline for AI projects, from collection to inference

pricing

• Free Tier – Lite Plan:
  • Offers 25GB of storage for free
• Paid Storage Options:
  • Cold Storage: $0.0094 per GB
  • Frequently Accessed Storage: $0.0237 per GB
• Request Charges:
  • PUT Requests: $0.006 per 1,000 requests
  • GET Requests: $0.005 per 10,000 requests
• Data Transfer Charges:
  • First 50TB: $0.09 per GB
  • Next 100TB: $0.07 per GB
  • Next 350TB: $0.05 per GB

Why we chose ibm enterprise data storage management

IBM provides a range of storage solutions for advanced data services, long-term data retention, artificial intelligence (AI), business continuity, and scalability. Users can choose between enterprise storage solutions designed to support the capabilities of IBM Z hybrid cloud environments, SAP HANA data demands, and self-service storage container environments.The solutions are designed to manage storage networking challenges, so data is accessible across the user organization’s hybrid cloud infrastructure, with scalable AI and security features.

IBM’s Enterprise Data Storage Solutions are integrated data storage platforms that act as a single source of truth for users within an organization. They offer data storage software solutions for simplified management and secure data protection.

AWS Amazon S3 – Best for cost-effectiveness

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Pros

• Pay-as-you-go pricing
• Multiple storage classes designed for different use cases
• Lifecycle management capabilities that allow automatic migration of objects between different storage classes

Cons

• Some lower-cost storage classes have retrieval costs
• Inter-region transfer costs
• Early deletion fees apply if objects are deleted before the minimum storage duration for some products

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Key Features

• S3 Object Lambda: This feature allows you to add your own code to S3 GET requests to modify and process data as it is returned to an application
• Multi-region access points: They simplify managing data access across multiple regions, using a single global endpoint to access a data set that spans multiple AWS regions
• S3 batch operations: It is a large-scale, managed data manipulation feature that can execute a single operation on billions of objects
• S3 replication: This feature automates, monitors, and retains copies of S3 objects across different AWS accounts or in different AWS Regions for compliance and security

pricing

Visit AWS’s pricing page for a comprehensive price structure.

Why we chose aws amazon s3

In the race of cost-effectiveness, Amazon AWS S3 bags the title due to its pay-as-you-go pricing. With no upfront costs, you pay for what you use, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes. AWS S3’s multiple storage classes allow for cost optimization based on access frequency. Plus, free data transfer into S3 and tiered pricing for outbound data transfer sweeten the deal. Its robust lifecycle management system automates data migration between storage classes, cutting costs without manual intervention, proving AWS S3 a worthy victor in cost-effectiveness.

Amazon Simple Storage Service is just one of Amazon’s cloud storage solutions. This object storage service is a scalable and secure infrastructure for organizations looking to virtually store and protect their data. Users can use the solution for structured and unstructured data to create and scale their own data lake in a secure environment.

AWS provides services for AI, HPC (high-performance computing), machine learning, and media data processing that users can run on their data lakes, enabling them to gain insights and information about their stored data. The solution also supports integrations with many third-party service providers, so users can easily analyze and transform their data.

With data lakes, users can remove data silos and gain insights by analyzing diverse datasets. Transferring data to the Amazon Simple Storage Service is simple with the AWS data transfer services for hybrid cloud storage, online data transfer, and offline data transfer.

What are the Key Features of BI Data Storage?

Space and scalability

Organizations often require lots of space to store their data, which can add up. However, utilizing cloud-based or hybrid solutions often enables users to purchase only the amount of data they need and scale up as necessary.

Accessibility

Data held in these storage solutions should be easily accessible for use in the organization’s other BI analysis, reporting, and visualization solutions. In order for organizations to gain real-time analysis and insights from their data, the storage solutions should be able to allow quick access to support the necessary data flow for these operations.

Management

The raw data that enters the BI data storage solutions may be unstructured and complex. Therefore, many data storage solutions provide ways for users to manage their data storage or will manage the data storage processing for users to ensure data is properly organized within the system.

