Mission Critical

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Mark Greaney, the New York Times bestselling author of Gunmetal Gray and a coauthor of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, comes a high-stakes thriller featuring the world's most dangerous assassin: the Gray Man. Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley. When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.

Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2003 provides a complete update of Cochran's Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2000, and complements Tony Redmond's new book, the best-selling Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. This book includes many of the same high-availability topics as the first edition but also expands the coverage of storage technology, server technology, management, and security. The book meets the needs of an Exchange administrator or system implementer who is striving to maintain a production Exchange environment that delivers superior service levels, high availability, manageability and scalability with the lowest cost of ownership. · Gives "lessons learned" and other best practices from organizations that have successfully deployed Exchange · Includes material on the forthcoming release of Exchange 2003 · Offers advice from one of the most experienced storage practitioners

Whether a terrorist attack, fiber cut, security breach, natural disaster or traffic overload, today's networks must be designed to withstand adverse conditions and provide continuous service. This comprehensive, leading-edge book reveals the techniques and strategies to help you keep enterprise data and voice networks in service under critical circumstances. You learn numerous ways to minimize single points of failure through redundancy and backups, and discover how to select the right networking technologies to improve survivability and performance.

This handbook provides a consolidated, comprehensive information resource for engineers working with mission and safety critical systems. Principles, regulations, and processes common to all critical design projects are introduced in the opening chapters. Expert contributors then offer development models, process templates, and documentation guidelines from their own core critical applications fields: medical, aerospace, and military. Readers will gain in-depth knowledge of how to avoid common pitfalls and meet even the strictest certification standards. Particular emphasis is placed on best practices, design tradeoffs, and testing procedures. *Comprehensive coverage of all key concerns for designers of critical systems including standards compliance, verification and validation, and design tradeoffs *Real-world case studies contained within these pages provide insight from experience

In emergency and disaster scenarios, it is vital to have a stable and effective infrastructure for relaying communication to the public. With the advent of new technologies, more options are available for enhancing communication systems. Multimedia Services and Applications in Mission Critical Communication Systems is a comprehensive source of academic research on the challenges and solutions in creating stable mission critical systems and examines methods to improve system architecture and resources. Highlighting innovative perspectives on topics such as quality of service, performance metrics, and intrusion detection, this book is ideally designed for practitioners, professionals, researchers, graduate students, and academics interested in public safety communication systems.

The new edition of the leading single-volume resource on designing, operating, and managing mission critical infrastructure Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment provides in-depth coverage of operating, managing, and maintaining power quality and emergency power systems in mission critical facilities. This extensively revised third edition provides invaluable insight into the mission critical environment, helping professionals and students alike understand how to sustain continuous functionality, minimize the occurrence of costly unexpected downtime, and guard against power disturbances that can damage any organization's daily operations. Bridging engineering, operations, technology, and training, this comprehensive volume covers each component of specialized systems used in mission critical infrastructures worldwide. Throughout the text, readers are provided the up-to-date information necessary to design and analyze mission critical systems, reduce risk, comply with current policies and regulations, and maintain an appropriate level of reliability based on a facility's risk tolerance. Topics include safety, fire protection, energy security, and the myriad challenges and issues facing industry engineers today. Emphasizing business resiliency, data center efficiency, cyber security, and green power technology, this important volume: Features new and updated content throughout, including new chapters on energy security and on integrating cleaner and more efficient energy into mission critical applications Defines power quality terminology and explains the causes and effects of power disturbances Provides in-depth explanations of each component of mission critical systems, including standby generators, raised access floors, automatic transfer switches, uninterruptible power supplies, and data center cooling and fuel systems Contains in-depth discussion of the evolution and future of the mission critical facilities industry Includes PowerPoint presentations with voiceovers and a digital/video library of information relevant to the mission critical industry Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment is a must-read reference and training guide for architects, property managers, building engineers, IT professionals, data center personnel, electrical & mechanical technicians, students, and others involved with all types of mission critical equipment.

Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2000 is the definitive book on how to design and maintain extremely reliable and adaptive Exchange Server messaging systems that rarely crash and that preserve valuable data and services in spite of technical disruptions. E-mail systems are now a primary means of communication for organizations, which can afford e-mail down-time no more than they can afford to be without phones. Further, messaging systems increasingly are supporting vital applications in addition to e-mail, such as workflow and knowledge management, making the data they store both voluminous and incredibly valuable. Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2000 teaches system designers, administrators and developers the strategies, tools, and best practices they'll need to plan and implement highly-available systems on Exchange 2000 and on earlier versions of Exchange. The book explains Exchange back-up and disaster recovery techniques, Windows clustering technologies for Exchange systems, and security planning to resist messaging-based attacks. Written by Jerry Cochran, an authority on large-scale Exchange systems, Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2000 helps readers create Exchange systems upon which they can build large and growing organizations. Unique book on a crucial Exchange topic Part of Digital Press's Exchange Server Cluster Author is Compaq's expert on high-end Exchange systems

Building any organization to be successful today is a tough job. For organizations operating in critical environments, however, the task is even more difficult. When you truly understand the significant consequences of failure in these environments, you're forced to the realization that failure is not an option. These consequences drive the successful mission critical facilities organization to focus on risk mitigation. It permeates their culture, their perspective on operations, and challenges them to constantly improve.Building Mission Critical Facilities Organizations was written with the hope that by identifying and explaining the attributes or DNA, if you will, of successful mission critical organizations, leaders and stakeholders would be able to replicate that DNA in their own facilities. Delving below the surface, Building Mission Critical Facilities Organizations explores the fundamental building blocks of people, culture, and process and then provides a path to success.

