PR and Disaster Planning

Unexpected disaster has the very real ability to take a business from comfortable success to complete failure within a very short time-frame. Naturally, many measures can be put in place to minimise the impact such an event can have on your organisation. For example, a Netwise Hosting off-site remote backup solution is ideal for keeping data safe in the unlikely (yet possible nonetheless) scenario that your business encounters a local disaster; thus potentially compromising valuable information. However, this has been covered in a previous blog post, seen here – this particular entry will look at the PR side of a disaster, and how it can effect recovery. Please also refer to this post for more information on the backup process.

Burning Oil BoomYou don’t have to look too far to find real world examples of how PR can effect the reputation of an otherwise stable business. The most notable recent example of this is the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, oil companies don’t have the most glowing of reputations to begin with, considering the drive towards all things eco-friendly. When they put their foot out of line, they can expect a serious public backlash. The Big Picture by Boston.com has a fantastic set of images on this topic, seen here.

BP have been spending countless hours since the tragic explosion attempting to repair their image. But has the damage been done? Regardless of BP’s efforts to quash the media backlash, all attempts thus far have been almost entirely ineffective. BP have accepted responsibility for the disaster, which should play a big part in softening the impact felt by the British oil giant, and are liable for a clean up operation currently costing in the region of $350 million – which is likely to rise.

BP’s current CEO Tony Hayward has issued many statements in response to the events as they unfolded. Any situation in which 11 workers are killed is incredibly difficult to overcome, let alone suffering the aftereffects of the worst oil spill in history. The biggest action currently in place to rectify issues occuring right now in the Gulf of Mexico is what BP have coined their ‘top kill’ venture. This will pump heavy liquid at high pressure down through the drilling equipment, followed by cement to seal off the void. One must applaud Hayward on his complete honesty. It would have been easy for many other CEO’s in his position to shy away from the facts and claim no knowledge of the events leading up to and surrounding the disaster – but this was not the case here. It is likely that this honesty and ownership of the problem will serve the company some form of positive PR, even if the general standpoint is still highly negative.

Twitter has been a key component in how BP has handled PR surrounding the disaster, which has allowed a wide reach to many demographics. Yet the response has still been overwhelmingly negative. Some Twitter accounts have even surfaced on the popular status sharing site with the specific aim being to distribute satirical slander.

BP Global PR is one such account, serving to impact the companies overall PR storm in a negative light. The following quote is an example of the status updates coming from this account. The name of the account – that of it being so similarly matched to a name likely to be in the ownership of BP – also adds to the confusion of many readers.

Our company psychiatrists say now is the time to move onto the last phase of experiencing a tragedy, acceptance mixed with forgetfulness.

So how does this translate to other industries, particularly the hosting industry? Well the moral of the story is to have measures in place to deal with the PR side of a disaster before it occurs. The possibility of an oil spill is fairly high in the drilling industry, so BP should have had a slick and well addressed scheme in place to deal with this particular eventuality.
Of course, there are far fewer unpredictable variables in the hosting industry. There is no real scenario in which members of a hosting team will be killed in an accident. At least that the hope. But nevertheless, how would large-scale data loss or hardware failure effect the image of the worlds biggest hosts, who provide services to some of the nets most traffic-heavy sites.

Recovering from such a disaster in a tangible way is one thing, but recovering your image and brand after such a heavy tarnish is much harder. Support will dwindle, with both new and exisiting clients becoming very anxious about things to come.

Netwise Hosting have every measure in place to ensure disasters never occur. In the highly unlikely eventuality of an unavoidable scenario in which service is heavily effected, Netwise Hosting will always put the customer first in rectifying the issue.

A Connected Generation

The modern era shows an ever increasing degree of solid and meaningful networking between people (and businesses alike) across the globe. Not only does this amount to the building of external relationships, but of relationships as a whole. The ‘interconnectedness of all things’ is an idea thought of as true by a number of leading business relationship experts – such as French et al. The effective management of business relationships is a critical success factor in maintaining a working competitive edge over an industry. Network connections between parties of people are more important than ever before in ensuring widespread and lasting prosperity.

Interconnection between businesses and the people working within them can vary in nature depending on stakeholder-status. Stakeholders are generally broken down into internal (owners, employees etc), external (governments, trade unions etc) and marketplace (customers, competitors, suppliers etc). You would not build a relationship based on the same practices and ideas when comparing employees and competitors, for example. Yet a relationship of some description is useful in both areas.

Network Diagram
Nodes in a Network

Business networks are comprised of nodes (each node representing a point of contact), and the relationships that connect these nodes together. Such networks can become highly complex and intricate, particularly when certain members of a network overlap connections with others.

Although connecting with stakeholders through a meaningful relationship is now easier than ever before, with thanks primarily to the onset of widespread online communication technologies, managing said relationships in a proactive and beneficial fashion is still of importance.
Simply opening a Twitter account, following relevant members and hoping to reap the rewards of shared information does not amount to an effective relationship. Rapport between parties involves useful input from all members of the group, adding to the shared value of networking with others. It would be foolish to underestimate the power of networking, particularly in the early stages of business.

Ben Way, one of the UK’s leading young entrepreneurs (with a feature on Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire), solidifies the importance of networking and interconnectedness in this recent post on In A Fishbowl.

Even if you’re up against it with deadlines or working flat out on your business, continuing to build networks is so important.

If you feel you could benefit from a relationship with Netwise Hosting, and have something meaningful you wish to share, feel free to contact us by clicking here. We would be happy to discuss such avenues of business. In the mean time, our affiliates/reseller programme can provide a base-level relationship with us, founded on the shared interest of product sales.