Security

These storage solutions should come with features to protect organizations against the risk of data loss. They should also provide end-to-end encryption and appropriately meet the organization’s compliance standards.

What are the Benefits of a BI Data Storage Solution?

BI data storage solutions can provide many benefits to the organizations that use them, allowing for fast and safe data use within their analysis systems. To appropriately discuss the various benefits of data storage solutions, let’s look at some advantages that different types of BI data storage solutions can offer their users.

Data warehousing

Data warehousing solutions can provide users with more control over their data and can be a scalable option for BI data storage. They can help users maintain and clean up raw data from multiple disparate sources. The data is then stored within the data warehouses, which are an excellent interface for querying, transforming, and extracting data.

Data lakes

Data lakes can store all structured and unstructured data. This option is beneficial for performing machine learning, profiling, big data analysis, and real-time and predictive analytics on organizational data.

Cloud-based solutions

Cloud storage solutions are easily accessible for users at any place and any time, so long as they have internet access. They are also often an economical choice, as many cloud storage providers only allow users to pay for their required storage space. Storing organizational data in a single location through the cloud can also provide a single source of truth for users and lowers the likelihood of having duplicate datasets and data complexity.

Analytical databases

Analytical databases are great for querying, BI analysis, and managing Big Data. They let users benefit from fast query response times and can handle high volumes of data. They are also highly scalable, SQL-compatible, and allow for efficient data compression.

How are BI storage needs different from other storage needs?

BI operations depend upon software solutions to analyze data and transform it into actionable insights. The software needs to be able to access the data from the data storage solution. This data movement from the storage site into the BI solution is commonly referred to as the data flow. An organization’s BI data storage solution should support data flow into their analysis software solution.

Depending on the amount of data an organization needs to utilize, organizations may require much more storage space for their BI operations than they would need otherwise. Hence, scalability is a necessary feature of any BI data storage solution. Additionally, data stored within BI data storage solutions should be secure and address the appropriate compliance standards, as these locations will house important information that should not fall into the wrong hands.

The data stored within these solutions can come from multiple data sources and may be varying and complex. For this, storage solutions should also be able to organize and manage data in a way that allows it to be easily retrieved and used by other systems and for data queries.

Check out more top BI tools and solutions here.

How we choose our top picks

At TechnologyAdvice, we assess a wide range of factors before selecting our top choices for a given category. 

To make our selections, we rely on our extensive research, product information, vendor websites, competitor research and first-hand experience. We then consider what makes a solution best for customer-specific needs.

For our Best Data Storage Solutions for BI list, we looked at 17 options before whittling them down to the five that cover all data storage needs for startups all the way up to enterprises.

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Agile project management teams are always looking for ways to optimize their processes, and Gantt charts have become a valuable tool in the Agile approach for software development. While Agile project management requires flexibility, adaptability, and iterative delivery, Gantt charts can help break down large projects into smaller tasks and facilitate collaboration across the Agile team. Gantt charts can also enhance the visualization and tracking of project progress for easier project management.

This article will explore the benefits of using Gantt charts in Agile projects, the steps to implement them, and how teams can utilize them alongside Agile principles and practices. 

Read on to learn how to optimize Agile processes with Gantt charts and gain practical insights and tips for effectively using Agile Gantt charts to plan, track, and manage Agile projects for success.

What are Gantt charts?

In project management, teams will often use Gantt charts to provide visibility into each step of the project. Gantt charts visually display the necessary steps to complete the overall project with timelines. This way, viewers can better understand the tasks, dependencies, and overall schedules involved in the project.

Gantt charts show project tasks or events displayed in bars along a horizontal timeline. The X-axis of the graph will represent the overall project’s duration. These Gantt bars are included within the graph, with their length representing how much time is planned for each task and their placement representing the start and end dates of each task.