Most people believe that meetings are a huge waste of time – and they're right. Though meetings are essential to the life of any organization, they tend to be boring, inefficient, and unproductive. But they don't have to be. Mission Critical Meetings shows you how to facilitate meetings that participants will look forward to. You'll learn how to: · get participants engaged · keep everyone on track · boost creativity · foster a sense of teamwork · make and implement decisions · ...and much more The impact of a well-run meeting extends far beyond the short-term enthusiasm of its participants. When you use the techniques described in this book, members will be better equipped to stay on task, work toward a common goal, and contribute to the success of your organization.

This volume analyzes real in-flight communications to explain the dynamics of knowledge construction. With the use of a grounded theory approach, real-life scenarios for in-depth interviews with aviation informants were developed and analyzed using discourse analysis. The study revealed aspects of tacit knowledge and expertise behavior that develop in mission-critical environments. Among the findings, the author discovered: • Silence is an interactional element and a substantial contributing factor to both completed flights and aviation incidents/accidents • Hesitation is an early reaction when situational awareness is lacking • The aviation sub-cultures contain several distinct micro-cultures which affect professional responsibility and decision making in micro-environments • Human errors should be acknowledged, discussed and repaired by all actors of the flight model • Non-verbal communication in institutional settings and mediated environments is instrumental to safe and efficient operations The results suggest fruitful applications of theory to explore how knowledge is generated in highly structured, high-risk organizational environments, such as hospitals, nuclear plants, battlefields and crisis and disaster locations. Katerinakis explains the emergent knowledge elements in communication command with messages “spoken-heard-understood-applied," from multiple stakeholders... The interplay of theory and real-flight examples, with key interlocutors, creates a valuable narrative both for the expert reader and the lay-person interested in the insights of hospitals, nuclear plants, battlefields, safety and rescue systems, and crisis and disaster locations. Ilias Panagopoulos, PhD Command Fighter Pilot, Col (Ret) Senior Trainer, Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) Training Organisation Safety Manager, NATO Airlift Management Programme In this path-breaking work, Theodore Katerinakis brings the study of human communication to the airplane cockpit as a knowledge environment. Toward that end, drawing on his own experience with the Air Force and Aviation Authorities and interviews with flight controllers and scores of pilots, Katerinakis both builds on moves beyond human factors research and ecological psychology... It is a work of theoretical value across disciplines and organizational settings and of practical importance as well. His lively narrative adds to translational research by translating knowledge or evidence into action in mission-critical systems. Douglas V. Porpora, PhD Professor of Sociology & Director Communication, Culture and Media Drexel University

The latest tested and proven strategies to maintain business resiliency and sustainability for our ever-growing global digital economy Here is a comprehensive study of the fundamentals of mission critical systems, which are designed to maintain ultra-high reliability, availability, and resiliency of electrical, mechanical, and digital systems and eliminate costly downtime. Readers learn all the skills needed to design, fine tune, operate, and maintain mission critical equipment and systems. Practical in focus, the text helps readers configure and customize their designs to correspond to their organizations' unique needs and risk tolerance. Specific strategies are provided to deal with a wide range of contingencies from power failures to human error to fire. In addition, the author highlights measures that are mandated by policy and regulation. The author of this text has worked in mission critical facilities engineering for more than twenty years, serving clients in banking, defense, utilities, energy, and education environments. His recommendations for maintaining essential operations are based on firsthand experience of what works and what does not. Most chapters in this text concentrate on an individual component of the mission critical system, including standby generators, automatic transfer switches, uninterruptible power supplies, and fuel, fire, and battery systems. For each component, the author sets forth applications, available models, design choices, standard operating procedures, emergency action plans, maintenance procedures, and applicable codes and standards. Extensive use of photographs and diagrams illustrates how individual components and integrated systems work. With the rapid growth of e-commerce and 24/7 business operations, mission critical systems have moved to the forefront of concerns among both private and public operations. Facilities engineers, senior administrators, and business continuity professionals involved in information technology and data center design should consult this text regularly to ensure they have done everything they can to protect and sustain their operations to reduce human error, equipment failures, and other critical events. Adapted from material the author has used in academic and professional training programs, this guide is also an ideal desktop reference and textbook.

THE FIRST GRAY MAN NOVEL FROM #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARK GREANEY—Now a Netflix Film Starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans “Hard, fast, and unflinching—exactly what a thriller should be.”—Lee Child To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive....