Expanding Our Range

Here at Netwise Hosting, we are always looking for ways to expand our ever growing portfolio of services and product arrangements. As part of our constant search for compete customer flexibility and overall satisfaction, we have just introduced a number of new features which are likely to be of interest to you and your personal/business needs.

DebianWeb Server 2008Firstly, the expansion of our operating system choices. Linux users are treated to an additional two distributions – those being Debian 5.0 and Fedora 12. You can find out more about these operating systems by visiting the Linux Hosting page.
Users who prefer a Windows solution have also been treated to an additional two system choices. As well as offering Server 2003 Web Edition and Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition, we are now able to offer users Web Server 2008 R2, and Server 2008 R2 Standard. This presents customers with the very latest advancements in Windows server technology. More information can be found on the Windows Hosting page.

Secondly, we would like to bring to light the level of service offered as standard to all customers on our network. You can expect truly unmetered/unlimited bandwidth from day one (as standard), through an uncontended 10MB line fed directly into your server. Extreme traffic/data users can then opt to upgrade their line to 100MB, or even 1GB if required, although 10MB will generally suffice for most users.

All relevant server pages contain more information on what services make up each package. We hope this quick update helps in understanding our constant aim to expand, and how we deliver on this objective. As always we are more than happy to take suggestions on how you feel we can further improve our range of products and services.

Take Control of your Servers

cPanelSo you have undertaken the logical decision to use a dedicated server platform to service your every online requirement. This could range from a single Entry-Level system right up to a full rack of Ultimate machines. Yet even with system type and size considered – no matter what remote solution you have opted for – control is key.

Naturally, the very nature of the ‘dedicated server’ means that tangible contact with the machine is highly limited. Of course, certain service providers (Netwise Hosting included) will allow some flexibility in visiting privately owned machines within the data centre (meaning colocation customers are able to book appointments to personally visit their own hardware). However, standard dedicated server platforms taken out with the provider are generally off limits when it comes to personal access, as the machines are the property of the organisation.

PleskWith a remote system, your not going to be sat in front of your server(s) with a monitor. This begs the question – how do I control my server? Well this opens a rather large can of worms. There are a wealth of possibilities, ranging from command-line access through to full graphical VPS connections. This is all very well, provided you have enough time and expertise to invest in these manual forms of control. Connecting to your system through basic command-line will of course give you all the control you need, but it is far from easy to use; and incredibly unrewarding.

Whats the best way to control your server? A control panel. Now before continuing, it should be noted that control panels can be used alongside other more advanced methods of controlling your system, for the ultimate in usability and overall management flexibility.
Now why use a control panel? Well for starters, there is no need for any specialist software or applications. You can access your control panel online from anywhere in the world, whenever you want.

Control panels also specialise in the exact areas of interest to you and your business. Direct access to every aspect of your online service can be controlled through an intuitive graphical user interface, making on-the-fly changes instant and incredibly easy to deploy.

Netwise Hosting offer a selection of control panels for both Windows and Linux dedicated server solutions, giving users the freedom to chose their desired method of control. We also aim to expand our choice whenever possible, and take care of our customers requests in providing panels not expressly listed in our material. Control panels are installed from the very first point of setup, ensuring maintenance of your server is quick and efficient from the start. Make sure you are ready for whatever eventualities you may encounter during your contract, with Netwise Hosting’s fantastic selection of industry-leading control panels.

Visit our Control Panel page for more information, and choose how you want to take charge of your server today.

Business Under a Hung Parliament

A hung parliament is essentially the result of split voting, leaving no one political party with a majority of seats. This is commonplace in nations with proportional representation (i.e. Germany), however the United Kingdom utilise the first-past-the-post voting system in which such an outcome is very rare.

As of the 7th of May 2010, the UK has entered into a political period in which no single party can claim an absolute majority of seats within parliament. That does indeed mean that the UK is currently governed by a hung parliament, with Labour and the Conservatives holding almost equal seating power. This comes as a particularly large shock to the Liberal Democrats, who were expecting to garner far more votes this election period. Unless final counts tip in the favour of one single party as the majority rule, the UK could enter into a term of coalition governance.

Naturally, this is not the correct forum for direct and purely political discussion (- for all the latest developments regarding the UK parliamentary status, visit the BBC News website.). However it does raise some interesting questions for what this all means for businesses in the UK.

First and foremost, the negative effects of such parliamentary upset can be felt already. The pound (Sterling GBP) fell this morning to a 12 month low, now trading at $1.4639 (2% drop) and €1.1551 (1.6% drop) respectively. On top of this, the FTSE 100 has slumped considerably, loosing 100 points shortly after opening for trade this morning. This is an accumulative effect fuelled by both the uncertainty surrounding the UK’s parliamentary situation, as well as growing fears surrounding the Greek debt crisis.

The Guardian have quoted Howard Archer, Chief Economist at IHS Global Insight, as saying

“The key factor going forward is how quickly a new government can be formed and how well-equipped it is perceived to be to have a very real chance of taking, and getting through, the necessary strong action to rein in the public finances…”

There is no doubt that UK business is in a state of unease regarding the future progression of things to come. Party leaders are looking into workable methods of forming a new government, but these discussions are in their infancy.

Industry leaders across the UK are today calling for stability at the top level of politics. The situations surrounding this entire fiasco could ultimately lead to a panic-fuelled re-entry into a state of recession. A double-dip recession has been on the cards for some time, with a scenario like this a perfect example of how rapidly the prediction could become a reality.

So as of today, business in the UK will resume as normal. No individual party changes that could have effected business (both positively and negatively) will come into play, as no one party holds judgement over another. Until solid ideas are put forward as to how progression will unfold, care must be taken to avoid the hung parliamentary status effecting UK business for the worse.