In project management, teams can modify their Gantt charts based on their needs. For example, Gantt charts can include additional information like task names, their priority, dependencies, important milestones, and allocated resources. The Gantt bars can be color-coded as well, with different colors representing the progress status of the tasks or indicating the amount of work done. 

Gantt charts can be an excellent tool in project management for planning project processes, scheduling project tasks and events, and tracking their status and completion. In Agile project management, visual planning and tracking through Gantt charts can provide an effective overview of the actions necessary to complete the project.

Of course, Agile project management is an iterative approach that prioritizes flexibility in planning. Often applied to software development, it involves breaking projects down into smaller, more manageable tasks, and making changes within a project as necessary throughout its lifecycle. Gantt charts are helpful for this non-linear form of project management, as they can increase visibility to all members of the project and can enable teams to work collaboratively and complete each task within their designated timeframes. 

The pros and cons of using Gantt charts for Agile project management

While there are many advantages to utilizing Gantt charts within Agile project management, this tool also has limitations when used with an Agile project management approach. 

Pros

Gantt charts provide high-level project planning

Gantt charts can be used to create a high-level project plan that outlines major milestones, sprints, or iterations. It can help Agile teams visualize the project’s overall timeline, including the planned start and end dates for each sprint or iteration, to provide a more in-depth overview of the project’s plan and progress.

Agile teams can use Gantt charts to track progress

Agile teams may use Gantt charts to track the progress of tasks or sprints. By updating the Gantt chart with the actual progress of tasks, team members and stakeholders can visually see how the project is progressing against the planned timeline.

Gantt charts offer more visualization

Gantt charts provide a visual representation of the project’s timeline, tasks, and dependencies, which can help Agile teams and stakeholders quickly understand the overall project plan and status. It can facilitate alignment, communication, and coordination among team members and stakeholders.

Teams can apply task dependencies

Gantt charts can help identify and manage dependencies between tasks in Agile projects, which can be crucial in Agile projects where certain tasks are dependent on each other’s progress or completion. For example, suppose one task cannot start until another task is completed. In that case, the Gantt chart can help visualize these dependencies and ensure that tasks are sequenced appropriately and potential bottlenecks or delays are identified early.

Agile teams can plan and manage their resource allocation

Gantt charts can be used to allocate resources, such as team members or equipment, to tasks in Agile projects. This can help teams ensure that all resources are appropriately allocated across the project and that potential resource constraints are identified and addressed.

Gantt charts facilitate communication and collaboration within project management processes

Gantt charts can be used in Agile projects as a communication and collaboration tool. As mentioned, they can be shared with team members, stakeholders, and clients to provide a visual representation of the project’s status, timeline, and progress. This can help facilitate communication, alignment, and coordination among team members and stakeholders.

Agile team members can easily understand their roles

Project team members can benefit from using Agile Gantt charts, as they can gain a clear understanding of their up-to-date expectations, upcoming tasks, assignment timeframes, and task dependencies. This can eliminate confusion and improve overall productivity.

Cons

Gantt chart timelines can be rigid

Agile methodologies emphasize adaptability and responsiveness to change. However, Gantt charts are typically based on a fixed timeline and task dependencies. The rigidity of Gantt charts may not align well with the dynamic and flexible nature of Agile projects, as it may be challenging to accommodate changes in priorities, requirements, or timelines.

Agile teams may require more detailed tracking tools

Agile methodologies often rely on more granular and detailed tracking of tasks and progress, such as using kanban boards or burndown charts. Gantt charts may not provide the same level of visibility into the details of individual tasks or progress, which may be important for Agile teams to effectively manage and track their work. Fortunately, some Gantt chart tools can be customized to include necessary information for reference within the chart.

Gantt charts must be maintained according to the project’s status

Gantt charts require regular updates to reflect changes in the project’s status, progress, or timelines. In Agile projects where priorities and requirements frequently change, updating and maintaining a Gantt chart can be time-consuming and require additional effort compared to other Agile-specific tools.

