Anyone use any good document management software where they work for storing large amounts of data? -eg- Disaster Recovery Plans, Test Plans etc.

windows explorer?

Idol, you keep jumping into threads that you add no value too. If you don't have something constructive to say, stay the f*** out man.

If it could do things like:

Revision Control
Document Check In/Check Out
Web Interface for remote access
Linking of Single Documents to multiple entities
The ability to add roles -eg- Edit, View, Create, Delete to different Users
The ability to remind Users that the document is up for review (if you review your documents every so many months etc for data quality and to ensure everything is up to date)

Thought maybe a few people might have some first hand experience with this sort of stuff in corp world.

I did have something constructive to say - you just didn't get it numbnuts.

The best system is to look after your files yourself. Save every 10 to 15 minutes to a different location, don't save over files with the same filename. Make redundant backups on disks, keep them in well-thought out physical locations. You don't need any fancy software to be safe.
DO NOT allow access to anything but copies of your files you do not expect to get back. Try not to work directly off servers, or places where other people have access.

last edited by Idol at 10:25:24 29/Aug/07

that is actually anti-constructive advice you have there Idol.

Any of the version management tools should do most of what you want dude. CVS, perforce, MS sourcesafe, etc. Perforce is great, and is free for 2 users, but costs pretty big money after that.

We have tried the Xerox, Sharp and Groupwise options.

Groupwise was the best, simply because of its high level of integration with mail, calendars, task lists and office apps... That said it was beyond our user, and we gave it away as a non event. They just user the MS Word track changes feature for things that need tracking.

Yeah I'd like to see version control work on a 40 gig open media framework document. SVN and such aren't really practical tools to use for day to day tasks - when the 'save as' button is just one click away. Professional technicians are trained to organize files themselves, then tape backups are done by admins and stored offsite for fire safety.

If you want it done automatically, then you're not passionate about your work!

last edited by Idol at 12:50:40 29/Aug/07

Yeah I'd like to see version control work on a 40 gig open media framework document. SVN and such aren't really practical tools to use for day to day tasks - when the 'save as' button is just one click away. Professional technicians are trained to organize files themselves, then tape backups are done by admins and stored offsite for fire safety.

If you want it done automatically, then you're not passionate about your work!

you're f***ing joking me right? First of all, how many orgs are likely to have a 40Gb document ?

Professional technicians? what industry are you talking about here? Most large businesses have a pool of non-professional staff ( secretaries, PAs, data entry, etc ) who barely know a tab key from a giant cock, and management who are too important to care that there's a difference between a tab key and a giant cock.

Sure there's a middle group of people who have some semblance of an idea, but even a lot of them aren't trained beyond "open document, edit it, save it". So document management takes away the need for the user to care about anything other than those three things.

Yes cvs/svn/etc aren't necessarily ideal for document management but they can in many instances (e.g. in a smallish IT centric org ) be a step in the right direction in the right environment. Document mangement is a mult-billion dollar industry and there's any number of tools out there to idiot proof document usage.

Why the f*** should I ( as the average Joe ) have to care how,where,why,when to save,backup,iterate,etc files ... the enterprise should through the use of appropriate tools take that responsibility away from me and give it to somebody who's an expert.

We integrated a product with Interwoven's WorkSite DMS about a year ago.

Its pretty well done, makes use of check-in / out, version control and integrates with heaps of apps like Office / Outlook, Acrobat etc. Especially recommended if you want to do development work against it - nice set of DLLs that expose the core functionality pretty well.

Try Redmap software. My client use it, apparently it's very good.

No it's not free.

the best place for dr documentation in my view is printed and stored at your dr site. waiting for the domain to come back or some restore from tape so you can access your dr material is wasted time.. but that's not to say it shouldn't be in version control, you just need a process to ensure that you confirm it's printed and available at your dr site.

but any good dr test would show you how important that is.

do you mean dr as in doctor?

yes.

we use notes databases for 'key ops db's (procedures)' and 'DR docs' etc

E-Do(x)cs sounds about what you need, government uses it.

Sharepoint + Wiki is what we use, works remarkably well too. Anything important that needs to be accessible during an outage is printed and kept in a folder, ie: DR recovery procedures, contact details for important people, etc.

Yeah we use LDRPS and a Lotus Application combo at the moment. We DR test our whole server room (around 100 servers) every 4 - 6 months (thank god for ESX + SAN's) and we run the entire company from a remote location for 1 week every year.

LDRPS is good because you can assign documents to "systems" ... eg ...

System - Email
Documents - STMP DMZ Server Docco
- Firewall Server Configuration Docco
- Spam Filter 1 Server Docco
- Spam Filter 2 Server Docco
- Domino Cluster Server Docco
- Email Network Diagram
- Email Test Plans

and when you select the system is collates all the smaller "modules" into one document to print.

It forms relationships between your different documents which allows you to assign the same server to multiple systems.

More looking for a document storage area for QA forms as we are moving to a move compliant framework (based on MOF / ITIL).