How to Plan for Better Disaster Recovery in IT

Backup and Recovery, Best Practices, Cloud Backup, Disaster Recovery, IT Best Practices, , ,
28
Aug 2018

Due to our reliance on data technology, good disaster recovery processes have never been more vital. However, how do you plan for better disaster recovery?

It may be a challenge, but you don’t need to feel apprehensive when trying to tackle this complex problem. And when it comes to disaster recovery, planning is the most important factor. If your IT systems fail then you need to start your recovery process as soon as possible and ensure it’s as effective as it can be. The sooner you can restore normal operations, the less your productivity is affected.

So, if you want to make sure your disaster recovery procedures are finely tuned, make sure you incorporate the following tips. They could be the difference between no IT infrastructure and one that can keep your organization functioning.

Have a Plan

The first step towards having a better disaster recovery plan is to have a plan. Unfortunately, many organizations find themselves too busy to worry about potential disasters and, instead, concentrate purely on the present. While this may help you with your immediate business objectives, it’s not going to help you in the case of an emergency. Therefore, starting work on a disaster recovery plan needs to be sooner rather than later.

Cost isn’t Everything

It’s understandable that budgets are essential when it comes to good business, but disaster recovery plans for IT infrastructure are a little different. Without a fully functioning IT service, it’s unlikely your organization is going to be able to trade at its full potential, if at all. And this is why you need to be careful when looking at the technology and services required for your data recovery. Naturally, you shouldn’t spend an exorbitant amount of money that could cripple your margins, but you also need a data recovery plan which can recover your IT infrastructure quickly and effectively.

Understand Your Recovery Objectives

Key to a good recovery process is understanding what data is crucial and how soon it’s required in the case of a data outage/loss. Objectives, of course, need to be achievable, so don’t burden yourself with unattainable goals such as ‘every worker to have access to emails within 10 minutes of a data disaster’. The best way to test your objectives and measure how attainable they are is through regular testing. This should prepare you for any future scenarios and guarantee that you know how to manage their impact.

Update Your Recovery Plan

If you’re lucky, your organization will manage to operate for a long time without experiencing any data disasters. However, this can lead to a dangerous sense of inertia creeping into your recovery processes. And, as we all know, technology moves at a rapid pace. Software and hardware can be replaced on a yearly basis and these new developments may not chime harmoniously with your existing recovery plan. Accordingly, your disaster recovery plan needs to be regularly reviewed to ensure that it’s current and matches your existing IT landscape.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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5 Best IT Practices for Small Businesses

Backup, IT Best Practices, Power Protections, Security, Technical Support, Updates, , , , , ,
09
Jul 2018

It’s important for small businesses to make the most of their IT capabilities, so understanding what the best IT practices are is paramount.

If you can implement the right IT practices in your organization then you’re clearly a smart thinker as it can only lead to increased productivity. However, for a small business this isn’t always the easiest strategy to formulate. The cost of investment can often restrict your use of brand new technology, so you need to be a little bit smarter. And the good news is that costs can be kept to a minimum.

To help you get started on getting the best out of your IT, I’ve put together a list of five best IT practices for small businesses.

  1. Backing up the Right Data

Backing up data can be an expensive process. Not only is physical storage costly, but cloud storage can soon start totting the dollars up. However, this is all dependent on the amount of data you want to back up. Therefore, if you can reduce the amount of storage you need to backup, you can reduce your storage costs. The best way to achieve this objective is by thoroughly researching how your data is used and determining exactly what you need to backup.

  1. Staff Security Knowledge

Cyber security should be a major concern for all businesses, but for a small business it’s crucial. With a wide range of new cyber-attacks such as ransomware and phishing emerging every day, the risk of your business operations being disrupted is high. Whilst firewalls and carefully secured, partitioned servers can make a huge difference, it’s even more useful for your employees to understand good security practices. All it takes is one malicious email to be clicked on to bring your organization to a halt, so ensure that regular refresher courses on security threats are conducted for your employees.