Gantt chart software may have limited Agile-specific features, if any

Gantt charts are not specifically designed for Agile methodologies and may lack certain important features in Agile project management, such as sprint planning, backlog management, or visualizing work-in-progress limits. Agile-specific tools like Kanban boards or burndown charts may provide more tailored and comprehensive features for Agile teams.

How to implement Gantt charts in Agile project management

Agile teams can implement Gantt charts in their Agile project management approach by utilizing the right software and process. The steps below outline how to effectively utilize Gantt charts in Agile projects.

Step 1: Define the Gantt chart’s scope

Agile teams should use their Gantt charts with purpose, which means identifying their scope. Teams should consider the project details and information they would like to represent through the Gantt chart, as well as how they plan to incorporate it alongside other Agile-specific practices and tools. Doing so will make it easier to select a fitting Gantt chart tool for your team.

Step 2: Choose a Gantt chart tool

Gantt chart software can improve communication and collaboration and ease chart maintenance. There are many different Gantt chart tools available, from dedicated project management solutions to spreadsheet-based templates to online Gantt chart software. Teams should consider their needs when choosing between tools and select an option that aligns with their budgets, software integrations, and project management needs.

Step 3: Define project tasks and dependencies

Gantt charts can represent a range of information, but it’s best to start with the basics. Agile teams should first identify and define the tasks they’d like to include in their Gantt chart. Agile project management already involves breaking projects into smaller tasks, but teams must also estimate task durations and identify task dependencies to represent them appropriately on the charts.

Task dependencies determine what order tasks should be completed and how tasks are related.

Date ranges can provide a flexible approach, as  task dates can shift throughout the project life cycle. Calculate and communicate ideal date ranges as a team for task milestones, then add them to the Gantt chart.

By identifying tasks, task dependencies, and milestone date ranges, Agile teams can get a better idea of their overall project schedule and more easily create their Gantt chart.Step 4: Create the Gantt chart

Using their Gantt chart software tool, the Agile team can create the Gantt chart based on their project details. 

First, create tasks by adding a new “task” for each project action you’ve outlined as a team. Next, add subtasks for larger activities. Include a high level of detail within the task descriptions and include all necessary attachments that apply to the individual task or subtask. If you have multiple projects going at once, then repeat this process for each planned project.

Next, provide each task with a start-to-finish dependency, and apply all necessary dependent relationships with other tasks. In addition, Gantt charts should include scheduled events and show important dates. Agile teams can even provide information on the task level, such as the individuals or departments assigned to specific tasks.

The processes of creating a Gantt chart can vary based on the specific Gantt chart solution the team uses. However, the finished Gantt chart should clearly depict the timeline, tasks, and interdependencies, providing a visual overview of the project’s plan.

Step 5: Maintain the Gantt chart

Agile teams should maintain Gantt charts by regularly updating them to reflect project changes. Agile methodologies are flexible, so tracking and upholding a chart that accurately represents all project progress changes, status, or timeline is important.

Updating a Gantt chart may involve moving task durations, rearranging dependencies, and indicating the completion of tasks. For example, tasks can be rearranged or removed, and dependencies can be altered as needed to reflect any updates.

Flexibility is crucial in a Gantt chart tool for Agile teams to maintain accuracy and reflect necessary changes.

Step 6: Collaborate

Gantt charts can be helpful for team collaboration and communication. Agile teams can share Gantt charts among their members, clients, and stakeholders to provide an informative and visual representation of the project’s process, status, and overall plan. 

Regular communication around the Gantt chart is beneficial for Agile teams, as this can help ensure all members are aligned and informed about changes in the project’s timeline and status. When creating the Gantt chart, team leaders can work with team members to plan and organize the projects, tasks and responsibilities involved. From there, they can assign tasks to team members and ensure that members have the resources necessary to complete their assigned objectives. 