Every successful organization needs high-performance teams to compete and succeed. Yet, technical people are often resistant to traditional "touchy-feely" teambuilding. To improve communication, performance, and morale among NASA’s technical teams, former NASA Astrophysicist Dr. Charlie Pellerin developed the teambuilding process described in "How NASA Builds Teams"—an approach that is proven, quantitative, and requires only a fraction of the time and resources of traditional training methods. This "4-D" process has boosted team performance in hundreds of NASA project teams, engineering teams, and management teams, including the people responsible for NASA’s most complex systems — the Space Shuttle, space telescopes, robots on Mars, and the mission back to the moon. How NASA Builds Teams explains how the 4-D teambuilding process can be applied in any organization, and includes a fast, free on-line behavioral assessment to help your team and the individual members understand each other and measure the key driver of team performance, the social context. Moreover, these simple, logical processes appeal strongly to technical teams who eschew "touchy-feely" training. Pellerin applies simple, elegant principles from his physics background to the art teambuilding, such as the use of a coordinate system to analyze the characteristics of team performance into actionable elements. The author illustrates the teambuilding process with entertaining stories from his decade as NASA’s Director for Astrophysics and subsequent 15 years of working closely with NASA and outside business teams. For example, he tells how the processes in the book enabled him to initiate the space mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope’s flawed mirror. Free downloadable resources will help you: Identify your teammates’ innate personalities Diagram your culture (And compare it to your customer’s) Measure the coherency of your project’s paradigm (Get this wrong and you will be fired!) and Learn to meet people’s need to feel valued by you. Further, you can download and use Pellerin’s most powerful tool for influencing the outcome of any difficult situation: the Context Shifting Worksheet.

Special edition of the Federal Register, containing a codification of documents of general applicability and future effect ... with ancillaries.

A timely overview of a complete spectrum of technologies specifically designed for public safety communications as well as their deployment as management In our increasingly disaster-prone world, the need to upgrade and better coordinate our public safety networks combined with successful communications is more critical than ever. Fundamentals of Public Safety Networks and Critical Communications Systems fills a gap in the literature by providing a book that reviews a comprehensive set of technologies, from most popular to the most advanced communications technologies that can be applied to public safety networks and mission-critical communications systems. The book explores the technical and economic feasibility, design, application, and sustainable operation management of these vital networks and systems. Written by a noted expert in the field, the book provides extensive coverage of systems, services, end-user devices, and applications of public-safety services and technologies. The author explores the potential for advanced public safety systems, and this comprehensive text covers all aspects of the public safety and critical communications network field. This important book: Provides an introduction to and discussion of the common characteristics of our critical communications systems Presents a review of narrowband technologies such as Project 25, TETRA, and DMR as well as the broadband technologies such as the LTE technology Focuses on the emerging technologies that can be adopted to improve our vital communications systems Discusses deployment of such technologies, including economics and finance, planning and project management Provides, in detail, the issues and solutions related to the management of such communications networks Offers a complete list of standards documents Written for professionals in the industry, academics, and government and regulatory agencies, Fundamentals of Public Safety Networks and Critical Communications Systems offers a review of the most significant safety technologies, explores the application for advanced technologies, and examines the most current research.

The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

Successful security professionals have had to modify the process of responding to new threats in the high-profile, ultra-connected business environment. But just because a threat exists does not mean that your organization is at risk. This is what risk assessment is all about. Information Security Risk Analysis, Third Edition demonstrates how to id

This book explores the critical role of acquisition, application, enhancement, and management of knowledge and human competence in the context of the largely digital and data/information dominated modern world. Whilst humanity owes much of its achievements to the distinct capability to learn from observation, analyse data, gain insights, and perceive beyond original realities, the systematic treatment of knowledge as a core capability and driver of success has largely remained the forte of pedagogy. In an increasingly intertwined global community faced with existential challenges and risks, the significance of knowledge creation, innovation, and systematic understanding and treatment of human competence is likely to be humanity's greatest weapon against adversity. This book was conceived to inform the decision makers and practitioners about the best practice pertinent to many disciplines and sectors. The chapters fall into three broad categories to guide the readers to gain insight from generic fundamentals to discipline-specific case studies and of the latest practice in knowledge and competence management.

Typical leadership development focuses on a single direction: downstream in the organizational hierarchy. Leadership that is mission critical requires that you lead well in all directions: up, across, down, and inward. Mission-Critical Leadership is the book for you if you have ever: Felt stuck in your job Been frustrated with your boss Experienced a lack of cooperation from peers at your same leadership level Wondered why the team you supervise fails to perform to your expectations This guide will show you how to build influence and relationships that deliver impactful results. With these strategies your organization will have more engaged employees, better talent retention, and a plan for developing the next generation of leaders. When the stakes are high, smart leaders focus on what's mission critical to cut through the clutter, clear away distractions, and ensure their teams are devoted to what's truly essential.