  1. Install all Updates

Keeping on the security theme, it’s essential that all updates for your software and hardware are installed as soon as possible. Once your IT equipment becomes even slightly out of date then it’s at risk of becoming vulnerable to hackers. However, if all the latest updates and firmware upgrades are installed, then you’re improving the defenses of your data no end.

  1. Good Power Protection

Your PC technology is important, so you need to ensure that it’s protected from the damaging effects of power outages and surges. Not only can these events reduce the lifespan of your technology, but they’re also capable of wiping data if they happen in the middle of a backup. To counter this risk, it’s vital that backup hardware comes with adequate battery support to keep backups running. Likewise, ensuring that your servers have reserve power supplies which are uninterruptible can help keep your data accessible and safe at all times.

  1. Provide Good Technical Support

Your business needs professional IT support, there simply isn’t any other option if you’re working with PCs. And when I say professional, I mean professionally trained and not a hobbyist who likes to tinker with their PC every now and then. Knowledge, after all, equals authority and when you’re working with complicated technology, you need as much authority as possible. Maybe this will be outsourced or maybe you’ll build an in-house team, either way it should be a priority for your organization.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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How to Choose the Right Cloud Storage Provider

Cloud, Cloud Backup, Data Volume, Security, Speed, Uptime, , , , ,
19
Jun 2018

Storing files in the cloud is becoming increasingly popular for businesses, but how do you choose the right cloud storage provider when there are so many?

There are a wide range of factors to consider when choosing a cloud storage provider, so it’s no surprise that settling on one is difficult. All providers will offer different options and plans, but the good news is that there are set basics which will apply to your business. The first step is making sure you can find a provider who can satisfy your basic needs..

To help you get started, we’re going to look at what these foundations of cloud storage are and how they apply to your organization.

Data Volume

The amount of data that your organization processes is important when it comes to choosing a cloud storage provider. After all, different providers are going to have different capabilities when it comes to storing data. The basic plan available through Dropbox, for example, is 2GB and while that may be fine for an individual running their own business, an organization with 250 employees is going to need a little more. Obviously, numerous pricing plans are available for different providers depending on your storage needs, so it makes sense to calculate your storage needs (and future needs) and compare prices.

Uptime

Cloud servers are not infallible and they can fail just as easily as your own servers can. However, certain service providers’ networks fail more than others. And this can present a serious problem for your operations if your data is unavailable when you need it most. Therefore, you should always ask cloud storage providers to demonstrate their contingency plans in the case of server failure and, more importantly, statistics which show the reliability of their servers in terms of uptime.

Speed

Download speeds are one of the most essential elements of cloud storage for you to consider. The speed at which you can download your data can have a significant impact on your ability to do business. Say, for example, you’ve suffered a data disaster and need your data restored as soon as possible, if your cloud storage provider has a cap on their download speed then it’s going to take longer to get back up and running. That’s why you need to make sure you understand the download speeds that are available from your cloud storage provider.

Security

If your data becomes compromised then cloud storage provides a useful backup. However, there’s no guarantee that your cloud storage provider is safe from security breaches. And, if they are compromised, then the safety net of their backup is suddenly removed. This leaves you in a precarious situation whereby the safety of your data is significantly reduced. Therefore, understanding your cloud storage provider’s security measures are paramount. The main factors to consider are the provider’s physical security of their servers and the level of encryption they apply to stored data.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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5 Best Ways to Secure Your Backups

Backup, Backup and Recovery, Encryption, Password Security, Security, , ,
14
Jun 2018

Data backups are crucial when it comes to protecting your data; it’s even more important to ensure that your backups are kept secure and available.

For many people, having data backed up is enough. However, what they fail to understand is that a backup is not infallible. In fact, there are a whole range of issues that could affect the stability of a backup. And, if your organization is in the midst of a data disaster, the one factor above all else that you should be concentrating on is security. Your backup, after all, is your lifeline to resuming productivity, so it should be as secure as possible.