As individual administrators track and identify project changes to dates and dependencies, they can update the Gantt chart to communicate this to the team. This can involve adding comments or attaching related files and resources to the tasks within the chart.

Step 7: Integrate the Gantt chart with Agile practices

Agile teams can integrate Gantt charts with the Agile practices already set in place. For example, during daily standup meetings, members can review the Gantt chart progress and apply adjustments as needed. In addition, many Gantt chart software solutions are customizable, so teams can adjust them to align with their Agile processes.

Step 8: Monitor and improve

A Gantt chart is only helpful if it enables the team to improve its operations. Therefore, Agile teams should monitor their projects that use Gantt charts to see how they benefit from each chart, whether they boost productivity, output, quality, or completion time. Team leaders should evaluate its effectiveness, gather feedback from team members and stakeholders, and make adjustments as needed to continuously optimize its value. 

Who would benefit from using Gantt charts in Agile project management?

Teams that would benefit the most from using Gantt charts in Agile project management include those working on larger, complex projects with dependencies. Additionally, organizations transitioning from a traditional project management approach to Agile methodologies can benefit from applying Gantt charts to their projects throughout this transitional period. 

However, it is essential to consider the specific requirements of the team and its objectives before deciding to apply Gantt charts. Gantt charts should align with the Agile principles and practices of the team, and it is important for Agile teams to ensure that the use of Gantt charts does not compromise the flexibility, adaptability, and collaborative nature of Agile methodologies.

The post How to Use an Agile Gantt Chart for Project Management appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

For situations like these, database backup and recovery plans can provide some reassurance that your data is covered – if they are successful. But if your data backup fails, you may still be unable to recover your organization’s data despite having these precautions set in place. This is why database backup and recovery plan testing are vital for organizations. 

Testing backup and recovery plans enable you to better prepare for worst-case scenarios and avoid loss of data that could interrupt production and be detrimental to the success of your organization. Read on to learn about the importance of backup and recovery plan testing and the best way to test your backup and recovery processes to ensure the safety of your company data.

Skip to:

• Why it is important to test your plan
• Steps on testing your database backup & recovery plan
• Familiarize yourself with your backup and recovery systems
• Run tests to recover deleted or corrupted files
• Test the backup of your applications
• Test your database recovery
• Time how long it takes to back up your data
• Try testing your backup & recovery plan remotely
• Continue to test your database backup and recovery plan regularly

Why it is important to test your plan

When you’re free-falling out of a plane, the last thing you want to experience is the failure of your parachute to deploy. To avoid situations like these, skydiving companies constantly test their equipment to maintain proper safety for their jumpers.

While ensuring the security for your business may not seem like a life or death situation like the one I just described, let’s face it, data breaches can wreak havoc on the success of an organization. Whether you like it or not, your livelihood and your workers’ positions are dependent on your data security to keep the business safe and keep operations moving forward.

Many risks can be involved with the failure to maintain security through database backup and recovery plan testing. Loss of essential data can put businesses at risk and cause organizations to halt operations. For example, a Coveware study reflected the average downtime for businesses due to a ransomware attack to be 22 days. The inability of a company’s operations to continue for so long due to poor backup recovery plans could result in a loss of money, customers, and credibility.

If you’re not sure how to accurately test your backup and recovery plan, you’ve come to the right place. The following text will provide a step-by-step explanation of how to test your plans and maintain data safety for your organization.

Steps on testing your database backup & recovery plan

1. Familiarize yourself with your backup and recovery systems

It is crucial to ensure that your organization is familiar with the backup and recovery software and processes before you need to use them. The last thing you want in an emergency is to be confused about accessing your restored data because you or your team is inexperienced with the technology. Your organization’s IT or security staff must know about your software’s infrastructure, storage capacity, and other components of your backup systems. By having this knowledge, you will know whether your system meets your database’s needs and how to access and recover your data quickly.