To get you started, we’re going to look at the five best ways to secure your backups:

  1. Password Protect Your Backups

At the very least, you have to make sure that your backups are password protected. While, yes, it’s possible for a password to be cracked, it still acts as a deterrent and guarantees some level of security. The stronger the password, of course, the more protection you provide to your backup, so make sure that it’s unique and contains a mixture of uppercase, lowercase characters and numbers.

  1. Restrict Backup Access Rights

The more people that have access to your backups, the more risk there is that they could be compromised or damaged. Therefore, you should only ever assign access rights to the backup software to those members of staff who genuinely need it. Nominating those with access in advance will help to not only protect your backups, but also ensure that restores are completed quickly if the need arises.

  1. Integrate Encryption

There’s every chance that your entire backup could be snatched in the case of a data disaster, so it’s vital that it’s protected. After all, your backup is likely to contain data pertaining to your customers/staff and this could be highly sensitive. However, by encrypting the data contained within your backup, you’re rendering it next to useless in the hands of external parties.  Along with password protection, it’s a simple yet highly effective layer of defense.

  1. Store Physical Backups in a Safe

Although we live in an age where cloud backups are grabbing all the headlines, it’s still important that physical backups are also maintained. These can include: DVDs, optical disks and data tapes. Naturally, due to the data contained on them, these storage methods represent a high security risk and can’t just be stored on a shelf. The best solution is to invest in a safe, but make sure it’s fireproof as high levels of heat can easily distort and damage physical storage devices.

  1. Log all Backups

Most backup software will log details of the backups carried out, but when it comes to working with physical backups it’s a little different. As your physical backups will be stored somewhere, there needs to be a logging process of what is going where. It’s very easy for a single DVD to go missing, but, with a logging system in place, you should discover this sooner rather than later.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

 

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How to Enhance Your Backup Process

Backup, Cloud, Cloud Backup, Data Backup, ,
29
May 2018

Backing up data is crucial for any organization, but it’s even more important that a good backup is performed or it may not be worth backing up at all.

Wasting time and resources on the wrong type of data or failing to backup data effectively can spell disaster for your restore options, so it’s essential you maximize the efficiency of your backup process. Understanding how you can improve and enhance your backup process, though, is a major struggle that many organizations face.

Therefore, we’ve put together a few pointers on how you can begin to reorganize your backup process and ensure that the data you need is available when you need it.

Keep Three Copies of Your Backup

The more sure-fire way to protect the availability of your data is by making multiple copies. The minimum you need is three, but what’s most important are the locations these backups are stored in. Naturally, you will want one copy based on site, but to minimize a loss of data you will also want two copies that are based off site. By storing these in, for example, a cloud based server or a remote data center, your organization can rest assured that a successful restore is almost guaranteed in almost all data loss scenarios.

Monitor Your Backups

As data gets bigger and bigger, the complexities behind backups increase accordingly. And this is why monitoring and analyzing your backups is more important than ever. To better understand how your system is coping then you will need to implement systems which can automatically survey servers and monitor how effective your backup process is and list any failures. Performing this kind of analysis manually is incredibly labor intensive and involves a lot of spreadsheets, so investing in specialized, automated software is vital to safeguard future backups.

Cloud Backup is Crucial

Cloud servers provide a highly elastic option for all your backup and restore needs, so there’s no excuse for not integrating them into your backup process. Not only can cloud servers help to counter the rapid increase in data size, but, as a remote system, they deliver fantastic protection from ransomware and other data disasters. Data can be transferred/accessed from cloud servers exceptionally quickly compared to traditional wide-area networks, so a cloud server can get your organization back on track quicker than ever before.

Protect Everything

While Windows is the primary target of most data attacks, it’s impossible to say that other services – such as the virtual application host Citrix – will not become the focus of attacks in the near future. Protecting all your servers and applications, therefore, allows you to keep your defenses fully manned and minimizes the amount of data loss that could occur. It’s important, however, that you don’t complicate your backup process with numerous pieces of software to help backup individual components. Instead, look for an all-in-one solution that can automate all the various backups and keep all your data safe.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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