2. Run tests to recover deleted or corrupted files

In the case that your files become deleted or corrupted, you should be able to rely on your backup systems to restore them to their original capacity. Testing this can confirm that your system can restore these files correctly and allows you to familiarize yourself with the process.

To begin, choose some files within the specific file system that you are testing. These files should have been recently altered or added. Next, you can create a folder for the testing process. After, you can use your backup system to locate these files and restore them to that folder. Once you have the files that the system produced, you may then compare the restored files to your actual files. 

When comparing the restored files to your actual files, you should consider any changes or alterations between the two. For example, ensure that the restored files can be opened and accessed, that they are the same size as the originals and that all of the recent updates to the original files are included in the restored ones. This will help you determine whether your system accurately restored the files and would be able to in a situation where the originals were lost.

3. Test the backup of your applications

Applications can house essential data that may be lost if they aren’t properly backed up. Similar to the process of testing your file recovery, you can run a restore of your applications. 

When comparing the restored application to the original, you should test for changes in the data contained within the application and the functionality of the application. The restored application should be accessible with a similar amount of stored data and the same capabilities as the original. 

You should look for consistency between your original and restored applications. If your restored application cannot be utilized with your original data, then your application backup cannot be considered successful.

Also read: Databricks vs. Snowflake

4. Test your database recovery

Database recovery consists of restoring the entire database, should it be compromised. This process is a bit more extensive, as you first need to ensure that the place you restore your data has the database software installed but won’t interfere with the original database. Therefore, using a separate database server or restoring the data virtually to the cloud is suggested.

Suppose you only have one database server available. In that case, you can still perform this test on the same machine that hosts the production database if it has enough space, as long as you use a separate name for the restored database to avoid the possibility of overwrites or interferences to the original database during the restoration process.

Once your software has restored the database, test the recovered database compared to the production database. This can be done by running queries against each database, running macro tests, and connecting apps to the recovered database to ensure that they function correctly.

5. Time how long it takes to back up your data

It is beneficial to test how long it takes for your system to complete the backup restoration throughout this process. This is important to be aware of since a long time for backups to process could mean more downtime for your company and consequences to your internal operations, clients, and reputation.

By taking note of the time your system takes to backup your test data, you can apply this to the amount of data necessary for your organization to function. This can enable you to determine how long your restoration process could leave your company waiting before work became possible again if an emergency wiped out the entire system. 

Knowing this information can allow you to plan for such a scenario and may help you to consider faster alternatives for backing up your data if necessary.

Also read: 5 Ways Tokenization Can Improve Database Security

6. Try testing your backup & recovery plan remotely

Many organizations utilize cloud-based applications and software systems because they are accessible from remote locations. Likewise, being able to restore your data remotely can be crucial in case of an emergency.

It is beneficial for organizations to ensure that they can access their data in an emergency, even if it must be done remotely. This could be due to several reasons, such as natural disasters damaging your company infrastructure or a system failure.

Therefore, running an offsite restore test will help you test whether your cloud-based or remotely located data can be restored and how long this would take before your company could commence operations.

7. Continue to test your database backup and recovery plan regularly

Testing your database and recovery plan can give you peace of mind, but changes to your data storage and system are ordinary for organizational networks and may cause changes in your plan’s capability to restore your data. It is because of this that many organizations conduct these tests regularly.

So how often should organizations conduct database backup and recovery testing? It is best to schedule tests regularly, such as weekly or monthly. The frequency of tests can also be based upon resource needs. For example, you can test the backup of data that is necessary to the company’s operation more frequently, as its ability to be restored is more critical.

Database backup and recovery plans should be tested on their reliability to restore data as accurately and quickly as possible. By conducting regular tests and staying on top of your backup and recovery plan’s capabilities, your organization will be more protected from potential threats.

The post How to Test a Database Backup & Recovery Plan appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Benefits of Healthcare IT Services

Healthcare IT Companies, Services & Support

McKesson Corporation

Evolent Health

Strata Decision

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation

AthenaHealth

GE Healthcare

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